Keep Germs to Yourself. Sneeze in your Arm and Wash Your Hands.

Kids go back to school, and in a matter of minutes are exposed to countless germs! Nowadays, schools teach kids to sneeze in their arm or in a tissue and dispose of the tissue. They should also wash their hands afterwards to prevent the spread of disease.

Here are two free coloring page/digital stamps.
Click on the image to print and color.

*Please respect copyright. The pages above are approved for personal use only.

Free Nutcracker Coloring Page

Another free coloring page for this holiday season. Have you been to a Nutcracker performance? They are really unforgettable! and they are a great way to expose the little ones to the theater too.

For the coloring page, click on the image of the nutcracker above to print and color it.

Just added to my web site

This is another image that I just finished and added to my portfolio web site. I am getting ready to start another project, so I won't be posting for a little while. I hope you enjoy this image until my next post...

IF:FROZEN

This illustration is a stretch for 'Frozen', but it just happens to be what I was working on at the moment. I wonder who'll win this fight?

Have a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by and for all your comments!

IF: GERMS

As a parent, I am too familiar with this scenario. My son's school had the first h1h1 case this week and I kept him home most of the week as a precaution. The teachers told the kids that if they sneezed/coughed on their own hands to wash hands right away, and if they were next to another kid and they sneezed/coughed on the other kid's hands, both kids had to wash their hands. So far it seems to be working...

Hope you all have a great week!!!

IF: DRIFTING

Here's a couple of images I've worked on this week:

She's making a list and she's checking it twice to make sure her potion tastes right.

I know, my mind is already drifting to Halloween time and we are just beginning our summer!

This boy is trying to keep his kite from drifting away

I guess it was a very productive week. Everything I've been working on, has been so involved, that it was fun to just work on quick spot illustrations.

Enjoy your weekend!

IF : VOICES

This is another quick post and probably the last one until the New Year. There's just too much going on right now.  I am having a great time though, enjoying my kids, my family and my friends. This is most definitely my favorite time of year. I wish you all Happy Holidays!

I only wish I had more time to visit all my favorite blogs. I am way behind!

I did get a chance to rework the composition of my last IF entry, since I wasn't to thrilled with it. I changed the big bird on the foreground to the dancing girl, and I think she is much more interesting to look at than the bird. I also moved and flipped the pets (thanks to Photoshop) to make the negative space more dynamic, and added some props to the kids. Oh, and the Dad magically aged a few years. He looks more like grandpa, which is fine. I can see grandparents in this type of predicament as well. Oh, and I figured with all the commotion, one could almost hear the voices of the children! There! That's how I link it to this week's IF. I do plan on painting this one, but after the New Year!

IF: Rambunctious

Here's my entry for this week's topic. I tried ink a few weeks back and I really enjoyed it so I tried it again. I am not 100% pleased with this piece. I think it's the composition and some of the line work turned out heavier than I wanted. I've realized I work much better in solitude than with my children around! But these days, I can't find much time for blogging or art.

Oh, well! I may play around with it some more or give it up completely as one of those that didn't quite turn out! 

IF: WISE

I would say these kids are WISE for choosing to play outside and enjoy a beautiful day instead of sitting all afternoon playing video games. At least that what I would want my kids to do .... and they do for the most part!

I posted the sketch for this painting a week or so ago and here it is completed. I am pleased with the results! This was a larger piece and I had to scan it in pieces and then assemble it in Photoshop.

Below is a closer view of one area:

SKETCHBOOK

These are two sketches I worked on last week. I tweaked them in Photoshop to get a better composition and straighter lines... I may work them in color, but I'm not sure yet.

Fall, Summer, Spring Sketches

Here are the sketches I worked on to showcase my style. I am doing these as an exercise, and if I like the outcome I may use them as promotional pieces. The idea is to keep the main composition the same with the tree framing the piece and kids and animals as the visual focus.

I have been in a bit of a funk creatively lately and I may take a break from the children characters and animals. As I said on my previous post, I am in the midst of finding a style that is marketable and quick to do while being true to myself. I am not sure where I stand on the style or quickness of things and I think I need to step away for a little while to get some perspective.

spring

summer

fall

In the mean time, I'll probably work on a piece I've been wanting to paint. We'll see how the week progresses.

Your thoughts and feedback are really welcomed!

Illustration Friday: baby

This is my illustration for this week's theme 'baby'. I did this in gouache on illustration board, which is a medium I haven't used in years. I have to say, it was not easy. I am so used to acrylic paint and canvas that I felt  I did not have much control.  I spent waaaay too much time on this little illo, but it was a great exercise. I'll definitely try gouache again. Practice makes perfect, right?

My Boy's Room :: Furniture and Knobs

This was my weekend project and I am happy to say that it is completed! My father in-law who made the furniture from my drawings came and installed it on Friday.

I painted the knobs to go with the 'trucks, cars, traffic' motif in the room. Each knob was $0.97, so it was an inexpensive way to add some personality to the room. I used acrylic and made the outlines with permanent black marker, and once dried I sprayed the knobs with a gloss varnish. It was tricky painting on them because of the uneven surface, so it took me a little longer than I thought. About 1.5 hours.


This is the desk portion of the furniture. It looks fantastic! My father in-law thought of every detail, the shelves are adjustable and the sides have a lip so there's no way for my son to pull them off. There's also a light right above the desk.

This is the bed with the shelves. Outstanding! The bed has drawers on both sides for storage and the drawers are so easy to open and close. All the shelves and drawers provide so much storage! There are lights above the headboard. The green stain on the wood really makes all these pieces more fun and great for a boy's room! My son was very happy with his gift from 'papu'.