My tools and yummy plasticine colours

I have been feeling under the weather for a few days, and felt like I had been neglecting my poor blog. I wanted to reorganize my plasticine and thought it would be a good chance to snap a few fun shots of all my yummy colours. I just love seeing how other artists/illustrators organize their art supplies...such eye candy. I thought, since I was tidying up a bit, I would also take a second to organize my gazillion tools for a fun photo as well.   They're usually stored in a tall container all shoved in together so I can paw through em' and grab what I need quickly. Don't they looked so glorious all lined up and pretty??

 OK I know, they are just art supplies, but they make me happy. tee hee :)

 I was even lucky enough to take a trip (solo!!!!lalalala) to my favorite art supply store Deserres yesterday. And to my delight they reorganized the entire shop so I had to meander down every isle to see what goodies they had to offer.

Anyway it helped me feel a little less sick, and put a little spring into my step.
Have a good weekend, and I hope your family isn't coming down with whatever yuckiness we contracted-bleach!

What I'm working on...

I have been working on a new plasticine illustration piece inspired by the glorious fall colours we are so lucky to enjoy here in Ontario Canada. I wanted to do a piece that depicted the beautiful red/orange colour palette of our fall foliage in a rural setting. Just like something you'd encounter on a drive along a country road up north.  So far I have the background and middleground started. It will be a surprise what fun, playful ideas I have for the foreground. You will have to pop by again in a few days to see it completed and find out!
I have posted a series of images below to show my process- Enjoy!

I promise to have lots of action and movement in the foreground, so please do pop by again to see the finished illustration!!

Halloween Cupcakes to Scare you Hungry!

Here are 2 of the 3 Halloween cupcake "cakes" I made for my sons classes, for their Halloween parties. Sorry for teeny pictures and poor quality, I was up super late and I just took quick photos with my Blackberry as an after thought. I actually forgot to take a photo of my 3rd cupcake cake?? Opps. It was of a haunted house with ghosts escaping out the windows. Nothing too scary as this was for my youngest son's Kindergarten class and I didn't want to traumatize any unsuspecting kiddies. ;) Hopefully my son's teacher will take a photo and I can post it another day.

These 2 shown above, were for my 7 yr.old and 9 yr. old sons. So I figured I could go all out in the "ewwwww gross" department! Heehee. Considering cupcakes are so roley poley and present such an uneven surface, I think both design turned out pretty well. Thank goodness decaying bandages and werewolf fur are very forgiving with whatever uneven surface lies beneath.

And it was sooooo worth it to see the excitement on my kiddies faces. I know how hard it is for them to have severe food allergies and not be able to ever eat the birthday cakes, or treats at their friends parties. Halloween is especially difficult for my middle son who is severely allergic to dairy. NO chocolate(or hardly any treats for that matter) that he gets during his trick-or-treating  can be safely eaten. My 1st and 3rd sons have anaphylactic allergies to all nuts and eggs, so they can't safely eat much either. Honestly the trick-or-treating stresses me out every year. But I think I now have them well trained to wait until we go through their bags together before diving in to sample their candy. So... this is my little way of making them feel included and to make something that is perfectly safe for all food allergies kiddies to enjoy together.

 I am really lucky to have this amazing cookbook called What's to Eat? The Milk-Free, Egg-Free, Nut-Free Food Allergy Cookbook by Linda Marienhoff Coss. It has so many great recipes that have the taste and texture of everyday baking and cooking. NO hockey puck muffins here! If you know of anyone who has anaphylactic allergies to food, I highly recommend this cookbook. I've tried to many over the years, and this is by far the best!

Happy Halloween everyone!!! :)

Illustration Friday- "Racing"

The furry friends were racing back home with their acorn treats.

I created this plasticine illustration for my critique group Creative Cup  and I thought it would be fitting for this week's theme racing  for Illustration Friday. If you get a chance please pop over to my critique group's blog, as we have been posting our interpretation of cup for this month's challenge.  It is so cool to see everyone's take on the theme. Everyone has such a unique style and such talent. It really gives some great, fresh perspective and inspiration :)

My 3 boys are really into creating contraptions out of everyday stuff and pieces of wood. So far they have built a tank at their Nonno's house and I think they want to try a submarine next??. They love watching the Re-inventors on TV. It is so great to see them stretch their imagination and work together as a team to problem solve and work to build something new. Anyway, I was inspired by them, that I thought it would be fun to have a contraption in this illustration too.
So after a bunch of sketches I came up with this silly nut-collector/wagon contraption for these two furry friends. I had a lot of fun making the old, cracked teacup, sardine tin, and even the Tinkertoy wagon wheels. Did I just really date myself by mentioning Tinkertoys?? Hopefully some of you remember those awesome building pieces-ahhh memories of the cottage when I was itty-bitty...sigh :)

We have a busy week with Halloween coming up on Sunday. I volunteered to make cupcakes for my 3 boys classrooms since they all have severe food allergies, and it is just the safest way to go. So I will be up to my eyeballs in cupcakes by Friday! I have to make around 90...wish me luck! I will post some pictures of them if they turn out ok. I like to treat the tops like a cake and hope todo something eerie and gross on top-heehee. I'm hoping to make a haunted house for the S.K class, a mummy/zombie for the grade 2 class, and a werewolf for the grade 4 class.

Thanksgiving photos in Muskoka 2010

Here are a few photos I took one morning up at the cottage in Muskoka. I can't remember another time that the fog was that thick in the morning- crazy! Needless to say it was a great "kodak moment", and I am really having fun with my new Canon T2i DSLR camera. Enjoy the fall colours! And I hope everyone had a great Canadian Thanksgiving. :)



IF- Spooky

Spooky fun!

This is my submission for this weeks Illustration Friday theme "spooky". It really has me in the Halloween spirit now. :)

Luckily I am "on the ball" this year and took the kids out to get their costumes a few weeks ago. I was hoping my 3 year old daughter would want to dress up  in something pink and girly, for her first Halloween going out with Daddy and the big brothers. Well doesn't it figure that she had her heart set on being Diego(yes that Diego from Nickelodeon). I guess that is what I get for having 3 boys with major influence...sigh. No pretty princess costume in the house this year. But she'll make the prettiest Diego :)

What are your kiddies going to be for this Halloween?

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!