IF–Cultivate

Ceiling art

I just moved to a new house with textured ceilings. Here are some fun faces I spotted in the shadows the other night:

A little creepy, maybe, but at least I know I’m not alone…

IF–Immovable

The one and only time a perpetual-motion toddler is immovable is when his body collapses and he finally falls asleep.

IF–Subterranean

It’s been a while since I posted, and this isn’t terribly spectacular, but here goes.

IF–Pioneer

IF–Undone

This is Christmas with a toddler!

IF–Skinny

Too late, Horatio realized his scheduling error.

Pumpkin boy

A bit of a static, portrait sort of picture, but I wanted to play with the pencil line and watercolor some more.  I think I may have found the right medium for me, something I’m excited about.

Experimentation

I took a look at Marla Frazee and Helen Oxenbury’s books yesterday after some of the comments on my colored pencil work. I think part of my problem is the scanning (because the colors do look better in the original, even after trying to adjust in Photoshop). It’s kind of an oldish scanner. But I think part of the problem is the paper, too. I’ll have to do some research on that. The pencils are Faber-Castell, which are regular school pencils in Germany, and considerably better than the regular-grade colored pencils you get in the US. But I don’t know how they compare to professional-grade anything.

Anyway. MF uses black colored pencil to outline, and then does the colors with watercolor. So I thought I’d try it. The pencil repels the watercolor, so it doesn’t get covered up and doesn’t run. I kind of like the effect. (And this was just on the same paper I’ve been using, like printer paper but slightly glossier.)

IF–Fast

I’ve missed a couple weeks due to everyone in my house having the flu, but I’m back with “Fast.” I like the composition, but I don’t like the coloring at all. Partly it’s due to the scanning and materials–non-art-grade colored pencil on the equivalent of printer paper–but part of it is my general ignorance of atmospheric perspective and color theory. So uh, I’m open to constructive criticism here.

Babies are ALWAYS faster than their parents when it comes to getting into things!