Ho Ho Hos

'tis the night before Christmas... I've been having fun playing with winter themes all month. Here's to the holidays. For Christa. Cheers!

Ho Ho Ho's

Kicked out of the Brownies

There's an element of truth in this sketch, as I was in fact kicked out of the Brownies as a young'un. Don't worry, it wasn't over anything notorious such as setting forest fires or harassing woodland creatures. Nope, I was ousted for being "too silly." I ask you, is there really such a thing??

Kicked out of the Brownies

We were so happy

Wow, I haven't posted anything since before Thanksgiving, but I am up to lots of mischief. I had this thought about lumberjacks, and wanted to do a weeping lumberjack or something along that line. But then again, why not a Beaverjack? He's a little oblivious while raining on everyone's parade.

We were so happy...

Journals featured in "The Bark" magazine

On newsstands now: Four of my journal pages featuring dogs are featured in a spread in the Winter issue of The Bark. I love this magazine, it's the cool dog mag. Thanks to Cameron Woo!

Babe & friends

Nice day at muddy hole

Holiday cheer from the Beave

Christmas is upon us,  bearing down FAST

Liberty Hill holiday card

Here's a piece I did for LibertyHill.org, a charitable organization helping the citizens of Los Angeles.

Peace & justice for everybody!

I love your lovely countenance

Faces, faces, penny a pound

Winter cometh

White foxes on ice

Why not?

An abstract collage in which I mash together various bits and pieces, then try to make sense of the result. I was instructed in my class to do this piece, so I happily armed myself with scissors and glue. It's 12 x 12 on plywood. Having not done an abstract in a while, and being a huge fan of vintage ephemera, the project was really quite enjoyable.

Why, you ask? Why not?!

Hare vs. Tortoise

For my first November post,  a project I'm doing for a class with Lilla Rogers, an artist's rep and illustrator who I worked with during my years as an art director. She runs an excellent school that focuses on creating art that can be licensed, an area I've been a bit fuzzy on. This is the project I particularly took the class for: children's picture books. We're doing a page for the well-known Aesop's fable. Hard to work on this without thinking of the Bugs Bunny version... or the beautiful 1934 Disney short. I'm going to wait to re-watch them until I'm done, otherwise I might be too easily influenced!

The Tortoise & the Hare by Mr. Aesop Fable

And here's the final piece.

Mysterioso No. 2

Happy Halloween! Do stop by for some melted Reeses's Cups and slightly damaged Doritos.

Black cats and their ghostly cohorts. 

The Birdsong family car trip

Ah, the road trips to Grandma's and to Skyline Drive. The boys fighting in the back, watching the landscape fly by while trying to fight off car sickness. Grandma had a game: "Higgledy-piggledy buttercup, how many fingers do I hold up?" and I can still recall the touch of her hand against my back while I was trying to guess how many.

On the road

Illustration for Vegetarian Times

For the November issue of Vegetarian Times, I did this piece for the feature celebrating their 40th anniversary. Thanks to Creative Director Daphna Shalev.

Illustration for Vegetarian Times

Add here's the color sketch I did in my journal

Ponderings of a poodle

The poodle pages

Unexpected guest part deux

Here's one I'm revisiting from a while back.  Sometimes you just never know who will drop in.

Unexpected guest II

The sketchbook

Bad Luck to the nth degree

Finally getting back to my journals, and feeling the autumn bug, even when it's 90 degrees here.

Bad luck to the nth degree 

Mo. & Co.

I've now completed this commissioned piece. I don't really have a name for it, but have been calling it "Mo & Co." It's gouache and acrylic on wood panel, 18" x 24" and has since travelled to its home in Oregon, where it will be a birthday present for a very young man, here seen sitting on a log petting a frog. Maureen, the client (left) was a pleasure to work with. It was truly a fun project.

Here's my progress. I could probably use some workspace efficiency improvements, but until then, I go as I go.

Wednesday. Good morning!

Midday...

Day's end

End of the day Thursday

Almost!

Sunshine Launderama

I don't know why I have such a fascination with laundromats — it's not as if I ever exactly enjoyed the time I spent in them, and yet...

Last Saturday at the laundromat

Happy family

Here's a sketch of a custom piece I'm working on for an Etsy customer. The finished piece is going to be pretty large, for me: 18" x 24".

Mo & Co. 

Flibbertijibbet

My day began on a whimsical note when my friend texted me to exclaim that the word "flibbertigibbet" was the best word ever. After trying to remember the song that used the term ("How do you solve a problem like Maria" from The Sound of Music) it was back to work and mundane household tasks such as keeping the larder full of cat food.

Buy cat food. CHECK.

Birdbath

If there's one thing I know, it's birds taking baths. I keep a big aviary and a koi pond, so there's plenty of splashing around that goes on in my back yard. I often finding myself sucked into a kind of trance while watching the antics. Here's a happy piece for a Monday.

Just bathe.

Last Saturday at the laundromat

Wash & fold service $2.50

Doris's hat

I saw this hat on Doris Day in the movie "Pillow Talk" and never forgot it.

Doris's hat (on a cat)

The snack food saga continues

Coconutty snoballs

Hostess fruit pie#3

Little Towhead, finished

August is here again, and I didn't come anywhere near my goal of doing 10 journal pages in July. Oh well! Maybe this month. Anyway, here's the finished painting of an earlier journal entry. It's Sunday, and they have just gone to mass. After finishing their crunchy BLTs with toothpicks stuck in them, they enjoy a slice of pie with soda and coffee. As always, there is spillage.

Little Towhead, 11x14 gouache on wood panel.

Onward, the delivery drones

Delivery drones.

Radio, the cycle complete

Here's another image finished, and how it popped out of my brain. I started out wanting to simply draw a vintage pink radio, but somehow, a fox terrier showed up. This and many other of my paintings and journal pages are available as limited edition giclee prints in my Etsy shop. As a thank you for visiting my blog, I'm offering a 20% discount on any of my prints to shouldawoulda blogspot visitors. Just use the code SHOULDA at checkout, good until August 8. Many of the items I have listed will be going away after the 8th when they'll be sold exclusively in Treehaus in Los Angeles. Thank you for visiting my blog, and for your kind comments.  A big THANK YOU also to fellow blogger Myra Caballero for nominating me for the Liebster Award. You can find her excellent blog here.

Radio. Gouache on 9x12 wood panel. 

In progress

In my sketchbook

They usually start something like this

Books I read in New York

I promised myself I would do at least 10 journal paintings this month, so as July draws to a close, I'm going back and finishing pages I began earlier. In this, I reminisce about all the wonderful novels I read during a particular glorious time when I lived in New York City.

The summer I read "The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins. My dog Trixie was interested in pursuits less literary.

Earthquake stories, pt 2

August 9, 2007 12:58 AM. Location: Los Angeles, near Northridge, site of the 1993 quake. 4.6 on the Seismo-cam... I mean, Richter scale.

Earthquake stories. Tales of temblors, mostly minor.

Last week on my drawing board

Here are some larger pieces I finished up this past week. I'm getting ready for the opening of Treehaus, a Los Angeles boutique, in August, where Saralynne Precht and Michelle Pedersen will be carrying my framed limited edition giclee prints.

Miss Eve Hawkins and Tubby. The 11x14 giclee print will be in my shop for a limited time before the opening of Treehaus.

Arya & the Hound

Rolf

The snoball effect

Continuing on with my snack cake theme, I was recalling those puffy pink coconut balls known as sno-balls. I never actually ate one, having decided that I could not tolerate coconut. However, my sister liked them so much that one of her boyfriends used to deposit them in our mailbox.

Some love 'em, some hate 'em