Illustration Friday: Stripes | Free Coloring Page

This is both my entry for Illustration Friday and a Free Coloring page. You may print it and color away!

If you have some time, stop by Once Upon A Sketch. We are a group of illustrators offering tips, news and other related industry information to our community.

Illustration Friday: Disguise

It has been a while since I participated in Illustration Friday, but this week's topic fit perfectly with something I had just started working on. I hope you enjoy it!
Also check out my groups blog OnceUponASketch.

Illustration Friday - Remedy

Hopefully he'll feel better soon...

IF:Beginner

Beginner's Guide to Middle School. At least that what you think of with the book "Diary of a Wimpy Kid". I watched the movie and it got me thinking about characters.

The sketches above are some of the characters I drew to depict a variety of personalities and ethnicities in Middle School.

Life has been hectic, so I hope to get it in color sometime before the summer. In the mean time, your comments and suggestions are welcome!

I'll be making an exciting announcement in the next coming weeks, so stay tuned!

Illustration Friday: Deja-vu and Resolutions...

here's some quick doodling from last week... as I look at these, it seems to me, I had already drawn something like this... Deja-vu!

2011 - Out with the old, in with the new! --So they say!

I took a break over the holidays and like most people, had the opportunity to reflect on my goals and direction. I thought about what my goals were at the beginning of 2010 and assessed how many of those goals I met or didn't meet and why.
As 2011 gets started and I think of what I want to accomplish this year ( I really need to clone myself!). There's so much I want to accomplish, but I need to be realistic with my time as well. I have been more aggressive in pursuing my website and graphic design business. I even started a blog in Wordpress dedicated just to that and I've had great results so far. However, my goal of entering the children's illustration market has not been forgotten and for 2011 my focus is:

• Expand my mailing list
• Send a promotional piece at least every quarter
• Update www.thomidis.com and keep it current
• Make thomidis.com more search engine friendly
  
• Draw every day for a month (thinking of February since it's short!)... even if I'm short on time, just a quick doodle. Not sure if time will allow me to blog about it.
  
• Update this blog at least once a month

So there you have it, not a long list or one that seems unreasonable. Will it yield results... we shall see...

Happy 2011 Everyone!

The Holiday Phenomenon. Free Elf Coloring Page

This is that time a year when all the elves are busy getting all those presents ready for the big night. Lots of running around! Let's just hope they have enough cookies and eggnog to keep them going! Are you running around like this elf?

Click on the image to print it and color it. Enjoy!

Illustration Friday: Burning - Coloring Page : Thanksgiving Turkey

Hopefully, this turkey will be far from burning on Thanksgiving day!

This is the first of a few more coloring pages I will be posting for this Thanksgiving.

Click on the image above to open a .jpg to print and color. Send me your colored version (less than 1MB) to edrian@tenengo.com and I'll post it here on my blog!

Happy coloring!

Illustration Friday: Racing Thoughts

IF: SPOOKY

Here's an old 'spooky' Halloween image...

and here's a newer one that's not so spooky...

IF: Transportation

**UPDATE**

The image above is the finished piece image. I had to add seat belts since that was a major oversight on my part (my husband and one of you pointed that out). Even though this is an illustration and it's an imaginary world, I want to send the right message to kids. I think everyone is safe.

Well, there's still the dog... I know dogs are supposed to be in a crate or a seatbelt, but I think I'll try to have some creative license here.

Do you think an AD would require the dog to wear a seat belt or be in a crate?

Lucky me! This week's topic matches what I was working on... transportation.

This is a work in progress... I hope to post the finished piece soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Illustration Friday: CAGED

IF: ARTIFICIAL

Pure, Raw, Honey! Nothing artificial there!

This was done in 1 hour. I wish I had time to work out some of the details and clean it up... but I'm happy I was able to draw!

IF: Trail

It’s been almost 3 months since my last IF post. A year ago, I couldn’t imagine not posting weekly but so things change and we have to adapt.

2010 It’s been an interesting year. Old doors have opened up. I once thought that my career as a designer/web designer was a thing of the past, simply because I could not balance deadlines and a family. I guess it is all about timing… my kids are a bit older and I have more time to dedicate to projects and clients, which works out quite well.

I still dream with illustrating a children’s book someday, but at the moment I’m listening to the universe and what it wants me to do…. And it is to design … design … design! And I love it!

I do miss my daily drawings and drawing with a kid’s perspective. So I am going back to the beginning and why I started this blog 2 years ago and it is just to draw for fun, just not posting as often perhaps…

This week’s post for IF was inspired by my son. Lately, when he gets upset he says he wants to run away, of course we talk it out and he realizes that home is where he wants to be. Anyway, I thought of this little bunny packing his most precious items and some bread in his pocket (like Hansel and Gretel)… and wondering down a trail.

I hope you enjoy the post and thanks for stopping by!

IF: EXPIRED and HAI!

I think that's happened to most of us... We go in the fridge hoping to find a good snack/drink, only to find that it has expired! -- This was another quick sketch.

I've been thinking a lot lately trying to align my goals with what my heart desires and where the universe wants me to be at this point in time. I guess I'm in a bit of a funk and my creativity is being affected by it. Usually, my drawings flow rather natural but lately they feels forced. I have a ton of ideas but it is the hand to paper that's been somewhat blocked!



The very kind and talented Ginger Nielson shared a new jewel in the making... that is a new portfolio site for illustrators. It is called Hire and Illustrator. I encourage you to check them out. I just joined and love the fact that I was on their homepage for 3 days and I'm still on the first page when you click on artists. It is brand new, so I'm not sure how much traffic they are attracting at the moment. However, the fact that I can become a member and show my work and pay week by week and cancel any time I want, was what really sold me on the site. I'm aware that there are other sites out there, but this one really fit my needs.

IF: PERSPECTIVE

This is an illustration I created a while ago for an online children's magazine.
I thought it fit the prompt perfectly.

IF: PROPAGATE and award

I can’t help but stare at my kids at night while they sleep. Not only because they look like such angels, but because I get to admire their complexion and I get to think about how our traits propagate. My son for instance, looks 100% like my husband. Nothing like me.

I haven’t been a great blogger lately. So when Debora Mori awarded me with the Sunshine Award, I was really shocked. I’m very touched and grateful.

I need to pay it forward to the bloggers that brighten up my day:

Alicia Padron

Gaia Bordicchia

Kathy Weller

Diana Evans

Nicole Merkens


There are so many more of you, but I decided to stop at 5.
Rules: Please link back to the person who awarded you and post a link to your favorite bloggers who bring a ray of sunshine into your life. Don't forget to tell them about it!

IF: ADRIFT

Originally I was thinking of a cub, but I ended up with more of a cat.

The reflection shows better on the original, once I scanned it, some of it was lost.

Thanks for stopping by!

Illustration Friday: MUDDY 2

I had another idea for muddy and decided to also doodle for fun. That’s the great thing about participating in Illustration Friday, all the drawings are personal and for fun. Now that my portfolio is somewhat ‘done’. I wanted to give myself a break by just drawing for fun.

On a separate note, I send out my first mailer of the year this week and it felt really good.

I have been very busy with graphic design and life in general so it has been difficult to keep up with this blog. Now that a few projects have been wrapped up. I will be sharing those projects with you here in the near future.

illustration Friday: MUDDY

I’m back from NY! So check back this week for a post about that. For now, I’m just posting this drawing for IF ‘muddy’. The piggy was just a doodle I made while watching some TV. Both activities something I had not managed to do in about a month so it was a great!

IF: CONFINED AND WINTER CONFERENCE

...Tired of being confined in the castle after night fall, the boy sneaked out with the dragon to go on an adventure.

I guess I am cheating a bit this week with the word 'CONFINED' since I'm posting the finished piece from last week, but I think it fit the prompt rather well. I also really liked how this illo turned out. I think I will do something with it for my next promo card.

I have some very exciting news, I am going to the SCBWI Winter Conference in New York at the end of this month. I will be taking the illustrator's intensive session as well. I was very reluctant about going for all the reasons anyone would be hesitant to go... am I ready?, can I get my portfolio/promo materials ready on time?, can I update my website before the trip?, etc... Well, Ready or not, I am going! I couldn't think of waiting another year for such an opportunity.

I will not be posting much this month since I will be preparing for the trip, among another gizillion things I have to do! But, I will try to blog or Twitter about the conference while I'm there.

If you are going let me know. I would love to meet some of you while I'm out there!

Thanks for all your comments and all your New Year wishes, they really mean a lot to me and I really appreciate them!