Illustration Friday - Prepare

Little Owlet is prepared to SPLASH!

 (or to just stand there looking cute!)

Mermaid and Dolphin Friends

Illustration Friday - Highlight

(Click for larger image)

Here's my submission for Illustration Friday's word highlight.  Every New Year's Eve my husband and I come up with separate lists of our Top 10 Moments of the Year.  After the kids are in bed we go through our lists, one by one, counting down to our favorite moment of the year.  The moments this year ranged from a Florida boat ride where dolphins came right up to our boat and we all watched them for a long time as they swam right near us, to the excitement of our children as they waited for our new dog, Sprinkles to arrive, to my Dad's 70th birthday weekend where my entire family was together for the first time in two years! , to my 10 year olds game winning catch to win his baseball league championship!  My painting this week was inspired by some of the pictures from one of my husband's highlighted moments when he took our three boys to climb Mt. Monadnock in New Hampshire... it has been a wonderful year!

Doing this helps remind us of how incredibly blessed we are.  So here's to a fabulous 2012 from my family to yours!

Illustration Friday - Separated

Separated by just a few inches...good thing he's a monkey!  He'll get it in no time!

I did this illustration using cold press paper, watercolors and used a brush and ink to outline.  I really like the way the cold press paper blends, but it does not scan (on my scanner) very well.  Oh well!  He's still pretty cute!  

Hope you all have fabulous holidays coming up!

Illustration Friday - Round

Mama mouse and her little mouselets were very pleased with their choice this year!

For my submission for Illustration Friday's word round this week I kept thinking about those really round, large lollipops and for some reason coupled this with the idea of picking out a Christmas tree!  So the perfect combination....a mouse family picking out their perfect lollipop!  It's funny how when you start to doodle and sketch an idea how it morphs and changes into something so different from what you started with!

Illustration Friday - Silent

Here's my submission for IF's word silent.  One of my favorite things in the world to do as a child was to lay in the snow by myself and just listen to the silence.  It was so peaceful...no sounds just me, the snow and the sky.  I often wondered what our snowmen felt after me and my siblings went inside for the day.  Were they sad that the fun of the day was over?  Or were they happy to have the night sky to themselves? 

I did this painting with a little bit of everything...watercolor, guoache, acrylic, charcoal pencil and salt!  It was fun to finally have the time to play!  I may even use this for our Christmas card!

Illustration Friday - Stripes

Here's my submission for Illustration Friday's word stripes.  I tried something different this week...colored pencils!  They were fun to work with and with a subject like zebras...it was double the fun!