Busy week

This week has been busy and felt very much like a roller coaster ride.  It went something like this: I spent 3 days after school working on murals with my co-advisor and students; found out the district has said we are not allowed to do anymore murals on campus; coming up with creative solutions to our mural problem; cutting mats and preparing for our school's art show next week during open house; designing and ordering bookmarks for agent's day; photographing new artwork to update my portfolio; driving the ugliest pinkish- cream colored gas guzzling rental car; found out my best friend will be coming home this weekend and we get hang out; had a fun and successful art club "Fat and Happy" day (what we call our potluck); picking up my car from the repair shop; and lastly, edited and updated my website.  Now I just need to get through Friday.  I think an IV of coffee might be necessary, or maybe just mint green tea.

Saturday is Agent's Day.  This will be the first time I attend this event. I haven't really heard a lot of positive reviews for this event in regards to illustrators.  Reading the information on the website and what has been emailed to us, it seems to be more writer oriented.  But I believe in giving things a shot.  You never know what might happen or who you might meet.  I don't really know what to expect, but after adding pieces to my portfolio, receiving my bookmarks in the mail, and fixing my website I'm actually a bit excited to attend.  I can already see a difference in my portfolio of my progress.  




I still love my pen and colored pencil work, but I enjoy the way my characters look done with watercolor pencils.  They look soft and cuddly. I love my original drawings with their black and white backgrounds and colorful characters.  I thought it was a unique style that would set me apart from other.  But the full color illustrations have begun to win me over.

Awesome kids

Yesterday and today has been really busy.  Yesterday, I spent the day sewing as many of my sock dolls as possible in preparation for the start of our Pennies for TLC.  I'm a bit excited about this year and have decided to embrace the insanity of the competition.  My students love it when I get competitive.  I become a hyper, insane, frantic, overly imaginative teacher. I still have 3 more to finish sewing the body shells, 2 to stuff, and 2 to sew eyes and mouths onto.  Hopefully, I will be able to finish them all this weekend.

Today, I spent the entire day with a mixed group of students from my art club and my friend's environmental club students.  We worked on the environmental club's garden.  I can't remember the last time I did such hard labor.  (Whoa! I just had a moment of deja vu as I typed that last sentence!)  We dug a path in the dirt to lay down a concrete rock pathway.  My body is unbelievably sore, but well worth it.  It turned out beautiful!

We still have plenty of work ahead of us, but little by little this area will become even more beautiful.  I can't wait for the students to finish the 2 murals and the garden!  It is so exciting to see its progress.

I am lucky to have the opportunity to work with such amazing kids.  They have the biggest hearts and are not afraid to work hard.  This particular group of kids have such enthusiasm for this project!  What makes this experience more wonderful is to see the pride they have to beautify their school!

I Scream Ice Cream

At some point, I think screaming would have been a great release, or chowing down on a huge sundae. Day 2 of finals and the depression of grading incomplete projects were overwhelming.  Good things about the day: my intermediate and advanced students seemed to have fun playing with the new technique I showed them, students completed and turned in work for the art competition, and art club and environmental club students worked on the mural and the garden, AND I only have to get through one final tomorrow.  This week is exhausting. Today's whirlwind had me at a loss of what to draw today, so I turned to my favorite book Creative Block: Over 500 Ideas to Ignite Your Imagination by Lou Harry.  It is a cute little fat cube with photos, questions, statements, etc.  It helps me to clear my mind enough to allow new ideas get through.  I opened it to a random page and saw an ice cream sundae and immediately this image popped into my head.   Something sweet sounds really good right now, but I should probably eat dinner first.  Hmmm...

Murals

This is not my favorite drawing and I spent more time on it than I have on the other drawings.  This is inspired by Art Club's mural we began this past week.  Even though the murals we have completed in the past have caused stress, or have had MANY bumps along the way, we have always managed to have some fun.  This time there seems to be more enthusiasm for the murals than in the past.  Perhaps this is due to the fact that this mural is for Art Club.  It is not a mural commissioned by someone else.  I hope this enthusiasm continues.  Otherwise, my co-advisor and I will be painting way more than we planned on.

Art Club inspiration

Today's illustration is inspired by the activity my Art Club will be continuing today.  Before winter break, we had that strange wind storm. In response to it, my co-advisor and I thought it would be fun to make kites with our students.  We have already begun painting designs on them, but today will be the actual construction of the kite.  To bad there isn't very much wind to test these puppies out!  But we'll definitely be ready when the winds blow our way. 

In addition to kite flying, I wanted to introduce my latest Mizzle, Sanfra. He is made from some very cool socks that I had bought on my family trip to San Francisco last June.  I've began creating him during the summer, but as usual, life got in the way.  I finished him this morning and couldn't wait to draw him.