IF_Ahead

                                                                                                                          

This week my son has CRCT testing and because we homeschool we have to drive about 30 minutes away to a testing site at one of the colleges. It's the closest site we've ever been assigned to, but it still takes up most of the day, everyday. So for IF's theme this week I am posting a work in progress to represent Ahead. I am creating elements for a recipe/illo for They Draw and Cook. You could say I am planning ahead or that you need these ingredients to plan ahead if you are going to make this recipe, though it is only about half of theme so far... anyway Jack Foster(thanks Jack) mentioned that my illo of the Little Red Hen would be good for this week, it is a little further down the page(below the tutorial posts), I didn't want to post it again but she certainly had to plan ahead in the story. Thanks for visiting and as always thanks so much for taking the time to comment and feed my blog! : )

Tutorial for linked part 2

Here is the second half of my tutorial. This begins with painter and then goes into photoshop. I used a pc so there may be a couple of minor differences for mac which I am not familiar with yet.If you have any questions let me know. You can post them or send me an email.

 Hints: Save constantly! Play with the settings until you find what you like, every image is a little different. I am self taught and this is just how I work, so there may be better ways of doing many of these things. 

Tutorial for Linked part 1

Ok, here is part one of my tutorial as promised. Sorry it is taking me so long to finish it. I have never done one before and it is different from teaching one on one( taking screen shots and trying to write it all down and making sure I don't forget anything). So if you have questions or suggestions let me know. I'm still working on the photoshop portion. The first half is in painter, however it could all be done in photoshop using similar methods, I just prefer starting in painter.

The Little Red Hen

I did this for Watercolor Wednesdays the theme was the little red hen. I think I should do more thinks like this, my portfolio is lacking. 

AWARDS!!!!!!!!!!!

  

I have been so blessed to have met some really wonderful people since I started my blog. I consider them my friends, though we have never actually met. I trust their opinions, I appreciate their comments and I love their blogs. I have been given several awards and I honestly did not have time to accept at least one of them properly, so, I am doing it now. You all are so sweet, generous and thoughtful, thank you!

The Creative Writer Blogger Award 

Here are the rules:
1. Thank the person who gave this to you.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you.
4. Tell up to six outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth.
5. Nominate seven "Creative Writers" who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.
6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.


Susan Mordigal nominated me for the lovely award


My Lies and Single truth are:


1.  I am actually a world class chef and went to school in France to study when I was in my early 20's.
2. When my husband was in the military, we actually met the Queen of England and she invited us to tea. 
3.  When my children were very young I decided that I had no talent and stopped doing any artwork for 10 years. I did not start painting again until my oldest child was in middle school. 
4. We do BBQ competitions quite frequently and have won many championships.
5.  When my grandparents were young my grandfather was a revenue officer. His job was to arrest people for making moonshine and to destroy their stills.  One day he actually tied a man to a tree  in the woods in the Appalachian mountains while he went in search of his still and supplies. While searching for the still he got lost. As a result he left him there all night because he couldn't find  where he had left him. While he was trying to find his way back he found a 3 1/2 carat amethyst and had it set into a ring for my grandmother.  
6.  I have traveled all over the world and cooked for many famous people.
7. When I was 13 years old Dr. Seuss(Theodor Seuss Geisel) came to my middle school art class and talked about what it was like to be an author/illustrator.  That is the day that I decided that one day I would write and illustrate childrens books. 

And the nominees are: 

Donna Pellegata

Vanessa Brantley Newton

Bella Sinclair

 Rich Barry

Ces

* Ok, so I didn't nominate seven blogs; many of my friends already have this award. Please do not feel obligated to follow the rules in order to accept this award. Just copy and paste the award into your blog without all the hubub if you'd like because that's cool too!

The Renee Award

Thank you to Susan and to Shirley for giving me this award. It is such a special award. To find out  why please go to Ces's blog and read the story behind it. Ces and Bella created this award and it is as beautiful as it is sweet. Because of  what this award stands for, even though I know most of you already have this award, I want to give it to the people who have supported me the most and made me feel at home in the world of blogging, and to a few newer friends too.

So, that being said, this award goes to:

Vanessa Brantley Newton

Shirley Benitez(yep, back at you)

Susan Mordigal

Krista Hamrick

Jack Foster

Justin Segal

Andrew Finnie

Bella Sinclair

Sonatas Welt

Val Gal

 And now the Deborah Award

Wow, this one I have to give to a lot of the same people because they are my dearest bloggy friends and have been so wonderful and supportive.

Susan Mordigal (yeah, I have to give it back)

Shirley

Clau

Vanessa

Jack

Andrew

Justin

Krista

Bella

Last, but not least, the

Zombie Chicken Award

Thank you to Justin for this crazy fun award! Hope you don't mind Justin, I am going to have to marinate on this one for a little while before passing it on or I will end up giving it to all the same people again!

IF_Detective

This is my entry for this weeks Illustration Friday prompt Detective. I'm still working on my tutorial for the previous illustration, trying to find time to setup my new computer, and to learn to use a Mac. I've always used a PC. For some reason my husband has always had a thing against anything Apple. I don't really get it, but he actually bought me one this weekend. Yay!!!!!! He's very supportive, except for the occasional "it's not my favorite" comment and it was incredibly sweet of him because his computer is sooooooooooooo old and outdated.  New toys are so much fun. Thanks for visiting and for taking the time to leave a comment!

IF_Linked

Well, I didn't get this finished in time. : (

It's the first time I haven't gotten the prompt done since I started doing Illustration Friday. It was just one of those weeks. A good week, but a very busy one. But here it is anyway. I took snapshots along the way and may go back and post it as a work in progress/tutorial type thing. Let me know if you would like to see this. Thank you for visiting; I'm so glad you stopped by!

And, thanks for taking the time to leave comments, they make me smile : )

Flying

Monday Art Day's theme last week was flight. Unfortunately, I haven't had a very productive week so far. I have my grandson full time again for a while and I am trying to get acclimated to having a toddler full time again. So this is a couple of days late, but it's done, so yay! 

I don't normally post information about my grandson on this blog, but for those of you who are following his blog I wanted to let you know that we received some really good news about his genetic testing recently. So, if you are interested I posted the information there. Thanks for your interest and your prayers. And thanks for visiting and for taking the time to comment. As always, I appreciate it so much.

IF_Dip

Illustration Friday's prompt this week was dip. This is my entry, late again, but I got it done. The Easter Bunny was kind enough to bring me the gift of the flu along with my Easter basket this year. Or maybe it was my eldest daughter who kindly told me, after she had been here for two days and I started running a fever, "oh by the way, a friend of mine had the flu and I didn't get it, but I could be carrying it" Yay for me!  So three days in bed with a fever, one entire day at the doctors office and I'm still pretty much out of commission. I finally felt like making something yesterday, so I did frogs taking a dip in the kiddie pool. When my kids were little one of my friends left water in her kiddie pool in the back yard and frogs took it over. They laid eggs and we all ended up with tadpole environments so the kids could watch them develop, then we all went back and let them go on her farm after they had become frogs. My son was really young when this happened, but when he saw this he remembered the whole thing. Amazing how those little things make such an imprint on their memories.

Spring!

This is what I have been working on for the past few days. It's for my first post on Watercolor Wednesdays and I was late posting it.  I've been doing a lot of cooking this week so not as much painting going on. I'm making multiple batches of truffles and other goodies to put in a care package to send to my daughter who is in college. Today I am making Tiramisu truffles, grasshopper truffles and bitter sweet balsamic vinegar truffles. I think I will also make her some Chai tea shortbread, it's another of her favorites. I'm missing her with Easter coming up and she won't be able to be here. Thanks for visiting and taking the time to leave comments. I appreciate it.