Watercolor Paintings, Illustration, Inspiration and Creativity

the skinny on the fate of ftg

So here's what I've been doing: blogger's decided that they will no longer support FTP publishing, which is how I've done this blog for almost the past 9 years. So.... instead of painting? I'm coding, just to try to get the blog to stay mostly the same for now, because what I don't have time for right now is a site-wide redesign. And the address of the site has to change as well - so the blog will now be at blog.frenchtoastgirl.com, and it has to happen by May 1.

Sigh.

Labels: drawing, illustration friday, site news

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illustration friday: Dip

My son loves food, my daughters love amigurumi, and we all love to eat. What started out as a doodle turned into a coloring page. I can honestly say that not all kids eat all of these foods, but I would say they eat all but 3 (different for each kid... Peter's not fond of beets, Sophie doesn't do tomatoes, Angela won't touch mushrooms). And of course, all of them work well with (or in) dip in one form or another!

There is a precedent for faces on fruit at our house.... remember this?

That pear still cracks me up.

Labels: drawing, food, illustration friday, kids

french toast girl

now with a side order of cute

Allow me to present Sophie's lunch! This proved to be such a hit at school yesterday that she has requested the same lunch for the next two days as well. Some of the girls at her table didn't want her to eat it because it was too cute! I forgot to show her little bottle of water... My goal is for her to have healthy lunches, but if we can get in an extra helping of cute then so much the better. It's amazing what a few strokes of pencil or a fun shape of food can do to make lunches more appealing. :)

Labels: creativity, diversions, drawing, family, food, kids, watercolour

french toast girl

painting for haiti relief (part one)

With everyone else in the world, I'm struck by the news from Haiti and the desperate desire to be able to do something, however small, to help. In the past, I've auctioned two new paintings for charity and donated all of the proceeds to help those in need. It's time to get out my trusty paintbrush again.

Here are three sketches - I know I want to paint something calm and peaceful, and to me trees show strength, safety, and stability. Right now I'm leaning towards sketch #2 but I figured I'd show a little bit of the creative process too.

Anyone else have a preference one way or the other?

Labels: art, drawing, nature, painting

french toast girl

christmas present work in progress: lightning

Beginning of Peter's present. Very rough drawing, but it'll come to life once I can start splashing that paint around.

Labels: drawing, kids

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Now at your library: lots of fairies, coffee, and glitter.

Oh hi. I didn't notice you there, I was so busy reading this book about Cezanne and sitting under MY PAINTINGS!!!

It's been quite an exciting day! I will post more photos soon, (and larger) but in the meantime, can you recognize any paintings that are up there? Every one of them has been on this site.

Meanwhile, if you're in the area: Westfield Memorial Library.

Labels: coffee, drawing, every day in May, fairies, illustration, nature, painting, watercolour

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christmas present work in progress: Samus + Cindy

Wow, a month of posting every day went by pretty fast! I'm going to keep posting as much as I can, hopefully still every day.

Stick with me?

Labels: drawing, NaBloPoMo, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

christmas present work in progress: Samus

A painting of Samus from the video game Metroid for my oldest godson, Joey. Darn that body armor is complicated! I remember what a big deal it was in the original game to find out at the end that Samus - the character who had been kicking butt and defeating baddies - takes off her helmet and is revealed to be a woman.

So that's how I'm starting my holiday paintings... of a princess and a bounty hunter. Could it get any different than that?

Labels: drawing, NaBloPoMo

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christmas present work in progress: cindy

Last year I didn't post anything I was working on for Christmas, but you know what, the recipients of these presents don't use the internet! So I think we're okay on the whole surprise thing.

Sketched in and waiting to get taped and painted: Cindy and some dancing mice.

Labels: drawing, illustration, NaBloPoMo

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what I wore

Yesterday's outfit. Some accessories not pictured: halo, superhero cape, jet pack.

Labels: drawing, motherhood, NaBloPoMo, watercolour

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napkin/art

Doodled while playing with the kids. Some faces from a "Famous Composers" workbook, because naturally, my kids know their Bach from their Beethoven and their Grieg from their Gershwin. I can't recall exactly, but I am pretty sure that lower right was Beethoven, I think bottom left is Clara Schumann, and big head guy in the middle might be Bach. All those wigs start to look the same after a while.

Labels: art, diversions, drawing, inspirations, kids, NaBloPoMo

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prioritizing

On my calendar for today, courtesy of Angela. I love the motion to it, she's actively handing me a heart. And I'm especially proud of the way all the letters go the right way and none of them are upside down or backwards; something I've been worried about lately with her. Luckily, her teacher is not concerned because they haven't learned to write all the letters in class yet and apparently that's quite common among 5-year-olds. (If she's still making letters backwards at the end of the school year, then we can worry about it.)

Every time I look at my little datebook today I will be reminded of what to do today, first and foremost: spread some love.

Labels: drawing, family, kids, motherhood, NaBloPoMo

french toast girl

Illustration Friday: Skinny

A doodle for i-Fri's theme of the week, "Skinny." It's been a long time since I've had time - no, made time - to participate. It's good to stretch my brain and make something just because.

Labels: drawing, illustration friday, NaBloPoMo

french toast girl

every day in may: thirty-one

What we did this weekend...

Labels: drawing, every day in May, faith, family, kids, motherhood

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every day in may: fifteen

Tomorrow, we paint! But first Peter's arm gets redrawn so he's not about to backhand Wendy.

Labels: drawing, every day in May

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every day in may: fourteen

Remember all those special paintings-by-request I did for Christmas presents? Well, believe it or not, I still have two to go (and very forgiving and patient friends who are content to wait for an original painting). This one is for a 3-year-old who asked for, you got it, Peter Pan, Wendy, and Tinkerbell.

I got up super-early this morning to draw because I knew my evening would be full - Paul's high school students came over for a coffeehouse/party tonight, and the house was filled with music and creativity and lots of laughter. Just the way we like it.

Labels: art, drawing, every day in May

french toast girl

Are you a wasteroon?

I had to share this lovely picture of the scariest, angriest, don't-mess-with-me drop of water ever. Angela would like to make it clear that you really shouldn't waste water. EVER. When I asked her if that little red circle in the middle was its tongue, she looked up from her drawing to say, "No, that's a lung," and went right on coloring. Now that's passion for ecology!

(Inspired by this gem. )

Labels: drawing, family, kids, NaBloPoMo

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Magic frame

You know what, I had a thoughtful post about voting, but as I already sort of wrote about it here, watch this instead while you're waiting for all the election results to come in! This is a hilarious take on what has to be hands down, my absolute favorite 80's song and video... tell me you never wished this could actually happen to you!

ps ~ By the way, we now call doorways at my house "magic frames".

Labels: creativity, diversions, drawing, NaBloPoMo

french toast girl

doodling fool

Labels: drawing

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The secret

Hanging above my drafting table right now. Yes, yes, yes. Read the rest of the interview here and please dive in deep to The Principles of Uncertainty (the archives are now all free, so what are you waiting for?)

Labels: drawing, inspirations

french toast girl

Drawing Day

For those of you who are seeing the end of Every Day In May approaching, and say, "Darn! I want to draw and share some more!" - well, my friends, this is for you.

One day a year, the world stops to remember that joy we had when we first picked up a pencil and created our first piece of art - that's what Drawing Day is all about. The goal for Drawing Day is simple - to create enough drawings to make some noise worldwide for the sake of art. 2008 is the first year of this initiative. Our goal is definitely a long-shot, but we're aiming for 1 million drawings worldwide. We have no precise measure to know if we reach this goal. If we come close we will all definitely know. Even if we reach 10% of our goal in the first year of this initiative, it will be a great achievement but we will continue aiming for the magic million.

I'm drawing. Are you with me?

♥ I have been so thrilled with everyone's work for this year's Every Day In May - from the simple sketch to incredibly complex paintings, they all are gorgeous, and worthy. Kudos to all who are putting out more art (and more good!) into the world.

Labels: drawing, every day in May

french toast girl

drawer

(straight from my morning pages)

...I am a draw-er.

And I can be a messy drawer, or an empty drawer, or an open drawer - Usually I am an open, messy drawer, but I know where everything is even if nobody else does. And everyone else can see in it - I'm not hiding anything. Do I want a "perfect" drawer? No, and around me they don't stay that way for long. I just would like the drawer not to be slammed shut and stuck, with me standing in front of it, blocking it and pretending all is well.

Here's to open drawers.

Labels: drawing, painting

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opening

Work in progress.

Labels: drawing, illustration

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Rings

Labels: coffee, drawing, nature, painting

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masque

Same tea wash as this lovely fairy (because Paul drank all the coffee!). I think she's attending the same ball as this lady.

Labels: coffee, drawing, watercolour

french toast girl

feathers and swirls

The wonderful husband has fixed the computer! Scanner's hooked up (see?), email's on the way ... testing for prints not far behind.

I've been spending my creative time at night drawing anything that comes to mind, and then painting whenever and wherever I can. These new paintings aren't supposed to be perfect, far from it. Anything that strikes my fancy gets drawn. I'm not obsessing over details, slavishly researching images (which I couldn't do once my studio's computer was down anyway), or waiting for the perfect moment. My only rules are that I try to draw or paint something every night, and that if something inspires me, no matter how small a detail, I have to give into it and let myself paint it somehow.

This mostly happens with the kids in the afternoon; I can either put down a layer of coffee and let it dry in time to paint details at night, or the coffee wash has already dried and I can have an all-out painting session with the kiddos. (When you let go of perfectionism, you can work on paintings with three preschoolers around you, on your dining room table.)

The absolute best thing is the watercolours I found for the kids that actually have GLITTER in them. Of course, we have been doing lots more painting lately so I can crack into their supply of glittery watercolours. The scan doesn't even begin to do it shimmery justice.

A detail - you can see the glitter in the headband, and the gloves and some of the feathers are sparkly as well.

Lots more to come. ♥

Labels: art, drawing, site news

french toast girl

magnets

Last post about art for sale! :) $3 each, $.50 for s&h. Business-card sized, they look loverly on a fridge.

Labels: art, drawing, fairies

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I paint on bark

When I go on my morning walks, sometimes some bit of nature calls out to me - a handful of acorns, a smooth rock for my pocket, or the blank canvas of a piece of bark.

Labels: art, drawing, nature

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Practicing

I set myself a challenge one night to fill up my page with faces from the O magazine next to me. The first ones I did looked forced and had way too much detail. I've been studying up on one of my favorite illustrators of all time, Trina Schart Hyman (go look her up at the library, you will fall in love too) and noticed that though her pictures are detailed, she does much of it with color and not with lines (at least not in her faces). I finished the page and went back and reworked the heads I didn't like and simplified the heck out of them. Next step: watercolour!

Labels: art, drawing

french toast girl

ART, iNSPiRATiON, AND WHY LiFE iS LiKE FRENCH TOAST.