Once a year the eyes of the nation turn to this tiny hamlet in western Pennsylvania, to watch a master at work. The master, Punxsutawney Phil, the world’s most famous weatherman, the groundhog. Who, as legend has it, can predict the coming of an early spring. So I guess the question we have to ask ourselves today is, does Phil feel lucky? ~Ground Hog Day
….twinkly, sprinkly, twirly, whirly….
“I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.” ~ Rosalia de Castro
What’s in a name sighed Magnificent Max…
As he gathered his props and started to pack.
The bunnies revolted, the birds flew away.
Not a whole lot of magic had happened that day.
But descending the ladder as he caught the last bird
“He must be a wizard!…” magic Max overheard.
His dreams of illusion had not slipped away,
To the kids he was magic, that magnificent day!
By
Roberta Baird
“Failure is natures plan to prepare you for great responsibilities.” ~Napolean Hill
With the 2012 Tomie Depaola Award ready to be announced on Monday, January 9, 2012, I thought you might like to take a look at a good share of the Unofficial Gallery of the Tomie dePaola Award entries. This was put together by Diandra Mae a contributing artist and fellow Texan! You’ll be delighted at the different interpretations of P.C. Asbjörnsen’s story, Chicken Licken. Check it out!
Unofficial Gallery of the Tomie dePaola Award
“You talkin’ to me…
You talkin’ to me?
Then who else are you talkin to? ”
When Preston Waddlebottom’s flight was canceled, he took it quite personal. It seems he’s suffering from flightless bird syndrome.
Would you like to fly in my beautiful balloon?
A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other. ~Author Unknown
Often I’m asked, “What medium do you use?”
While I used to use watercolor and colored pencil as my medium… I started painting digitally about four years ago. I try to make my digital work have the same organic feel of traditional mediums.
It starts with a pencil drawing, sometimes very sketchy, that I take into Photoshop and clean up a bit. Often I paint over or eliminate the lines altogether, but If I’m going to leave the line work, I’ll ink them first and clean them up digitally.
After I’ve separated the layers, I usually always work over a layer that had been under painted with a darker color. This gives the illustration a luminous quality and helps define the natural contours and highlights. Here, I want them on a white background so that I can paste them into a another illustration later.
Next I paint in the details on a separate layer with a brush that has a texture added to it. This allows some of the under painting to show through and gives the illustration a pastel feel. I always turn the opacity and flow down to about 40. Then I go back and add more details and highlights on another layer. Clean it up and it’s done. This is a very brief explanation I know, but I’ve learned and continue to learn by playing with my medium and making mistakes….. only now I get to push undo! Ctrl+Alt+Z… Ctrl+Alt+Z…Ctrl+Alt+Z
