Yipeee!! Guess who won Crystal Driedger's CSN Giveaway??

Hi Everyone, I hope you are having a nice weekend. I had a wonderful surprise this afternoon when I noticed my Blackberry beeping, telling me I had an email message. Imagine my delight when I opened it to find that I had been chosen as the lucky winner of Crystal Driedger's CSN Stores Giveaway over on her blog. Yipeeee!!

 Maybe I should go out and buy a lotto ticket or something...hee. And maybe I should let Google's Random Number Generator pick my lotto numbers?? (Good idea Crystal!)

I am sure most of you are familiar with Crystal's gorgeous artwork. She does the most beautiful paintings and adorable illustrations . Lately she has been experimenting with her handy-dandy dremel and doing some surface carving on wood that she then turns into a textured painting...they are fabulous! You must pop over to Crystal's blog and see for yourself.

I can't wait to check out the CSN Store catalogue and see what goodies I can find...a wee bit of early Christmas shopping-hmmm

Thank-you Crystal!



Great Resources to kick Self Doubt to the curb

Firstly, I am having lots of fun playing with my new DSLR camera. Above is a shot I took using the macro setting. The plasticine textures are going to look fab!

I thought I'd do a post on a topic I often struggle with - Self doubt. Since having the kids back to school, and the start-up of another busy year of kids sports practices/games and shuttling them too and fro, I feel like I just can't quite get my feet firmly planted in an art production routine. I feel so unproductive. Arggg. I know I am my toughest critic and probably just need to be patient and remember it always takes a bit of time to iron out the kinks when trying work out all of our crazy schedules. Geesh, just wait until the kids are teenagers- I cringe at the thought.

Luckily, it seems to be a topic that a few great people online have been posting about this week, so I thought I'd sum it all up here in the hope that it will inspire you as much as it did for me. A good creative kick-start so to speak.
Let's start with the amazing Zero2Illo. It is a definite a favorite of mine. Jonathan Woodward is the creative genius, and very talented illustrator behind this site, who has his pulse on what aspiring illustrators want to know. He and his wife Leah have really poured  their hearts and many amazing resources into this site. It is a must for any aspiring illustrator. He did a great post this past week on tips for overcoming self doubt. It is encouraging to know many other illustrators also struggle with this problem., and many other aspiring illustrators shared their suggestions themselves in the comments section.

I also stumbled upon a website and blog by another amazing artist: Kelly Rae Roberts. I just love her tag line- artist.author.possiblitarian- cool word or what?  She created a series of ebooks entitled Flying Lessons: Tips and Tricks to help your biz soar. They look fantastic. She is another very generous artist whose willing to pay it forward and share all her great advice.

And during my morning computer/tea time, I came across Michelle Ward and Jessica Swift's ecourse  entitled The Declaration of You, mentioned on Khristian A Howell's beautiful blog. I don't know about you but I just loooove surface design!! It really invigorates my brain! Sorry I digress, back to the topic. Michelle Ward's blog has some great questionnaires to help get you on your right path, and she also has a great feature called Tough Question Tuesday, which, last week, also talked about tackling fear.

And if you don't want to shell out any coin right now and just want a bit of creative kick-start, look no further than Tara Gentile and her free mini ecourse on Creating Action. Tara's blog has such enthusiastic tips that really inspire and motivate. She offers Brainstorming sessions too if you want to speak with somebody who's been there , to bounce around ideas and formulate your plan. 

I am sure there are many other amazing resources out there that are not covered here. These goodies where just the gems I needed to feel re-energized and  ready with more tips and tools to tackle self-doubt and procrastination. Then I shut down the computer and cranked up some tunes, put in the earphones and took some time to just play around with my plasticine and create some art just for fun, without constraints. Getting into the zone, is also sometimes the best remedy. Because this is where we are happiest and free. And it reminds us why we love art and illustration so much.

Now go create something just for YOU!

It feels like Christmas!

Look what I got !!! I am just giddy with excitement. I have been researching DSLR cameras for a while, as I thought it would be easier if I could do my own photography for my website, promo stuff etc, and then I'd only need to rely on a professional photographer for client work. It really just made sense from a logistical standpoint.
So, after a ton of research, I  finally took the leap, and purchased a Canon Rebel T2i with a EF-S 18-55 IS lens, and tripod. I really have to thank the wonderful people at Henry's. My Henry's associate Ron, really took the time to go over all of my options, explain all the tech. stuff in terms I could understand, and  showed us so many cool lenses and other stuff that we might want to consider later on. He was so so helpful and knowledgeable! Thanks Ron! 

I must admit to being a little intimidated. This is my first DSLR camera and I've always just used a simple point and shoot. But the great thing about this camera is that it has many intuitive features and is considered to be one of the best DSLR cameras for beginners. I am really looking forward to seeing what this baby can do and learn how to make my plasticine illustrations look their absolute best.  I can see this getting rather addictive-heehee.  Thanks to Paula Pindroh, and Gisela for all your suggestions and advice.

I've been holding off putting up a website until I had better photographs of my work, as I think you really only have one shot at making a great first impression. So now I hope to rephotograph my artwork, and finally get a website up and running. 

It will be great to take better pics of the kiddies too. I can't wait to see how our annual Christmas card pictures will turn out this year! Yeehoooo. Say Cheeeeese :)

Printable Back to School Sticker Sheet

CLICK HERE to download Stickers

I made these free printable  Stickers, Book Plates, and lunch label  for all of the "back to school" kiddies. The theme for September at the We Love To Illustrate Group Blog, was to create some fun printables for "back to school". You must pop over and check them out, they are so adorable and so much FUN!!! I plan on downloading all of them and sticking em' all over my kiddies stuff. And my stuff too!  

this project sounded so fun, and I thought it would be a really good learning experience with CS5 too. Obviously, I am still learning Adobe Creative Suite CS5.  This was my first ever contact sheet using the photoshop tricks to extract my little critters from crazy backgrounds. Not perfect but a start!:) And I am slowly learning my way around these amazing programmes.

Enjoy!

My new, super-duper, Drawing Table

I  decided to set-up a work station in our family dining-room, since we only use it on birthdays or special occasions like Christmas dinners. I need a space on the main level that was accessible to work on my artwork and keep an eye on my kiddies when they are at home. Having my art desk up in the corner of my bedroom was fine for the evening but just wasn't working well during the rest of the busy day. And there just isn't another room available for a studio.  This all sounded great in theory until I started to think about what work surface would fit, and be organizable in a flash, if company was coming.  I wanted something that wasn't enormous like a standard drafting table, but also had storage, so I could quickly tuck everything away from curious little fingers if I had to make one of my  pick-up runs to the school.

 Well one day, during my little morning "me-time"  tea/blog surfing, I came across a post by the talented Phyllis Harris. She was was writing about her new, fabulous desk that her hubby had purchased as a gift. I know, she is one lucky lady to have such a great hubby! It was perfect, so compact, yet so functional and full of great storage!! I emailed her right away, and she was very kind to give me the manufacturers info.  I did a little investigating but alas, with the shipping  to Canada it was just too expensive.

So I thought a bit, and thought a bit more, and then I thought I should show the specs to my dad, who by the way is a contractor by trade, to get his input to see how much it might cost to have custom built. He said he'd talk to his brother who is a retired Fine Carpenter, and see what he thought. Well, those brothers are fast! The next time I asked him what he thought, he exclaimed that my Uncle Bob had it almost finished!!! Yippeeee, I did a happy dance, and thought to myself how helpful and kind it was for them to take on this project of mine. Check it out !!

How cool it this drawing table?? Don't you wish you had an Uncle Bob the builder too? The angled top has a hinge so I can put my work-in-progress inside to keep it safe from little hands; there is a flat top section to put my mateials and tools, so they don't slide around; there is a drawer and cuboard with shelves for storage; and at the side I can keep all my huge illustration board pieces upright, safe and sound.

I just ordered a drafting chair this morning from Staples, so hopefully I will be able to get "crackin" and start to work on my new AMAZING drawing table in just a few days!!  Thanks Dad and Uncle Bob!!! You're the best!! :)

IF-Proverb

"It's not the towering sail, but the unseen wind that moves the ship"-Proverb

I couldn't resist using one of my boy pirate series plasticine illustrations for this weeks Illustration Friday. I thought this pirate proverb was a fitting choice for this salty wee pirate boy...ARRRRR !

So far this Sept. has been a flurry of activity, teacher meetings, try-outs, doctor appt.s, and writer's cramp from all the school forms-arrgg.  Once it slows down back to normal I plan to post more often :)

I hope everyone is having a good Sept. so far and thank-you to my wonderful readers who leave such sweet comments and brighten my day! You guys rock! 

IF-Dessert

I couldn't resist making this plasticine illustration of a slice of yummy chocolate cake with a very hungry and chubby mouse helping himself, for this weeks Illustration Friday theme "dessert".  Boy...now I am craving something sweet!  Hmm... maybe there is some left-over icing in the fridge, from making my kiddies birthday cakes last week???- wish me luck!!

Enjoy!