Kelp is cool. It's a combination of two of my favorite things, plants and the ocean. I was out at Dana Point, and found this floating in the kiddo swimming area. I popped it in the cooler, took it home, and painted it. I tried to do that earlier in the summer, but I left it for a couple of days in a bag in the fridge, and I don't recommend that. It got really really stinky. If you're going to paint kelp, do it while it's fresh. I have been searching the internet, trying to figure out what kind it is, but to no avail. There is plenty of info on Macrocystis pyrifera, which this is not, but not a whole lot of help if you're trying to ID anything else. Hmmm... maybe that could be a project... Anyway, I've been doing a lot of exploring of native California species for Surfside Girls. I've been sneaking all sorts of cool things into and onto my pages.

Hey there, I've been cranking away at my graphic novel pages, trying to get as much done as I can before my freelance hits.  I'm amazed at how much there is to think about in trying to tell my story this way!  I've been checking out other graphic novelist's websites and have been very inspired by what I see.  Boltcity.com has a great tutorial.  I don't know if I want to post my pages yet, because I may put them up on their own website.  I will post some character sketches I did of Sam, trying to get my technique of watercolor and sepia pen down.

These are a couple of photos of the patio garden I created for my client in Seal Beach.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  As I've said before, the working in the dirt, with plants and all of their amazing colors and textures is such inspiration to me and my illustration.  I have been working quite madly on the graphic novel, and will post some sketches next.

Good Morning!  I haven't posted this last week, because I have been exercising another creative side- landscape design!  Brita of Brita's Old Town Gardens, where I used to work on Main Street in Seal Beach, found me this darling job of bringing color and beauty to an upstairs patio on the beach.  I will go photograph the job on Monday, and post it, as it came out beautifully (now I'm inspired to get after my own garden!)  The colors and textures of the plants are so amazing and inspirational.  I am posting a piece I had done for the CSUF show, which we just took down.  It includes two of my direct influences- plants, and reading.  The words in the background of the piece are from Madeline L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time."  It is the part where Mrs. Whatsit explains to Mrs. Murray, on that dark and stormy night, that there is such a thing as a tesseract.  When I read that as a ten year old, I fell in love with science fiction, fantasy, and all of the kinds of writing that confirm that there is more going on in this world than what is obvious on the surface.  Enjoy!

Well.  School starts today!  I love the rhythm of the school season...  Anyway, I thought I'd put more up about the SCBWI LA conference.  One of my favorite quotes came from a writer's workshop, from a woman named Karen Cushman who wrote The Midwife's Apprentice, among other things.  She had such quotable things to say; very inspirational and funny.  My favorite was,

"Write, and Keep Showing Up."  Wow.  That's pretty much it, isn't it?  She also said, "Write, don't fantasize."  I got that one loud and clear, as I'm often dialoguing in my head, and it really does need to get put on paper to be of any use.  I also liked, "Inspiration often hits when my butt is far from my chair."  I write as well as draw, but I think the advice applies very easily to both.  I have put in my posting today a very silly thing, but I'm realizing that staying connected to the very silly thing is an important thing to me.  If you're an artist, you may understand this- to take in a lot of audio information, I have to doodle.  Not just take notes, actually draw.  Teachers get kids in trouble for this, but it holds true for me, and I'm sure those arty kids in detention, that letting the brain drop into that swimmy vat where doodling frees up the thinking (like listening to jazz) really does help the information land and sink in.  So here are the backs of heads I doodled while at the conference.

I went to the SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) conference a couple of weeks ago in LA.  Wow, what a friendly, amazing and talented bunch of people!  If children's book illustration is what you're looking to do, this is such a good support group, and so inspirational!  I haven't posted in a while as it's been all about readying the portfolio and postcards and such.  I am going to be in a small group show opening August 28 at CSUF's Exit Gallery.  The show is called, "From Here to There," and we have our development work up as well as our finished pieces.  The other participants are Erin Shea, Pat Cantor, and Katy Betz.  I did a new piece for it, and am posting a little teeny bit of it.

This is colander-head boy, compare with the digital version from a couple of weeks ago.