Boys and Girls Club Illustration

I wanted to share this illustration I did awhile ago. My mom is on the board of directors of my hometown Boys and Girls Club, and I was lucky enough to be chosen to illustrate for their fundraiser this year. 

My illustration was featured on the invitation, envelope, and a signed print was auctioned off at the event as well. 

They are going to have a new artist every year which I think is a great idea, and fun for the artists in the community to participate in such a great cause. 

I hope your week is going well! 

Illustration Friday - Suspend

Haha I'm finally back in action for Illustration Friday! This week's topic is "suspend." I was brainstorming hanging things and ended up thinking of a yoyo. 

It was also good opportunity to practice painting a hand/skin tones. I think this is the second time ever I've attempted skin in watercolor and it was just as hard as I thought it was going to be.

 I think my lighter color is okay but the darker area looks a little too brown. Anyone have tips for getting a good skin tone? 

Have a great Thursday! 

Monterey Watercolor

I didn't get much painting done while I was gone (in Monterey and then Colorado), but I did spend the afternoon I was in Monterey painting my view. I used my travel watercolor brushes and my Monsieur Notebook (which can't handle really wet washes by the way). 


It was challenging to capture the different kind of textures and greens going on. I think I need to do more nature painting :0) 


I'm having a nightmare trying to get the internet hooked up in my art studio, but will try to keep up with my posting in the mean time. 


I hope your 4th of July was great and you're enjoying the summer so far! 

Moving

Hey there! I did a little watercolor to explain why I haven't been around much this week (and probably won't be around till next week). 

I'm moving my various art supplies into a real art studio! Yippee. Lots of work to do still to get settled. So I'll be back soon. 

I hope your week is going well!

Illustration Friday - Shiny

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "shiny." I thought of shiny hair and blowing bubbles so I decided to incorporate both ideas. 


This was my first time really attempting to do hair since I've gotten better at painting. It wasn't as hard as I built it up in my mind.  


On the other hand, the bubbles were a lot harder to capture than I thought they would be. I did many practice ones before doing them for real and they still don't quite have that shiny feeling I wanted. I think it might be something that is easier to capture in another medium, like digital. 


At the end of the day, I'm pretty darn happy with this one. I hope you like it too! 

Father's Day Card Free Printable & Gift Ideas

Download Here

I painted this on my new Arches watercolor paper and really like how easily it scanned. The file has guidelines for cutting out and a fold line. It would look lovely printed on card stock or watercolor paper. 

Oh and in case you don't know, Emperor Penguin males incubate the eggs for months while females go off to find food. 

Here are some gifts I think many dads would love for Father's Day: 

Sources:
Bacon & Chocolate Truffles
Golf Grilling Set
Wood iPhone Case
Himalayan Salt Tequila Glasses (Tequila would be a good gift too!) 
Old School Radio & iPhone Player
Camera Flask 

Illustration Friday - Hurry!

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Hurry!" 


I thought of watching an hourglass and hoping that the time would go faster. Sometimes the things you want in life are slow in coming to you (jobs, promotions, love, etc) and you just wanna yell hurry up all ready :0) 


I hope you can see that idea in the illustration. 


Have a great one! 

Weekly Planner Printable

Download Here

(Does not have the logo on it)

In my blog stats I see that a lot of people are searching for cute printable weekly planners. I also searched for cute planners previously and came up empty handed before I made this one. 

I made a new one that is a bit more summery, and has room for a "at some point" box. Sometimes I don't want to add too many things to do on one day, so I'll put it in the "at some point" box and then feel good when I've got something "extra" done off that list. 

I hope your week is flying by! 

June Desktop Background

Download Here:

1680 x 1050

1600 x 1200

1280 x 800

iPad*

iPhone*

Here's the June background calendar for you finally! I had fun painting beach attire during this raining day in SF. 




*For iPad and iPhone hold your finger down on the image for a couple seconds and then hit save image. You can then go into your picture app and set it as a background. Just in case anyone needs a little technical help :0) 

Illustration Friday - Faded

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "faded."

My first thought when I thought of faded was ombré (cause I like it so much) and because today's my birthday I decided to paint myself an ombré cake. Here are some instructions in case you'd like to actually bake one.

I'm off to enjoy the day, have a good one!

Fresh Air Painting - St. Patricks Church

I brought my new journal to the park yesterday and did a plein air watercolor painting of St. Patricks Church in San Francisco. It was a great day for it, and there were lots of people laying in the grass enjoying the sunshine. 

I've always wanted to do more public sketches or paintings, but felt self conscious about it. A couple of blog posts* I've read lately encouraged me to give it a try. 

At first I felt weird and tried to hide my drawing when people walked by, but when I started painting I couldn't do that and I started to feel more comfortable. 

I just have to remember that people are curious and are most likely not critiquing my painting when they look over :0) 

* Art by Wiley,  Muddle on Through, and Everyday Treats have great posts about drawing/painting in public. The Everday Treats one is particularly inspiring because her son was so amazed with a women painting in the park that he came home wanting to be an artist. 

I hope your week is going well! 

Monsieur Notebook Review

I wrote about submitting an illustration to Monsieur Notebook awhile back, and am excited to tell you I received my notebook! 

It's my first mail from outside the US! This picture is closer to the color the journal actually is. 

Cute logo stamped in the backside. 

Inside page "Nom, etc" page (Name, etc). 

I sketched out some strawberries I was eating to test the paper. I was pleasantly surprised that the paper can take a light watercolor wash. It's a beautiful, slightly textured paper so I thought it might wrinkle with the watercolor but it held up nicely (although I don't think it could handle a lot of water). 


I was using my Faber Castell pens and you could see some of the lines on the other side of the paper, but not enough to be very bothersome. 


The leather cover is very nice, the engraving is beautiful and it seems like the journal will hold up for forever (which is good cause my purse destroys things haha). The cover is so soft that I can't keep from touching it when it's nearby. 


Final consensus: I really love this sketch book and will probably buy another one when I am done with this one. Thanks Monsieur Notebook!* 




*Monsieur Notebook sent me a free notebook for submitting my design, but did not ask me to write a review. I just wanted to share my honest thoughts about how great the product is. 

Merry Monday - Odds

I found this quote on Pinterest, which is a great source for quotes by the way. It speaks to me and I thought it would be a fun one to illustrate. And another chance to practice my wet on wet technique! 

I hope that your Monday is going well! 

Illustration Friday - Kernel

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "kernel." This topic was super hard for me. Apparently a peach pit has a kernel inside it, so that's what I went with. 


This was one of those paintings where nothing seemed to go how I wanted it to from the sketch to the final. But I'm happy that I was able to paint a little bit looser, so I'm sharing it even though I'm not super pleased with it. 


Anyone else have trouble with kernel? Here's hoping next week's topic inspires me more :0) 

Merry Monday - The Best

"Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best." - Henry Van Dyke

This was a pretty quick painting, but I really like how it came out! 

I love this quote, because sometimes I feel like if I'm not the "best" at doing something, it's not worth doing. That's a horrible way to think about things because there will always be people who are better than you at something, but that doesn't mean that your "voice" doesn't deserve to be heard. 

I encourage you to share your passion or craft with other people even if it's not what you think of as "the best" because they will probably love it :0) 

Have a great Monday! 

Merry Monday

"Never compare your start to someone else's finish." 

When I'm starting out something new (like a blog, or digital painting for instance) it's hard not to compare myself to others who have more people reading their blog, or who are extremely talented artists and feel a bit jealous. 

But then I snap out of it and realize that these people probably have put in a lot more time and practice to get to where they are today. I think that talent and luck also play a role, but I don't think great things can be accomplished without putting in the time. 

It's easier to stay motivated and excited about new projects when I keep this saying in mind. What works for you when you start to compare yourself to others? 

Merry Monday

"When life hands you lemons ... make some sorbet!"

Here's this week's illustrated quote for you, although I don't know if it's an actual quote, I made up the sorbet part. 


Another "when life hands you lemons" ending I like is "make a gin and tonic." 


What's your favorite ending to "when life hands you lemons"? 

Illustration Friday - Vocal

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is Vocal. All I could think about is how my cat Lucy is very vocal when she wants something :0) 


I painted the cat, bowl, and the shadows and realized I might lose some of the fur texture when I painted in the background, so instead I scanned the image in and added the background in Photoshop. I think it looks kind of neat. I might go back and paint the background on the original, we'll see. 

Inspiration - Watercolor Walls

How amazing are these watercolor walls? I would love to live in a room with walls like this! 


The room was designed by interior designer Eileen Kathryn Boyd, the photos are from her site here. 

Illustration Friday - Yield

Who do you think will yield? I think the ant will let the ladybug go ahead, because he looks like a gentleman haha. 

I spent way too much time on the bugs without leaving much time to do the leaf, so I might go back and add smaller veins later. If I do I'll post an update.