I wanted to create a musical alphabet for Elinoah’s playroom and I was pretty happy with what I came up with. I used Staedtler Lumograph Drawing and Sketching Pencils, micron pens, and inktense pencils with a water wash on 6×4″ matboard.
I would like to run these through photoshop/illustrator and maybe pitch them as alphabet flash cards, an alphabet book, or maybe a fun pattern for something else?
I am working with Inktense pencils, Prismacolor and Micron ink pens, and Canson Illustration 11×14″ 150lb art pad to create 15 illustrations (that is how many pieces of paper are in the art pad) of my current family life and inspirations.
This work is narrative in content and uses color in a monochromatic way accentuating one part of each drawing. These fun and quirky illustrations are a reflection of the current joy I have been experiencing with my family and friend life situation.
In “Sunday Morning at St. Andrews,” our little family is standing while the Gospel according to St. Matthew is being read – in which we all respond “Glory to you Lord, Christ.” We have recently moved to Springfield, MO for M’s job and I am really missing our church St. Andrews, so this piece is especially sentimental.
I wanted to match the actual color of the main wall in the church, so I blended Carmine Pink and Tangerine Inktense pencils to get that orange color. All in all I was happy with the composition and patterns in this illustration.
Some of the things I enjoy the most about this drawing are our little family portrait,
the Gospel reading, 
and the backs of the other people’s hair and patterned clothes.
The inspiration for this drawing:
This series is called 15 illustrations because that’s how many pages is in my awesome art pad gift – a Canson 11×14″ Illustration art pad 150lb. I am using a blend of inktense pencils and micron ink pens size .005, .01, .03, .05, .07, and .08. This series is inspired by my family and all of the fun and interesting things we do together.
“Walking at Two Rivers” is pretty self explanatory. The Two Rivers Park Bridge is in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is a pedestrian and bike bridge connected to Two Rivers Park. It is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The bridge is 1,368 feet long. It opened to the public July 23, 2011. We moved to Little Rock November 2008, so when this park opened a couple of years later, we were pretty happy to have a great place like this to walk. My favorite part of this trail is going through a forest of large trees. I used a blend of inktense pencils leaf green and teal green for the forest.
My favorite parts of this drawing are the trees and leaves,
the baby in the stroller, striped pants, and M’s face.
Although the path is asphalt, I really wanted to make it a rock path.
My inspirations for this drawing!
I received some art supplies at Christmas this year – a Canson 11×14″ Illustration art pad 150lb with 15 sheets – and a set of prismacolor ink pens size .005, .01, .03, .05, and .08. This series is inspired by my family and all of the fun and interesting things we do together.
“Family Time” portrays a family get together in a big bed (the family dog being beside and not on the bed) with an inktense pencil sun yellow patterned wall in the background. I thought it would be fun to add one color (monochrome element) to this series using a different color for each piece. The coolest thing about this series is that I can work as little as 15 minutes a day and see quite a bit of progress. I mostly work on these while E.K. sleeps.
Some details I like about this piece: the yellow patterned wall in the background and the patterned blanket
Striped socks and striped sweater
patterned shirt and baby onesie and the dog’s pig nose
It all started when…
Emily Wood Facebook messaged me – “Interested in donating to the UALR 6×6 event?” – or something like that.
All pieces entered are 6×6 inches – hence the “6×6” title. I decided that prints would be the best way to go, so I tore some paper and mixed some ink (pewter, red, and white). I did test prints first to make sure the cropped images were strong compositions.
This was a happy accident from rolling out the red ink.
Once everything was printed, I stopped by Hobby Lobby on the way home from work the next day and got the pieces matted – which felt like a complete rip off at $5 per mat! They didn’t even let me keep the matboard scraps they cut from. Yikes was I mad about that.
“The Dancer”
“The Lady and the Musician”
“Dinner Guests” (which is its actual size)
I put the Paper Opera stamp on the back and signed the print.
M and I went to the UALR 6×6 event and had a nice time! It was a silent auction – where all of the pieces are placed on the tables and people walk around and bid on them.
I was happy because all of my pieces got bids.
At the end of the event, there were speeches and thank you’s and lots of clapping.
Paper Opera 