Fun with Illustrator

I've been taking some more online classes with Nicole's Classes, this time in Adobe Illustrator, which has been super fun. Below you'll find a few of the things I've worked on as I continue to learn how to use the program. It's not my typical style but I'm really enjoying myself! More to come I hope.

The new kids

Here are a couple pieces I did awhile back based on sketches and/or drawings with ink, then finished in Photoshop. These both became gifts for some new babies in the family. Thanks for being my guinea pigs! You have now joined the long list of people who get all the stuff I make and then need somebody to give it to! 

For the mamas

A day late . . . boy, was it crazy town around here yesterday between Mother's Day and Olivia's 7th birthday! I wanted to share a little image I put together from one of my watercolor paintings and some chalkboardy-like text that I used as a Mother's Day card. Here's hoping all the mamas had a great day.

Austen on my mind

Every so often I get in a Jane Austen kind of mood. Sometimes I re-read her novels, often I just overdose on BBC Jane Austen movies. I really love them. In another life I spend my afternoons in empire-waisted dresses, picking flowers from the sunny gardens of my home in the English countryside. Don't you?

Again, I've been playing around with different textures and brushes in Photoshop, using a pencil sketch as the starting point.

Pep Talk

It's going to snow . . . again. Who needs a PEP TALK? I do.

Boston

As I was watching the coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing on Monday, they kept playing the footage they had of the first explosion over and over and over. At some point I noticed that a small bouquet of yellow balloons rises into the air seconds after the smoke erupts - did you see that? It was an image that stayed with me, so I did a watercolor painting of it. 

Such a senseless act. I've only ever been a spectator at marathons but they are such a warm and, for lack of a better word, triumphant place. Hundreds or thousands of people run past you, mostly strangers, and you cheer and you cheer and you cheer. It's such an obvious testament to the human spirit, pushing through pain and distance to finish your race. Maybe that's what the balloons make me think of.

Ready for Adventure

One of the things I love about kids is their ability to turn just about anything into an adventure. We walk around a little lake in our neighborhood all the time and the kids love to collect sticks and rocks, and hunt for monarch caterpillars. They catch bugs and frogs in the backyard all summer long. So today I sketched up some of the things we use to "go adventuring" around here and played with it on this chalkboard background in Photoshop. Now if only the snow would melt so we could get started!