Hear Ye, Hear Ye

I recently did this little illustration and designed a poster for a church event. It was a lot of fun.

 I really thought--not even a year ago--that I would just be a traditional artist my entire life. Lets just say I am NOT a techy person, and the thought of combining computers with art produced a sort of glazed-over eye expression, and desire to run out of the room.  But, I am pleased to annouce that even I...the girl who did not own a cellphone until my 2nd year of COLLEGE, or who cannot figure out Pintrest or Twitter, or who can't stand smart phones, is in love with making digital art.
 Seriously people--if I can learn to draw and paint digitally, anything is possible (and I am still learning so much!) I've only been tinkering with painting in Photoshop since January, but I don't think I will do anything else. Working digitally, you have an incredible capacity to edit your work..which I LOVE--because I am not very neat when I sketch and I hate redrawing things a million times. There are also quick effects you can apply to your images that make them more interesting (warm color glazes, texture...)
Another huge plus of digital art? Lets just say trying to paint with a baby in the house would be basically impossible! The no-mess factor is a huge plus!

So, alas, I have joined the thousands of other illustrators, and jumped on the Photoshop bandwagon!

I know, I know, DAILY drawings mean I am supposed to post them everyday. I won't ramble on any excuses, but I WILL post my abso-fav children's books, as of late! (now do you forgive me? Of course you do!)

Here are my two ABSOLUTE favorites from childhood. I would get these weekly from the library and beg and beg my mom to read them again and again. My mom actually bought me both for a graduation gift. I LOVE the illustrations. So captivating!

The next two are ones I have discovered fairly recently, but they are also wonderful. I love going to the library with my little boy and getting a big stack of children's books. These have some of the best illustrations I have seen in a while. I LOVE any book illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser (Fancy Nancy is hilarious!)

So there you go...a few books with incredible illustrations to inspire you. I am definitely inspired!