Illustration Friday : Worry

This is my first post for illustration friday and the theme is ‘worry’. I am a little late on posting it, because I just joined the group today. Since I am trying to enter the realm of children’s books and I need to get proficient at drawing children in a stylized manner, I sketched this little guy. His biggest worry in life at the moment is his broken toy. (Boy, if life was that simple, right?) I’m not sure if his expression is more sad than worried. I was having a hard time with that…anyone has any suggestions?
I may try to do this one in gouache since I haven’t used gouache in years.
I really welcome your feedback and comments.

Summer, Winter and Spring

I almost forgot about the rest of the seasons…. I posted the small painting I made for fall, but with my son’s room, finishing my web site and family in town, I almost forgot about posting the rest. So here they are…


Summer


8" X 10" Acrylic on canvas signed and dated.
The painting is continued around the edges, so it's ready to be hung.



If you are interested in purchasing any of the paintings listed here, please contact me. I take payments by Paypal.






Winter


8" X 10" Acrylic on canvas signed and dated.
The painting is continued around the edges, so it's ready to be hung.



If you are interested in purchasing any of the paintings listed here, please contact me. I take payments by Paypal.






Spring (Tulip)

8" X 10" Acrylic on canvas signed and dated.The painting is continued around the edges, so it's ready to be hung.



If you are interested in purchasing any of the paintings listed here, please contact me. I take payments by Paypal.

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'.

MY NEW WEB SITE IS UP!

http://www.tenengo.com/

Frog on the wall...

I took a picture of this cute little frog that made its way in my house as we were bringing in some of the furniture pieces that will go in my son’s room. I am not a big critter person, but I’ve always kind of liked frogs, mostly from a distance. My husband captured it and released it back to the outside garden. Notice the orangy color as it tried to camouflage itself with the wall right at the edge of the ceiling.

Busy, oh so busy….

I was going to post another painting, but I thought I would get you all caught up first. The baby shower was an absolute success, and entirely exhausting too. I am still recovering, but I can’t take too much time to recover, because I have to jump into my next house project, which is my son’s room. I am fortunate enough to have a very talented father in-law. He is an old world craftsman who built all of the furniture for my son’s room. I provided him with drawings for the furniture, and he is ready to install everything this Friday! I need to paint his room and get it all ready, so I may not be able to post for the next few days, but I will post pictures of the furniture when it is all done. He is an incredibly talented man. It’s a shame you don’t find people like that anymore!
Well, off to painting I go (and not the kind I like to do…) …

Seasons :: Fall

I made four iconic paintings to represent the four seasons. This is the first in its series.

Leaf

8" X 10" Acrylic on canvas signed and dated.
The painting is continued around the edges, so it's ready to be hung.

If you are interested in purchasing any of the paintings listed here, please contact me. I take payments by Paypal.

Baby Shower Stationary

I finished all of the pieces for the baby shower I am organizing. I designed and made 50 invitations, 30 place cards, and 30 games booklet. I worked with a jungle theme and the main colors were teal and chocolate. I also used black, white and lime green as accents. I was fortunate to find the cutest baby animal stickers…tigers, lions, cheetahs, giraffes, hippos, monkeys. They came in different poses, so every card was different. They really added a lot of personality to the card.

Front of card

Inside of card and map (on back side) with directions

Games booklet and palce cards

Mad Man

I was going through my studio and I found this illustration. I liked it a lot when I was finished, and I still do. But now I think the pose needs to be more at an angle and the hair needs to break the space differently. Anyway, I thought I would post it and see if anyone had any comments…

Busy Week!

This week is shaping up to be quite a busy week. I am organizing a baby shower and I am in the midst of all the final preparations which include designing place cards and game cards. Yes, I am designing all the game cards! Once I finish those, I will post them with the invitations I designed and crafted.
I also have family in town, so my web site is taking a back seat for this week.

Flower
8" X 10" Acrylic on canvas signed and dated.

The painting is continued around the edges, so it's ready to be hung.

If you are interested in purchasing any of the paintings listed here, please contact me. I take payments by Paypal.

$40.00 + ($10.00 Standard Ground USPS Shipping. Includes Insurance - $5.00 if shipped with another item)

Happy Mother's Day!!

The weekend is almost here and mother’s day is fast approaching.
Since I won’t have time this weekend to add a post, I am wishing every mother that reads this a ‘wonderful’ mother’s day.

I am dedicating this painting to ‘mi madre’, ‘mi abuela’, my mother-in-law and all the other mothers in my life that have enriched my existence.

This heart, my own dear mother, bends, with love's true instinct, back to thee! - Thomas Moore

Heart
8" X 10" Acrylic on canvas signed and dated.
The painting is continued around the edges, so it's ready to be hung.If you are interested in purchasing any of the paintings listed here, please contact me. I take payments by Paypal.

$40.00 + ($10.00 Standard Ground USPS Shipping. Includes Insurance - $5.00 if shipped with another item)

The 21 days exercise!

A few artists are joining this activity who was started by Gina Perry. Basically, the premise is that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. You choose an area or theme to challenge yourself and spend about 15 min a day ....you will develop a new habit in 21 days. I don't think you have to be an illustrator to join in either, you could do any type of art. I think the idea is to step out of your comfort zone, which sometimes is good to do.

I will eventually join in, but I want to finish my web site first. For anyone reading this, visit Gina Perry's blog or Alicia Padron's blog and take a look at what they are doing...maybe you'll get inspired and join the excercise.

The Star and The Moon

I love icons! We associate them with so many things, they communicate instantly!
The two below are bright and colorful.


Star
8" X 10" Acrylic on canvas signed and dated.

The painting is continued around the edges, so it's ready to be hung.

If you are interested in any of these, please contact me. I take payments by Paypal.


$40.00 + ($10.00 Standard Ground USPS Shipping. Includes Insurance - $5.00 if shipped with another item)

Moon

8" X 10" Acrylic on canvas signed and dated.



The painting is continued around the edges, so it's ready to be hung.



If you are interested in any of these, please contact me. I take payments by Paypal.


$40.00 + ($10.00 Standard Ground USPS Shipping. Includes Insurance - $5.00 if shipped with another item)