Happy Easter!

Hi Everyone!

Just wanted to wish all a happy Easter and share a few illustrations from Beck's Bunny Surprise.  I figured they fall within today's theme...cute bunny and all...but no eggs.  Oh well.

Misaki, The Sparrow Girl

Well, it looks like Sister Stamps is releasing another set of images.  Yay!  I have been peeking in on what my sister has been creating and it's just great!  Love her crafts!

Just thought I would share a little of what inspired the sparrow image, Misaki, that is part of this set.  As I was coming up with images, I remembered when I was a little girl when my parents would take me to the Honolulu zoo.  We would go around and see all the animals, which was always fun for us kids.  But the part I liked best was when we would find a good spot under a tree and lay out the gozas so we can rest while we ate lunch.  The reason why this was my favorite time at the zoo was because it was when all the birds would come around us, looking for crumbs.  Mostly pigeons but also a lot of mynahs and sparrows.  I would sit still and wait as they gathered in a large group making their way closer to us.  Then, when it seemed like a vast sea of birds, I would jump up and chase after them.  At first, it's like an explosion of wings hitting the air, and then a rustle of movement as the remaining few scurry away to a safer position.  I would run in zig zags, not really trying to catch them, but just to scare them enough to get them moving.  I used to love this.  I guess it was kind of mean, now that I think about it, but it was great fun!

Now when I see a small kid chasing birds and laughing,  I can't help smiling as it brings me back to the days of visiting the zoo.

When drawing Misaki, I didn't want to risk seeming too "mean" about chasing birds, so I had her kind of just running (playing) alongside them while they fly away.  Her arms are spread out because I thought of her wanting to fly off with them so she is imagining that she is flying too.

Anyway, this is a short post but just wanted to share this regarding the release.   Thanks for stopping in and enjoy the new release of Sister Stamps.

La Befana

It's tradition here in Italy to hang up stockings on the eve of Epiphany (January 6th), much like we do in America in hope that Santa will fill them with treats and presents if we were good.  In the same way, Italian children hope that the Befana will come to fill their stockings.  La Befana, according to legend, is an old woman that flies on her broom and comes to each house to fill stockings with either treats (if the children were good) or coal (if they were bad).  Although this image sounds like our idea of a witch on Halloween, the Befana is simply an old woman that kind of looks like a witch but is not magical or scary according to the story.

I was curious about this tradition so I did some research. Apparently, the name "befana" is coming from "Epiphany" – Epifania, in Italian. The three Wise Men, stopped along the way to visit the infant Jesus, and asked this old lady for directions to Bethlehem.  They asked if she wanted to go with them but she declined, worried about how hard that journey could be. But after the Wise Men left, she regretted her decision and decided to go on her own. But not knowing exactly where Jesus was, she went to all the houses in the area and decided to leave gifts wherever she found a child, to be sure not to miss Him.

I thought today was the perfect day to share a craft done some time ago, but put out right at this time of the year. I started from a template from SVGCuts and adjusted it in order to have a stocking to hang on a door knob. I've seen a lot of treat boxes on door hangers but couldn't find one in a stocking shape. Thought it would be cute if you wanted to give to someone in an office.  It was originally a stocking-shaped box with a lid.   I embellished it with a lace file also from SVGcuts but altered.  The lace was only on one side to be used as a border but I wanted the lace to be on both sides.  I also added slits in the middle so that I could weave a ribbon through.

Happy Epiphany to everyone!

Santa's Sleigh

We're now down to the wire in preparation for Christmas so I'll keep this short.  Just wanted to get in one more ornament before the big day to share.   There isn't much to tell when it comes to the initial concept.  

The idea came to me when sketching out our Christmas images and thought it would be kind of nice to do a Japanese version of Santa's sleigh.   Kind of fought with the problem of the size of the crane compared to the sleigh since that makes the stamp kind of ...BIG.  Anyway, it all worked out and turned out fun in the end!

When revisiting the image this year, I suddenly wanted to do this as an ornament.  Quite a challenge to make it 3D, but I enjoyed myself just trying to make it work.  I had decided to have the crane hang on his own hook, separate from the sleigh.  That way, he could be higher and on a different branch altogether.  This makes it hard to find a place to hang on the tree though.  I think my friend, June's idea was better to attach both threads (one from crane and one from sleigh) to a customized wire hanger, like a mobile so at least they would always hang the right way.  Maybe for next time.

Thanks for stopping by again, and here's wishing a wonderful holiday to everyone!

 

Christmas Cookies!

Every year at Christmas, I prepare cookies for my husband's colleagues and it's become a bit of an event at his office. He said that when the season approaches, they already begin to anticipate the little packets of goodies with much enthusiasm.  I know it's more of an American thing to give out Christmas cards, but not sure if giving out homemade baked goods during Christmas is something the Italians do on a regular basis like back home.  Well, in any case, it is fun to give out something in which people look forward.

Anyway, this year the featured cookie was "phantoms", which sounds more Halloween than Christmas, but the richness of the treat makes it a perfect giveaway for this crowd.  I have learned that, for the most part, Italians love hazelnuts and chocolate (Italy is the home of Nutella!) so I tend to concentrate on these flavors more.  The recipe came from Rose's Christmas Cookies by Rose Levy Bernbaum, however since macadamia nuts are not so commonly found here in Italy, I substituted them for the much-loved hazelnut.

Also, wanted to share a couple of jokes with you regarding the cookie-making event.  The first talks about how dangerous cookie-making is.

And this second one is a result of the first.  In case it's too subtle, my mouth is covered in chocolate and crumbs are all over me in evidence of my cookie-tasting crime.

Again, take care everyone!  Have a safe and happy holiday!

Building Shimo-san

Well, it looks like we are deep into the Christmas season now so I thought I would share an ornament that I made.  I love making tree ornaments most, even though they don't serve much purpose but to help decorate an already over decorated tree.  

This one is made from the Sister Stamp image of the snowman (Shimo-san).  I had these plastic ornaments lying around from last year and finally had use for one of them.  I just reduced the image I had already colored and fit it into the globe, but since I wanted to have the characters seen from both sides,  before gluing in place, I had to fix the kimono of the boy to be correct for the reverse (it must be tied the correct way, following the Japanese tradition).  Then I created the "snow" from a cotton pad turned inside out, placed at the bottom of the ball – didn't have a regular cotton ball handy – and added glitter for "bling".  Also put at the top – next to the bow – some flowers that my sister gave me in summer, for the finishing touch.  A simple but fun project! 

Also thought I would share the evolution of the image with you.  The idea came from my sister as we brainstormed Christmas-themed stamps.  I must admit I wasn't too keen on the idea initially and kind of reluctantly worked on the sketch.   I thought it was a little "modern" for what I liked.   But as I continued, I started really enjoying the idea and the challenge of telling the story and keeping a somewhat traditional feel of the scene.  In the end, I sent the image to my sister and told her that it came out just so darn cute!  Good idea!  Well, that showed me!  Now it's one of my favorites.

Here's some of the other opriginal sketches I had done for the other holiday Sister Stamps images of the past.  I kind of like the image of the little girl with the stocking (Yuki) as well.  I thought of when I was young and how Christmas was my very favorite time of the year, and still is.  I believed in everything and the magic was so very real to me.  To wake up in the morning and see my stocking full was the greatest feeling. So that image was to express my sheer joy of Santa's visit.

Well, I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season.  Take care and thanks for visiting!

Oops, I forgot another ornament I made using the Shimo-san image. This one is a simple decoupage project on a paper-mache' ornament sold at Michael's. Enjoy!

Winter Books

As we surround ourselves with the holiday spirit, I thought I would dig up and share with you the layouts for the winter Tinker Bell Art Pool: The Secret of the Wings.  I really love this film and had a lot of fun doing the artwork for this one.  It's funny how, as you review an old project, it seems you can be transported back to the moment you were working on it. Like listening to a once popular song.  As I went through my files, I found all my thumbnail sketches as well.  While revisiting them I realized that it may be interesting to share these too. You can see the progress and some changes along the way: some that were requested, some because of template constraints, and some that were just the natural evolution.

As you can see, some of the spreads turned out almost exactly the same as the initial sketch, with only a few adjustments – like for example pp14-15.

While others were divided up and new art had to be created to accommodate the changed format of adding a vignette – as for pp22-23.

 

Still others underwent a complete turn around.  A different perspective was requested or another point of view was chosen – like on pp30-31.

Personally, I like many of the initial sketches better than the layout.  I think it may be the energy and spontaneity in the quick sketch that are appealing to me.  But there are a few of the layouts that I do enjoy looking at again, and some of the changes requested did improve the storytelling!

And if you want to see more, go to the "books" section in the Portfolio. Thanks for viewing!

All the images above are ©Disney. All Rights Reserved.