New Blog Header Illustration!

As part of my Mother's Day gift my wonderful hubby took all 4 kiddies to my inlaws for the afternoon and evening to let me have some quiet time to work on my art....I know, I know, I am SOOOO lucky to have such a supportive and fabulous hubby. He is the best!
 So I managed to finish up the "Little Mice" plasticine illo that I thought I'd use as a header for a while. Well, in my haste to get this cute new header illustration finally completed, I completely forgot to take a few photos during the process. Opps, my bad. So I'll have to do another plasticine tutorial showing my final steps on another illustration.
By the way, if anyone out there can tell me how to center a custom header within it's border I'd love it if you could share this info with me! That slight misalignment is bugging me, so I will continue to try to sort that out. I think it will be fun to "change it up" from time to time to keep things fresh! I'd love to hear what everyone thinks, so please do leave me a comment if you can :)

Happy Mother's Day!!!

In honour of all of those fabulous mommies out there who strive to follow their artistic passion; be a supportive wife/partner; and most importantly, be the BEST mommy they can be, this " virtual bouquet" of sunflowers is for YOU!

I painted this, oh my, about errrr... 13 years ago, when I was experimenting with Impressionism with my acrylics. But I thought it was fitting for today. I just love the old masters of Impressionism. There is something so liberating about laying on think splotches of paint, and using a vibrant colour palette. Such freedom! I really admire this style, as it is a very challenging one, I think. I guess that's because I am naturally the type of person who love to include tiny details in my work, it invites the viewer to look more closely.  That's one of the reasons why I love the medium of plasticine. I get the best of both worlds. I can do tiny details and textures when I'm doing foreground subjects, and I can be more loose and mix my colours with gusto to achieve a more impressionistic style too, like with my water reflections.  Such fun :)

So I want to wish a "Happy Mother's day" to all of the great Mothers and Grandmothers out there. I hope your special day is filled with sloppy kiddie smooches and cuddles!!! And I hope your enjoy your bouquet!

In full "Teacher Appreciation Gift" mode

                                          Mrs.B's class of '09
                                          Originally uploaded by sdelrizzo

It is that time of year again. Time to get crackin' on my kiddies teacher appreciation gifts. I am working on 3 this year, and since I don't want to give anything away at this point, I thought I'd show you another from last year.
This one was for my eldest son's amazing grade 2 teacher. She was so fabulous, and always went above and beyond. I had great fun with this one, as I tried to capture the kids' personalities in the illustration.
My oldest son is depicted in the foreground...yes that 's him, the goofy one with the present balanced precariously on his head.
I was lucky to have a fellow teacher/friend sneak into her classroom and snap a bunch of photos to use a reference. Luv the rug!
Now enough procrastinating for me...let get back to work :)

Yoda Cake!

I finished my Yoda Star Wars cake last night for my son's best friend's party today. What do you think?
I had a bit of trouble with the arms as they were wanting to sag and fall off, so I added a walking stick to prop one arm up and hid some support under his cloak for the other arm. If I didn't tell ya would you have noticed? I sure hope not :)
The weather forecast is for thundershowers this afternoon-yikes, fondant will melt if exposed to rain...I sure hope  the rain holds off until I delivery the cake.
I can't wait to see the look on the birthday boy's face when he sees his special cake, it will be sooooo worth it!

Yoda cake in progress

I am working on a Yoda cake for a Star Wars themed birthday party for my youngest son's best friend. Here is a quick pic. of the head "in progress". It is a bit freaky and well...creepy, without the eyes fully painted. Ha Ha Ha
I made the hands, legs, and head out of rice krispies, as they are lighter and easier to mold into complex shapes. Then I covered them with modeling paste, which is kinda like a combination of gum paste and fondant. I made the body out of chocolate cake, but I still need to cover it with fondant. No pic. of it yet, it looks like a big white mass so far, that vaguely resembles a little Buddha. Thank goodness Yoda is short and squat, so hopefully my cake won't topple over.
I am really liking how the wrinkly face turned out.
Fingers crossed nothing starts to slide around! At least he's old and wizened so even if the modeling past starts to droop a bit, it won't ruin it.
I will post a pic. once the cake is complete :)
Have a happy day....

Cake Topper

One of my good friends is having a baby shower for her sister this weekend. She is having her first child, how exciting!  I was asked to make a custom cake for the event. One of my other fun-to-do things!  After all, gumpaste and fondant are very similar to plasticine.  I thought it would be really fun to make a custom cake topper in polymer clay to go on the top, especially since her sis has a really great, funky style. She wore this outfit to another party, so I managed to get a photo to use as reference. She totally rocked those striped socks and cool hat! I hope she likes it (fingers crossed). :)

Email is now safe!

Hi Everyone,
After much anxiety and panic, I have resolved my email issue and it is now protected and activated again-yeah!! What a brutal headache. Feel free to use any of my emails to correspond. And again, I do apologize to everyone that received any messages from the phishing scammers.