patterns, personal art themes, and illustration friday

The Illustration Friday prompt this week is: nostalgia. I've been going through old art lately and looking at themes, or things in my art that I return to again and again. One of the themes I like to play around with is patterns. The nice thing about patterns is they can be different every time, so they can fit in to almost any piece of art without looking like you're doing the same thing over and over again. The patterns can be bold so the viewer can't help but notice them, or subtle so the viewer might not even realize there's a pattern until they look again.

One of my old pattern pieces that I really love is one that hardly anyone has seen. It's an illustration of swirling mail (which is also nostalgic because people don't send or receive as much personal mail these days, and because it reminds me of my mom, who loved to write and send letters):

Makes you want to write and send a letter, doesn't it?

Another nostalgic image is a painting I did of sea turtles for Ripple in 2010. I love sea turtles and even got to swim with them once! Was happy to be able to paint this piece to help support ocean animals.

A more recent example of pattern mixed with nostalgia is this picture of a cat in a field of flowers (trying to get the birds, while a bird above is about to dump a hive full of bees on the cat). It's nostalgic because it's an updated version of the stuffed animal friend I had as a child (my alter-ego Kitty, who was mischievous):

 Speaking of bees, several years ago, I was working on a novel called, Path Of Bees. The novel didn't go anywhere (yet - working on picture books now), but this is one of the images inspired by the story:

Speaking of picture books, EWE AND AYE by Candace Ryan, illustrated by Stephanie Ruble, had a couple of pattern pieces in it. This one is the pattern of the tree leaves and vines (each set of two leaves forms a heart - most are upside down, just like Aye in this scene):

Here are four more patterned images (both new and old) with more obvious patterns:

And finally, let me leave you with a song. It's about carrots:

Do you like to make patterns, either obvious or hidden in your art? Or do you make patterns when you doodle? (I do.) Do you have themes you return to again and again? If not, maybe this trip down my art memory lane will inspire you to take your own trip through your old art, or inspire you to make new art with patterns. Happy art making!

cow jumps over the moon, personal art themes, illustration friday, and recent reads

The Illustration Friday prompt this week is: moon. My first thought was the cow jumps over the moon. I love drawing cows and I make children's books, so it's an obvious fit. However, I've drawn lots of cows jumping over the moon over the years.* So, this time I decided to give the cow a rocket ship to fly over the moon!

It originally was going to be an ink drawing with digital color. Then I decided to play with watercolor crayons, which was fun, but not quite right. That was when the acrylic paints came out to add a final layer over the watercolor crayon. It scanned so much darker than the original! This is my first cow painting of the year! (I've also done another non-cow painting this year.)

* Artists sometimes have themes or subjects that they keep coming back to. Cows are a particular favorite of mine (I still like drawing/painting them, even after I drew a cow a day for a year). There's also something I'm drawn to about the idea of a cow jumping over the moon, so I continue to revisit that subject (as well as pictures of cows at night with the moon in the background, even if they aren't jumping over it). Here are a few other images I've created in the past of cows jumping over the moon (only a few - there are more!):

2003 Nursery Rhyme Cow (from the year I drew a cow a day):

2005 - Super Cow (I was thinking about how it was possible for a cow to jump over the moon - clearly the cow needed to have super powers):

2009 - Moon Cows (This was a sketch I drew for a picture book with a cow, that ended up being a picture book about a chicken instead.):

2011 - Cow Jumps Over The Earth (I was thinking about the nursery rhyme again, and how it would be possible for a cow to jump over the moon. I decided to have the cow jumping ON the moon, and therefore, it would be jumping over the Earth.)

What subjects or themes do you return to in your writing or art?

Recent Reads: After my last post about my 2015 book stats, I wanted to talk more about the books I'm reading and loving, or ones I've read in the recent past that I love** (so many good books to talk about). Note: Recent = books read the day of, the week before, or within the last year or so, but usually that month.

Currently Reading -  DEAR GENIUS, The Letters Of Ursula Nordstrom, collected and edited by Leonard S. Marcus: a fascinating look at one of the great editors of children's books, who helped to shape the books kids read, and who edited many of the books and authors/illustrators that are still read today.

Recent Reads I loved -
Picture Book: THE PRINCESS AND THE PONY by Kate Beaton - A story about a princess who wants a horse to help her do battle in her kingdom of warriors. She gets a tiny round pony instead. It's not easy to get a gift you don't want, but then again, maybe the gift pony will surprise you.



Middle Grade: SHADOWS OF SHERWOOD by Kekla Magoon - A fun new take on the Robin Hood story, with a wonderful girl named Robyn who must learn quickly how to survive on her own, figure out who are friends vs. foes, help the people of Sherwood survive, and piece together clues left by her parents. This is the start of a new series and I can't wait for the next book! I've never been a Robin Hood fan, but that's because I hadn't met the right Robyn yet.




 SERPENTINE by Cindy Pon - This is another story set in Ciny Pon's world of Xia. (Note: you don't have to read her first two books to enjoy this one, but you might want to after reading Serpentine.) Skybright is a handmaid and companion to a girl in a wealthy family. They're both growing up and testing the bond they have together, at the same time that Skybright learns that she's not who she thinks she is. A story full of demons, secrets, and the possibility of love. It's also the start of a new series. Can't wait for the next book!
Young Adult:



** Unless stated otherwise, all books were purchased by me, given to me as gifts by family or friends (not the authors or illustrators), or checked out of the library.

4 movies in 4 days: A Good Day To Die Hard, Argo, Warm Bodies, Wreck-It-Ralph

Last weekend was a long weekend due to the President's Day holiday on Monday. Since my husband and I haven't been able to see a movie in many months (something always seemed to come up), we decided to make up for it over the weekend by seeing a movie every day. BTW, the last movie we saw in theaters was The Avengers.

The first movie we saw was: A Good Day To Die Hard. Since it was the day after Valentine's Day, we wanted to see a romantic movie. Ha-Snort! We've seen and enjoyed the other four Die Hard movies, so it was fun to see bullets flying, things exploding, and John McClane (Bruce Willis) not dying when he should, or even getting seriously injured. If you liked the first four movies, then you know exactly what to expect. Despite rumors, there is a plot! Can't remember the last time we went to see a movie on opening weekend (usually too crowded for us).

Movie number two was Argo. We had wanted to see it for a while and were happy it was still in the theaters. Argo was an excellent though intense movie, with edge of your seat anticipation of what you knew was going to happen, based on the real story, but not knowing how it was going to happen. If you haven't seen Argo, I recommend seeing it in the theater if it's still in your area. Amazing story, even more so because they all lived and were able to keep the secret for many years. The real photos, juxtaposed with the movie stills at the end, show how close they got to the real people and events.

The third weekend movie was Warm Bodies. I LOVED this movie. It's a funny zombie love story that shows one way the zombie apocalypse could play out. If you know me, you know that I love zombies, but that doesn't mean that I love all zombie movies and shows. This movie was smart and funny, and full of hope for the world if the zombies ever take over. It has all the qualities of a really great YA novel in movie form (though I think the original book by Isaac Marion was published as an adult novel). See this movie, even if you don't usually go for zombies.

Wreck-It-Ralph was our final movie choice. We couldn't believe it was still in the theaters (verrrrry limited showtimes), but were happy to finally get a chance to see it. I was really psyched that Q*Bert got a role in the movie. I love Q*Bert! Also fun to see all the other video games and remember the days when I used to go to the arcades. All-in-all, a fun movie for kids and adults, with jokes for both age groups. It was smarter and funnier that I thought it was going to be, with several quotable lines. One of the funniest bits wasn't on the screen though. It was a scene in the bar where the bartender is mixing up a drink. One of the kids behind us asked another kid, "why is he shaking that grenade?" I'll never think of a cocktail shaker the same way again!

As if four movies in four days weren't enough, in one of the theaters, we got to learn fun facts about movies! At which point we realized that the person who typed up the fun facts did not know what fun facts are. Mostly they were just facts, without the fun. It made for many giggles and groans, which in retrospect was fun, so maybe the person typing up the facts knew what they were doing after all! My favorite fun fact was this one:

If you can't read it, it says, "Thor's weapon of choice is a hammer."

A fun fact indeed, especially if you like hammers, or weapons, or superheroes who use hammers as weapons, or if you saw the movie, or if you know who Thor is, or if you've ever owned a hammer, especially if you've used the hammer to hammer in a nail, but not if you've used it as a weapon, because really, who uses a hammer as a weapon? Oh right, Thor. See, that was fun!

Fun facts. Fun movies. Fun weekend. We're hoping to go to movies more frequently this year. We may never make up for all the movies we missed last year, but it will be fun to try!

Did you see any movies last weekend? What did you watch? What are you looking forward to seeing?