Trick or Treat!

All week I have been trying to make something for IF's new topic - Trick or Treat. Alas, it just wasn't meant to be. Between work and outside projects and Halloween planning and celebrations I have not had time to paint anything new. However, we did have a Halloween party tonight at work, complete with a pumpkin carving contest. While my pumpkin didn't win anything, I think it will work fine as my entry for Illustration Friday this week. This little green pumpkin decided to trick or treat as Medusa this year - a costume that works well with its complexion:) Maybe I'll post another small painting before Friday, but in the meantime....

Happy Halloween!

Ofcourse I painted another mermaid

What else would I paint? Actually, I painted this little lady over the weekend for an upcoming gallery show in LA. (More details on the show to come later...) Since I had already decided to enter one of my previous mermaid paintings in the show, I thought it would be appropriate to go all out mermaids for this one. This piece was painted with watercolors and acrylics on watercolor block. I'm not exactly sure where the inspiration came from - I was looking at a lot of portrait images over the weekend. Anyhow, Enjoy!

Update:
At the time of this post I didn't want to give away my Halloween costume. No, I wasn't a geisha-mermaid, but I was a geisha. That means this counts as a "Trick or Treat" illustration, right? Certainly this mermaid could be dressed up for some trick or treating. Why not? Anyhow, I hope all of you IFers enjoy this one. TTFN!

Extremely Good Cause

Another stretch for Illustration Friday, I know. My friend Bill and I have been working on several pieces each for the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society's 2nd Annual "Purrr-casso" Art Sale and Gala, and I FINALLY finished mine. The only stipulation was that the art needed to be cat themed, so this is what I came up with. The proceeds from the show will benefit the animal shelter, which runs on donations alone. I love having the excuse to make art for a good cause....makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Anyway, if you live in the Bay Area and like what you see, come to the show on Sunday, Nov. 4th. You can read more about it here. Hope to see you there!

Have a great weekend!

Wedding

I'm back after a very busy, exhausting, and ultimately fun month. When you only go home to visit once in a year, there are a lot of things to do and people to see in a very short amount of time!I was actually only gone for two weeks, but I needed another two weeks to recover after the trip. Plus I have been sick for the last week, so hopefully I may be excused for my lack of posts...

I actually have some other projects a-brewin' that would better suit this week's Illustration Friday topic of "Wedding" but none of them are finished....or have even been started for that matter. If I'm feeling especially ambitious, I might try to get one done and posted before Friday. I might.

This is actually a piece that I was hired to do as a birthday present. The recipient is from Virginia (but living in California) and misses the turning of the leaves that you don't see as much here as on the East Coast. I can relate to that - fall is beautiful in Pennsylvania. I thought it would be appropriate for the "Wedding" topic because of the couple in the image. That, as well as the fact that I am going home in a few weeks for an autumn-themed wedding. The oranges in this painting are the colors for that wedding, so it all fits....sort of. Anyhow, enjoy!

Have a great Monday!

Emergency!

One of my very favorite movies is M. Night Shyamalan's Signs. It still scares me every time I watch it. Since this week's Illustration Friday topic is "Emergency", I decided that an absolutely frightening situation would be appropriate. The alien invasion just slightly beat out my nightmare of being chased by velociraptors (which I have had repeatedly since I was about nine years old.) I used the house from Signs and even put Bo on the swingset. She doesn't even see the aliens attacking!

Busy, busy week, but I'm finally going home tomorrow! Hopefully I will be able to post fun things from PA.

Have a great Thursday!

Mom

This is the second in a series of paintings I'm working on for my mom. Originally, these were going to be for her birthday/mother's day (which are two weeks apart), but I decided to take my time and deliver them in installments. Here she is on her porch with her dog, where you can find her on most summer mornings...

There was absolutely no way that I could work this into the Illustration Friday topic of "Emergency", so maybe I will do something quick for that and try to get it up within the next couple of days. I'm going home for a couple weeks on Friday (hooray!) so hopefully that means I will have a lot more time to draw and doodle and make pretty things to post. Or I could be lazy and do nothing. I'll try to find a happy medium somewhere.

Happy Monday Everyone!

Moon

Yes, I am one of the many Harry Potter fans out there. After reading the final book last week, I decided that I really wanted to paint something in honor of the series. I decided that I would couple that with this week's Illustration Friday topic (Moon) and this is what I came up with. Enjoy!

Happy Wednesday Everybody!

Mermaids and Poems!

For the last couple of weeks, I have been working on this painting for my friend, Meg. She requested a mermaid painting back in March, and I've just now gotten around to it. The mermaids are playing hide and seek, and I have a sneaking suspicion that one of those little fish is going to give the mermaid in the foreground away - I just know it. I may tweak a little more here and there, but I think its mostly finished... I think...

Anyway, in order to make it fit into this week's Illustration Friday, I found a poem to go along with it:

Mermaid

by Walter de la Mare

Leagues, leagues over the sea I sail
Couched on a wallowing dolphin's tail.

The sky is on fire, the waves a-sheen,
I dabble my foot in the billows green.

In a sea-weed hat on the rocks I sit,
where tern and sea-mew glide and beat,
and where dark shadows the cormorants meet.

In caverns cool when the tide's a wash,
I sound my conch to the watery splash.

From out their grottos at evenings beam,
the mermaids swim with locks agleam.

Happy Friday!

Twist!

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "twist", and it just so happens that I also started taking yoga for the first time ever this week. Yoga makes for a perfect "twist" illustration topic. Part of this illustration is inspired by real-life, and part of it is inspired by the current book that I am reading called "Eat, Pray, Love". Its a really lovely book and I highly recommend it. Anyway, I will have lots of other things to post in the near future, but I better get this one up before midnight or else I'm gonna miss my deadline!

Surf's Up is Amazing.

At this point I highly doubt that there is anyone reading my blog, but if there is anyone who does stop by please go see Surf's Up in the theater. You won't be disappointed.
Most of my friends went to see a sneak preview of Ratatouille last weekend and absolutely loved it. I missed that screening, so I cannot possibly compare the two, nor can I tell you which one to see if you are only going to see one or the other. My suggestion would be to go see both because that is certainly what I am going to do. What I can say, however, is that Surf's Up is definitely the best movie I have seen so far this year (followed closely by a film called "Once") and that it is a complete delight from beginning to end. Does anyone remember heart in animated films? I do, vaguely. I thought it bordered on extinction after "Lilo and Stitch", with the yearly Pixar film being the rare exception. But Sony's got it! They really do! Not to mention the beautiful animation, art direction, and stellar voice acting. Please don't miss this gem in the middle of all of the summer blockbusters that, I promise you, will not be half as entertaining.