Illustration Friday ~ PEACE

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, peaceful 2007!

Micron pens and colored pencils.

Illustration Friday ~ HELP

I have been doing pro-bono work for the Jersey Shore Animal Center for over three years. In addition to their newsletter, I also design pieces for fundraisers, including this program cover for a wine tasting benefit. I'm always glad I can use my skills to help homeless animals.

Colored pencil drawing with digital type and background.

Illustration Friday ~ MASK

Here is an oldie created for a book project. Just a reminder to everyone to make some relaxing time for yourselves this holiday season!

Adobe Illustrator.

Illustration Friday ~ MIGHT

I completely missed the deadline on this one, but the drawing was finished a couple of days ago. So here it is...for "Might," a great quote by Satchel Paige. Drawn in my sketchbook with Micron pens, Gel markers and colored pencils.

Illustration Friday ~ INVENTION

The first mechanical slot machine was the Liberty Bell, invented in 1895 by Charles Fey, a San Francisco car mechanic. Fey's slot machine had three spinning reels, with diamonds, spades, hearts and one cracked Liberty Bell painted around each reel. Three bells in a row produced the biggest payoff, a grand total of fifty cents or ten nickels. The original Liberty Bell slot machine can be found at the Liberty Belle Saloon & Restaurant on 4250 S. Virginia, Reno Nevada. Source "Mark Pilarski's Gambling Column"

Adobe Illustrator. Information from inventors.about.com

Illustration Friday ~ CLEAR

"Spring Lake"

Watercolor.

Illustration Friday ~ SMOKE

What a terrific topic this week with lots of possibilities! I chose the route of a label for a made-up pipe tobacco brand.

Created in Adobe Illustrator.

Illustration Friday ~ GHOST

"O Death, rock me asleep, Bring me to quiet rest, Let pass my weary guiltless ghost Out of my careful breast."

Once I found this Anne Boleyn quote for "Ghost," the rest sort of fell into place. Anne was notorious not only for being Queen Consort of King Henry VIII (and mother of Queen Elizabeth I), but also for her beheading on charges of adultery and treason on 19 May 1536. Once I nailed down this concept for my "Ghost" entry, it all felt creepy and very Halloween-appropriate.

Anne's ghost was created with Micron pens and colored pencils.

Illustration Friday - SMITTEN

From Berlitz Publishing's "Hide This Spanish/French/Italian Book" series. The only one not smitten is the girlfriend at the table. I think she's quite annoyed.

Illustration Friday - QUIET

For all of you who find solace in needle and thread....

Number two pencil with color added in Photoshop.

Illustration Friday - PHOBIA

I'm wondering if anyone else was as surprised as I was to find SO many named phobias....wow! This was actually a pretty educational topic. Lots of phobias from which to derive an idea for this week's challenge, but I was fascinated by color phobias. So intrigued that I took the secondary color wheel and made those color phobias my art. Simple, I know, but I tried to make it a little more interesting with some lettering.

CHLOROPHOBIA = fear of the color green
XANTHOPHOBIA = fear of the color yellow
CHRYSOPHOBIA = fear of the color orange
RHODOPHOBIA = fear of the color red
PORPHYROPHOBIA = fear of the color purple
CYANOPHOBIA = fear of the color blue

There is also, not included in my art:
LEUKOPHOBIA = fear of the color white
MELANOPHOBIA = fear of the color black

Adobe Illustrator

Illustration Friday - CHANGE

This Saturday is the Autumn Equinox, when the sun crosses the equator, causing day and night to be of equal length. This day marks the coming of winter, when days are shorter and nights are longer. The Equinox is a symbol of balance, but also one of change.

On a somewhat related note, I found this quote about change, which I like very much:

"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another."
~ Anatole France


Created using Adobe Illustrator.

The Letter F

The alphabet continues....

Micron pens, watercolor pencils, colored pencils.

Illustration Friday - FARM

This is a watercolor painting of a farm in southwestern Virginia. For many years, my grandparents had their own small farm just a few miles from this one. When my grandfather passed away five years ago, I returned to Virginia and took my camera to capture the beauty of the rural area. This is one of the farms that I photographed. I thought the sign was especially neat, and had a lot of fun painting it and the barn.

Illustration Friday - SAFE

I always thought that Joeys had a neat way to travel...and a safe place to hang out.

Watercolor pencils, colored pencils and Micron pens.

Inspire Me Thursday ~ Paints

Inspire Me Thursday's challenge this week was "Paints." This is part of a flower series I'm working on. I know several people who garden, quite successfully (I'm not one of them: I'm afraid I've a black thumb), and I'm photographing and painting their beautiful flowers.

Watercolors.

Illustration Friday - RUN

This was a t-shirt design for a 5K Run Walk to benefit the Delaware-based Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research. All of the birds represented here were native to the tri-state (Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey) area. I love doing work for non-profit agencies. I usually have creative freedom which makes the projects more fun, if you ask me!

Adobe Illustrator.

Tri-State Bird Rescue is a wonderful organization marking its 30 year anniversary. For more information, take a look at their website:

Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research

Illustration Friday - PLAY

This illustration of Robert Johnson playing guitar is part of a much larger project of mine that's been on the backburner for quite some time now. Someday I hope to finish the entire project, but for now it's still on hold. Oh well....that's what I get for having too many open projects at once!

Robert Johnson was an influential Mississippi blues singer and songwriter who supposedly sold his soul to Satan "at the crossroads" in exchange for his remarkable talent on the guitar. Born and raised in Mississippi, he started playing blues guitar in the late 1920s. His wife and child died in childbirth around 1930 and he is said to have devoted himself to the guitar. Part of the crossroads story stems from a report that he dropped out of sight for a while in the early 1930s and returned a much-improved guitarist. In 1936-37 he recorded at least 29 songs in Texas (San Antonio and Dallas), then returned to Mississippi to play and sing in clubs and bars. His mysterious death at the age of 27 added to the legend: on the night of 13 August 1938 something happened to Johnson in a bar in Greenwood, Mississippi and he died three days later. Maybe he was stabbed, maybe he was poisoned or maybe the devil collected on his debt -- nobody knows for sure. In 1986 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence, and his songs have been covered by several rock stars, including Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones. His songs include "Crossroad Blues," "Me and the Devil Blues" and "Terraplane Blues."

Robert Johson information from Answers.com.

Colored pencil drawing.

The Letter E

It's been awhile since I posted a letter for my alphabet. I just finished this "E" which was inspired by a Mexican tile table on my porch.

Watercolor pencils, Micron pens and colored pencils.

Illustration Friday - CAPTURE

Chameleons, along with being able to adapt and blend with their environments, also have long, sticky tongues with which they capture their prey. This can happen at up to 16 feet per second. Yikes!

Mostly played around this week, and experimented with ink, watercolors, gouache and Photoshop.

Illustration Friday - CLEAN

This is a T-shirt design I did ten years ago for Delmarva's annual Coastal Cleanup. Volunteers receive a shirt when they help clean up the waterways around the DELaware MARyland VirginiA peninsula. I created the "fishy" font for the shirt itself.

Adobe Illustrator.

Illustration Friday - SACRIFICE

I struggled with this week's theme, and finally found this quote by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Stanton was a pioneer of women's rights in the United States, and worked with Susan B. Anthony to gain voting rights for women. They founded the National Woman Suffrage Association and Stanton served as president.

While Stanton is best known for her long contribution to the woman suffrage struggle, she was also active and effective in winning property rights for married women, equal guardianship of children, and liberalized divorce laws so that women could leave marriages that were often abusive of the wife, the children, and the economic health of the family.

Information from womenshistory.about.com

Black Micron pens and colored pencil.

Illustration Friday - SKYLINE

A travel poster for a fictional airline.

Micron pen, colored pencil and Photoshop.

Illustration Friday ~ STICKY and Inspire Me Thursday ~ Body Parts

A little patriotic color for the day....Happy 4th!

Adobe Illustrator.

Inspire Me Thursday ~ In Good Time

This was actually a challenge for me. While drawing I tend to get lost in the details, and before I know it, MANY hours have passed. This took about 45 minutes from sketch to final.

Happy Summer, everyone!

Yellow Pitt Artist pen, black Micron pen and Prismacolor pencils

Illustration Friday DANCE

Wow, there are almost as many types of dances as there are cakes! Anyone else have a difficult time narrowing it down this week? Well, I finally chose the Lindy Hop, one of the earliest forms of swing dancing.

Created in Adobe Illustrator.

The Letter D & Inspire Me Thursday ~ Show and Tell Art

Here is the next in my letters series, the letter "D."

Colored pencils and Micron pens.

Illustration Friday - JUNGLE

I've been into patterns lately, and what more unique and fun patterns are there than those of jungle animals?!

Colored pencil and black Micron pens.

Illustration Friday - PORTRAIT

This is my great grandmother, Lena Worrell, at her quilting table. She was incredibly skilled at fabric arts, and taught me how to crochet and do needlework. My mother claims that my attention to and patience for detail came from spending time with "Granny," who always encouraged my creativity.

Ebony pencil, colored pencils and Micron pens.

CAKE and Inspire Me Thursday ~ Word Art

When I saw "Cake" as this week's topic, I thought about just how many different types of cakes there are, and felt drawing just one kind wouldn't be too exciting. So I tried to come up with a way to incorporate multiple cakes, and wound up not drawing even one (unless you count the one being made).

Thanks to Carla at Anonyrrie for giving me the idea to use this illustration for both "Cake" and Inspire Me Thursday's "Word Art" challenge. More often than not, I incorporate typography/lettering into my designs, and it seemed appropriate that I participate.

Colored pencils and Micron pens.

The Letter C

Working my way through the alphabet...

Illustration Friday - SORRY

I just went with the first thing that came to mind...

Microns and colored pencils.

Illustration Friday - Angels & Devils

Micron pens, watercolor pencils and colored pencils.

The Letter B

I am fascinated with textile patterns, particularly those of Navajo blankets. I love the three-dimensional quality of the graphics, so I decided to have some fun with this "B."

Micron pens and colored pencils.

The Letter A

I had a couple of requests for an "A" (plus it rounds out my own initials), so here it is...

Micron pens and colored pencils.

Illustration Friday - UNDER THE SEA

This drawing evolved from a sketch I did about two years ago. Originally, this was the "Aloha Dance." For this week's Illustration Friday theme, I blatantly ripped off the name of the dance in "Back to the Future." I couldn't resist!

Unfortunately, since the original is 17" wide, the scan is showing up really small when I post it (even when I click for a larger version), so I'm including some detail shots. If anyone knows how to get larger (or wider) posts to come out close to the real size on Blogger, I'm interested to know how it's done.

Micron pens and colored pencils.

Illustration Friday - ROBOT

"As soon as she laid eyes on her Luvonline.com date, Jennifer could see that his profile had been greatly exaggerated."

Adobe Illustrator.

ANOTHER Z

While thumbing through old sketchbooks, I recently found this "Z" that I drew about 5 years ago.

Micron pens and colored pencils.

Illustration Friday - SPOTTED

I think I was looking for an excuse to doodle this week...or making a new "Z" for my logo? Either way, this was a fun topic.

Micron pens, brush pens and colored pencils.

Illustration Friday - SPEED

Baseball season is well underway, and I thought the record for pitching speed would make a decent entry this week.

I mostly used Adobe Illustrator to create this illustration.

Illustration Friday - SPRING

Happy Spring!

Watercolors, marker (outlines), Uniball pen (Microns don't like to write on watercolor paper!) and colored pencil on Arches paper.