After my own heart . . .

A girl "after my own heart" . . . have you ever heard this expression?  Meaning a kindred spirit, someone who likes what you like, originally used in the Bible when God was looking for a king, someone to rule like He himself would.  Well, one of my grands is shaping up to be a girl after my own heart!  She is Bella Jo, she is nearly 5 years old (in September) and she is taking up painting and art!  She used to draw a picture, wad it all up in a cute ball, and reach her hand out to you with the ball in it and say:  "Here I made you a present!"  I think that she is beyond that stage now!

Bella's mischief look!

 Shes says that she wants to be a painter/designer!  Here is the picture she was working from and her finished work in the bottom picture:

Feels good to know that your artful heart will have a legacy down in the generations!  Yay! Go Bella!

Thought scape???

I’m working on some particularly difficult illustration ideas today.   One is for the ‘Scary Stairs’ page. With today’s exercise, I remember, now, why I left this project for so long.  I was not confident that I could complete the required illustrations. As I remember, I had not been pleased with a couple of the prototypes and how they were turning out. I had finished most of the ideas on a story board and actually completed the art for five of them in their finished watercolor form. Where I ran into a creative snag was on the more imaginary pieces.  It’s one thing to recreate an actual scene, but another to artistically record an imagined thought or dream.    I had been stumped. 

Three ideas for the Scary Stairs page

So today’s images are of the process from my first ideas of this page and on to the finished idea for it.  The final watercolor is not done.  I will try to give you a preview later on.  For now, you’ll get the idea of the process . . . . 



Sketch, trial wash, and prototype sample



Final sketch with Frisket to preserve white spaces



This last picture was kinda fun, since the window light was shinning off the wash.  Just added it for fun! Not showing the final painting--wait for the book!

What are you up to lately?



Mine and His

Photo Challenge Day 13: Art



Mine hanging in my entry hall



Grandsons' self portrait

Participaing in a June photo challenge hosted by Chantelle of FatMumSlim. Prompts are given for each day and participants  do a photograph to post to any of  several possible places.  I have chosen to post to this blog.  You can check out other participant's photos either on her blog or on twitter at #photoadayjune on Twitter.