Sunday, January 27, 2008

Illustration Friday: Tales and Legends

Illustration Friday: Tales and Legends
Pen and Ink
This is what I imagined when I saw the theme "Tales and Legends... a scary dragon, a beautiful princess and knights battling.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Illustration Friday: Stitch

Illustration Friday: Stitch
Acrylic Paint
This week's theme was "Stitch". It reminded me of my two grandmothers. Both of my grandmothers were avid quilters. I have many wonderful memories of playing underneath my grandmother's quilting frame. One summer, my sister and I went to my Mee Maw's house each week so that she could teach us how to hand quilt. Now I am trying to teach my daughter this beautiful art form. I am a great starter of projects, but often set them aside before they are done. Hopefully, we will get our quilt done one of these days!

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Illustration Friday: 100%

Illustration Friday: 100%
Pen and Colored Pencil

This week's Illustration Friday theme was 100%. I decided to draw a picture of our refrigerator upon which hangs some of the papers we are very proud of. My son has two math quizzes that received 100% (these were a very big deal for him) and my daughter hung up an art picture in which she earned a top grade for.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Illustration Friday: Soar

Illustration Friday: Soar
Acrylic Paint
In August 2004, my 3 1/2 year old niece Hanna died of cancer (http://www.caringbridge.org/ms/hanna/). In November of that year on what would have been her fourth birthday, her friend Eli was with his family at DisneyWorld. He had the Disney Princesses sign a balloon with messages for Hanna and they released it in front of Cinderella's Castle. Eli's little brother was a patient with Hanna at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. You can see the photos from his balloon release at http://www.bens-story.com/disney.html.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Illustration Friday: Excess

Illustration Friday: Excess (The Allens)
Acrylic
The theme for Illustration Friday was "excess". I just finished painting this picture and it kind of went with the theme so I posted it. It is actually a joke. The middle school staff at my school had a White Elephant Gift Exchange (where you give each other tacky, weird presents). As a joke, I painted a "portrait" of two of our teachers (who both happen to be named Allen). It was a big hit at the party. On the left of the seated Allen is a blonde wig (he always jokes about his long flowing golden hair). On the right of the standing Allen is a picture of his parasite. At the party, someone took a picture of the two Allens in this pose holding the picture. I will try to post it when I get a picture of it.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Illustration Friday: Superstition

Illustration Friday: Superstition
Tempra Paint Batik
This week's theme is "Superstition". In Korea, magpies represent good luck. Supposedly if you see a magpie in the morning you will hear good news or receive visitors.
Method: I drew the bird on heavy paper. Next I painted all the areas with tempra paint except where I wanted it to be black. When the paint was dry, I covered everything with black ink. When the ink was dry, I put the picture under running water and rinsed off the ink. The ink washes off of the paint and sticks to the paper where there is no paint. After the picture dried, I went back and painted over some of the areas that looked too faded.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Illustration Friday: Hats

Illustration Friday: Hats
Cut Paper Collage
This week's theme for Illustration Friday was "hats". I tried to create a hat shop window. I had a few different ideas, but I wanted to make something out of paper. This is what I came up with.