Merry Christmas (in March)

I'm still going through my 100 Trees sketchbook and turning some of the images into greeting cards. I always hate trying to get into a holiday frame of mind in the wrong season, but that's how it goes with card images. And when I made this painting last December, I really liked it and knew I wanted to turn it into a card. So here it is- Happy Holidays!

Animals

My friend is going to have a baby soon and has requested a series of woodland animals. Here are my drawings. I'll be finishing them as linocuts painted with watercolor. I'm having a great time with these already!

New Tree Cards

I've really only just started going back through the 100 Trees sketchbook and reworking some of the images as cards. There are so many ideas in there, I'm having a great time! Here are two that got started because I had some extra black ink left on my palette. Even though they are dark, I hope they brighten your  day!

50 Precious Words Writing Contest

Author Vivian Kirkfield has created a fun writing challenge, 50 Precious Words. Can you create a story or poem for children in 50 words or less? It's hard! 50 is so short! But I had to try. I started with a story I'd written that was already short at 150 words and completely rewrote it to get it down to a slim 50. I hope it still has a little charm and makes sense!

Remodeling the Castle

The new dishwasher squeezed into the kitchen. 

We got the box. 

Mae and I magicked it into a castle. 

We added rooms, 

windows,

and towers. 

We grew gardens, 

forests, 

and oceans.

We sailed to the edge of the world,

and into the stars. 

Then the truck brought our new REFRIGERATOR.

And just for smiles, below is a photo of my daughter from a couple of weeks ago working on the interior decoration of her own cardboard castle. We are busy growing the forests and the oceans right now. :)

And below is me with my mom in the olden days!

100 Trees!

Yesterday I finished the 100 Trees daily project. Wow, what a lot of fun I had with these! You can see all of them on my website. Here are the last 50:

A few of them were actually full spreads including the giant redwood, General Sherman who was Number 100. Here are those for the fun of it:

I learned so much from doing this project- I was able to zero in on my favorite colors and styles, to trust in my skills, to loosen up, not worry about making it perfect, and I generated so many different ideas that I want to explore further! If anyone is considering doing a daily project, I definitely recommend it!

Illustration Friday: Childhood

I haven't done Illustration Friday in a while, but when I saw the topic this week I wanted to share this recent drawing from my sketchbook. It's my daughter sitting in an imaginary tree. Childhood isn't all magical, but parts of it definitely are!