Leap! Illustration Friday.

This poor bunny had such high hopes of jumping all the way to the moon. Unfortunately, he only jumped up TO it, not OVER it! Poor thing, but at least he's ambitious. It' good to take leaps. Some are successful and some, not so much. Either way you learn something from the very act itself. Anyway, here's my submission, titled "Ambitious Bunny."

Stealthy little Sculpture!

Well I've been wanting to make some dimensional art for a while now. I finally got around to it and made this metal sculpture. It's based on one of my illustrations. There are several things that I don't like about this one so I'll redo it and if that version turns out then I may make it available in my shop. It features my little soul boy in pajamas riding a paper airplane to the moon! Whimsical and fun!

Hey There Little Bird

Mr. Blue Bird came for a visit today!

He twittered about and wanted to play.

We sang, skipped, and skittered all day,

Then with a twitch and a tweet he flew away.

I just love little birdies! As always available in my Etsy Shop: GumballGrenade. On a side note my cat is currently devouring a flax seed organic waffle that was tossed on the floor by the little one. I had no idea cats liked waffles (w/o syrup). Weird and funny.

Happy V Day! Dirty Pretty Things and Me!

First I have to send out hugs and kisses to everyone! Happy Valentines Day! In the spirit of Valentine's Day I've decided to post my latest set of three prints featuring this little whimsical couple of souls. I've been working hard on getting my inventory up for my new etsy shop. So I haven't posted as much as I should! More importantly I owe a very belated THANKS to a sweetie, known as RavenX , on her lovely blog: Dirty Pretty Things. She features some truly wonderful and amazing artists, so I was quite flattered to be interviewed and blushing all the way! Swing on by her blog and look at how delicious and lovely it is! Also, be sure to check out her and her husband's (Mikiep) wonderful ETSY shops for amazing graphic and mixed media art. Here are a couple of my favorites from their shops:

I love the glow in his illustrations! And look at ther little sewing machine! Perfect! Plus he has prints of my idol of all time Wonder Woman (psst, don't tell but I even have the Wonder Woman Barbie! tee hee hee!). So devilishly sweet I can't stand it! I just love them! Click on any of the above photo's to visit these wonderful ETSY shops!

Oh and one last thing while I'm on the topic of love. I just recently watched Once and thought that it captured the complexity of love and complicated situations and all things that make life worth living. If your in the mood for a love oriented indie film you should watch it, but it did break my heart a little.

80's Music!

I can't believe I even thought to look this up to share with you all. But this was the very first tape I ever owned in my life! I stumbled on some of their old videos on You Tube. An excellent example of 80's fashion. lol


Love it!


Normally I don’t blog this much in one night but sometimes the mind just wanders….So I just so very recently saw my cousin whom I haven’t seen in years!). One of my formative memories of childhood was one in which I was going on a vacation / camping trip with my cousin and her family. I couldn't have been more that 10 years old and she was maybe 14. I remember idolizing her for every little thing. Now please note this was in the 80’s. Anyway, she had blonde hair with colored streaks of bright blue and pink! Remember those streaks, they came in what looked like mascara tubes but they were color that you could just smear on your hair and wash out easily. Anyway looking back I absolutely have to thank her for for introducing me to lovely colored 80’s hair and the band Fuzzbox.

Illustration Friday, Choose

I’m not sure if most artists already have a final piece that they are able to post for IF or if they create it as soon as they know the topic. I know I’ve done both and there are advantages to both ways. For this weeks topic c, I didn't really have anything that fit. So I sketched out a couple of ideas. The first one, “Which Dress?”, seemed to be a fairly obvious and perhaps cliché depiction, but I couldn’t help myself. It’s a classic theme!

I swear on my life that little children sometimes get up super early and get dressed before anyone is aware! I know I did and still do! The color scheme definitely needs some work but I just love the idea of it. Making the choice of good/bad, nice/naughty, sweet/mischievous, rule follower/rebel. I won’t say which side she will choose. You decide for yourself!

This second painting is a work in progress. In the end I’d like it to be a 3 dimensional art piece/paper sculpture of some kind. Although I like the way it turned out as is, I just have this vision of a 3-D piece and am exploring how to make it a dimensional piece. I’ve sculpted some pieces in paper clay, but never done any “paper engineering or sculpture with a flat piece of paper.” It’s a bit intimidating but my interest is always piqued by a challenge. So my starting point on this project is simply to draw/paint it out. I am just always most comfortable when I give it the watercolor test, even when I know the end result will be digital or other. Anyway, a title….hmmm… well it depicts two very close souls selecting their perfect wishing star. You know you have to choose the right one for the wish to come true, so we’ll keep it simple and for now title it “The Wishing Star.” In the end I have to select "The Wishing Star" as my submisison.

My first set of three!

I've been wanting to get a set of three matching illustrations up and ready to go on my shop for sometime. 3, 5, and 7 those are the numbers for design from what I've heard. So I figured I better get on board! Anyway, these little cuties are perfect for adorning a little girls bedroom, nursery, or bathroom. I do have some that still need to be colored for the boys. They'll probably be a black, white, and red color scheme. It is a color scheme I love dearly but do not integrate into my work nearly enough! So here we go oh and take a peek at some of the other sets of three from wonderful artists that I simply adore. All available on Etsy of course!

Some other 3's that I love:

This first is a print called "And Then There Were Three" by AshleyG

And "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil," print by Gorjuss

"Blanket War" Illustration Friday!

Finding time for this one was by far my biggest challenge. However, I love the final result. I always like to read about he process of artists. So I guess I'll share mine on this one:

First, let me say that making the bed is not an easy task in my house. Anytime I shuffle blankets around I end up in a bit of a play fight with not one, but both of my cats. They love to scurry around underneath the sheets and chase after wrinkles as I'm stretching the sheet over the matress and straightening things out. It's both cute and annoying at the same time. Anyway, I think it's funny how you can be doing something as mundane as making your bed and pop and idea comes to mind. Well my mind had been sifting out the IF suggestion of "Blanket" over the weekend and suddenly the image of a girl having a dipute over a blanket with her cat popped into my mind. Typically, when and idea comes to mind, I try to sketch the idea out as soon as possible. Then I'll usually shade and paint using watercolors and pencil. Next I scan and sometimes revise teh sketch a bit more. When I'm happy with the sketch I'll digitally color it using photoshop. You can see from the photos below that the idea took a bit of working over. didn't like the shape of the blanket it the first version and the cat looked off to me.

You can see from the photos below that I had a couple of ideas brewing. One was a story from my childhood, which I may finish in the future. I worked on it a titch. It involved my childhood cat, Butterscotch, jumping onto my bed. It was a typical event, but on this particular night I had just watched Alien (at far too young an age I might add). So I huddled under my covers in fear of what was lurking about on my bed. When I finally peeked out all I could see was a silhouette that looked like the alien rising from Sourney Weavers belly! So I took my hand bravely and pushed the creature away. Only then did I realize it was my Butterscotch just paying me a nightly visit. lol. One day I'll finish out that one, but in the end a version of the "Blanket War" won out. Hope you enjoy! Finished print is available in my etsy shop: GumballGrenade

Never Enough!

A lovely song, but also so true! Things have been so busy. I have what feels like a ton of sketches to get colored and posted and one of a boy on the back of an owl that I want to paint as a watercolor, I may make a digital version as well, but I'm not sure yet. Anyway, this week is get my stuff together week as I'm taking my prints to their first art and craft show. I finally discovered a place to buy table cloths and chair covers at a very decent price. Plus you get free shipping on orders over $25. I was astonished that I could actually get a craft show table cloth for under $25. Anyway I found it online at LinenTableCloth.com. It came today in the mail and I was so pleased as it only took two days to get here and the quality of product is fantastic! Then I also received my clear bags and backing board for the packaging of my prints. So aside from getting all of my products together and getting more listings up on my shop, I think I'm running on schedule.