sketches

Darwins for Sale

character sketches, children's illustration, darwin, mud pup, sketches, watercolor

I’m so excited to announce some sales of my work coming up! Look for a second post about my fine art sales happening this weekend, and next weekend (May 3rd) my Darwin plushes and cards will be selling at the Mass Art Spring Sale! I am so excited my work was picked for the sale.

I’m creating a Darwin “Look Book”, a short introduction for those who don’t know this pup, to sell with the plush toys. These are some of the images I created for the book:

 

Let me know in the comments if you have favorites!!

Going to the Gardner Museum

freelance, happiness, inspiration, sketches, watercolor

Going to the Gardner Museum

You are not allowed to take pictures at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. I oh so loved the beautiful courtyard, which was decorated for Spring, and though how lovely it would be to come back sometime with my sketchbook and paints. I don’t know if I’ll be allowed to paint in there, but I wish I could. Anyways, this is how I felt when I was there. It’s one of the most magical places in Boston.

Darwin Romps

darwin, inspiration, mud pup, sketches, watercolor

I am doing a MAJOR update on my website, where my blog post images are the highlight of the front page of my website. This will keep you up to date on the latest things I am making, whether it is painting, drawing, knitting, collage, or moments from teaching.

I realized though that this wonderful sketch of Darwin, created in November 2013, has yet to grace the internets. Here he is!

Darwin Romps

Vote for Bo! Just go vote!

autumn, character sketches, darwin, happiness, inspiration, kidslit, mud pup, sketches, watercolor

Today is Election Day. Which means please PLEASE PLEASE go vote! Don’t know who to vote for? Well, there’s always Bo. Trust me, when the results start pouring in, and nerves are high, you may wanna switch over to Cute Animals on Animal Planet later tonight. (Or now, via this live cam of cute kittens).

Here are Darwin and Emma to help inspire:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Darwin and Sandy

autumn, character sketches, darwin, inspiration, kidslit, mud pup, sketches, watercolor

So Hurricane Sandy update – 1 week later …..

I did NOT lose power. No drama, no tragedies here for me in Brookline. In fact, we had such a low percentage of power outages. The same does not go true for my family in Long Island, and for them I feel terrible, and wish that the power comes back as soon as possible.

Since I did not go to work in the office, I had some downtime to reconnect with Darwin a little bit. I had quite a good time putting him in some raincoats and the like. Here are the results:

Halloween with Darwin and Emma

autumn, character sketches, children's illustration, collage, darwin, mud pup, pumpkins for pippa, sketches, watercolor

It’s October, and Fall is my favorite holiday to paint. This Halloween is dedicated to Darwin and Emma. Here they are in a few quick sketches I’ve done in between other projects:

Doodle Series is Back

character sketches, children's illustration, collage, kidslit, sketches

Especially towards the end of my senior year, one of my favorite past-times became illustrating me and my friends. Cartoons – no. Caricatures – don’t think so. I started calling them ‘Doodles’ when I created them for the team at Pinwheel Books and ever since I’ve been illustrating me and the people in my life. Why I haven’t yet done my parents, I don’t know. But most recently I decided to give my friends in Boston here a try:

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From left to right: Lilia, Me, Carmen, and Sonia. It may or may not be finished – I may add a few details here and there, some shiny things, but overall it was a great experience in drawing my friends and getting that likeness for people down.

A few weeks ago I did this one for Pinwheel of our next writer/illustrator Tim:

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I think this is one of the first men I’ve ever drawn with such ease.

Who should I draw next? I’m taking suggestions. And as per suggestion by my boss, you can even pay me to illustrate whatever you want via an etsy site in construction!

A Sketch of my Nona

character sketches, children's illustration, grandmas are both italian, happiness, inspiration, italy, kidslit, sketches

I recently came across a really old sketch I had done in preparation for working on some images for my story “My Grandmas are Both Italian”.

This is an image of my Nona – Anita – mixing a bowl of food in the kitchen. She is always cooking us something great, while wearing her famous blue apron. Even though she doesn’t move about the kitchen as fast as she used to, she still has a grin on her face when she’s putting together a meal. There is so much love in her food, and so much love and light in her. She is the epitome of happiness, and I hope one day I can find that sort of contentment in my life.

Her tiramisu and gnocchi are her signature dishes.

This sketch is really light, so I had to play with it in Photoshop a little:

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Nostalgia

incredible eggs, sketches, Thoughts from the Artist

Last night, I had the pleasure of going to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, to see the final night of their performance of  Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, and it made me so nostalgic for my former days playing violin.

Before the main piece, the strings, wind instruments, and brass put on smaller acts without a conductor. Seeing the violinists play (and playing standing up!) made me remember how exciting and fulfilling it was to play a rift, to sway the bow back and forth, the vibrato, etc..

I’ve been feeling a pull to go back to my roots a bit more, play with imagery of roots that may not necessarily be kids lit related, but still a therapeutic exercise nonetheless.

This morning though, I came across some very nostalgic sketches from my Incredible Eggs  cookbook project during my senior year at RISD. This is a project I would love to revisit and redesign, I mean, just take a look at these adorable little egg nuggets!