Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Friends and Family!

To be very, very honest.  I really haven't done a lot of seasonal decorating since we moved back to America.  I still have boxes that need to be unpack and furniture arrangements that require more tweaking. So, holiday decorating is on the back burner. But, I recently made a chalk board/backpack station for my kids using an old, discarded dresser mirror frame. 

This is the first time I've actually tried to draw on it.

I have to say, drawing with chalk is harder than it looks.  I drew this freehand without any real plan and getting good lines and shading was nearly impossible.  I don't know how those chalk artists do it.  Just goes to show that just because your competent in one medium does not make you a master in another :)

I think my chalk board's surface is a bit too rough for any really good chalk  art, and if I want to do this again, I might need to sand it smooth and put another coat of chalkboard paint on with a sponge roller.

For a first try, I'm happy with how this turned out.  I really only did it for my little girl who guilted me into drawing a turkey for her since I've been promising to decorate the chalk board for two months now :)

Again, Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  Have a great day with friends, family, and food!

Halloween Mask

Just a quick post today to share a digital piece of art I just finished. I'm super happy with it and am so glad that I got some art done in time for Halloween.

This is actually a real photo I took of myself wearing a mask that I painted on my face for the fall festival at my children's school.  I then used my computer to digitally paint on the photo and enhanced it with filters as well.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do :)

February Sketch

Did you think that I forgot to share my sketch for this month???  While this may be a little late for Valentines day, I firmly believe that it's always the right time to tell someone that you love them or express how grateful you are to have someone in your life.  Right now, I want to thank the whole blog community for always being so wonderful and generous.

I hope that you like my little Robot buddy.  He's hand drawn and then colored on the computer in Adobe Photoshop Elements.  The font used for the message is called Forget me not and it can be downloaded for free personal use.

As always, I want to show you a bit of my process so that you see how a doodle can become an illustration.

This was a doodle that I did on a scratch piece of paper.  I did a few different robots, but this was my favorite concept.

Here is where I redrew the doodle into my sketchbook so that I wouldn't loose it.  I also refined the idea a bit more.  You can see that I first thought about doing a gauge on his chest, but then I changed my mind when I was doing my final inked image.  

After scanning it, I decided on how I was going to color it with the help of my best buddies!  It has become a household tradition that each time I finish a new sketch, my kids get to color their own copy.  My middle son was a bit bummed that my robot didn't have a sword so he drew his own :)

You haven't seen the last of this sketch!  I have a plan for my little robot buddy; you will be seeing him again very soon.

Christmas Card Adventures

Happy Christmas all my blogging friends!  Wow, it's been a fast and busy Christmas season for me.  I've been busily sewing, crocheting, and drawing all month long.  Plus, I've gotten to visit a few of the wonderful Christmas Markets that Germany has to offer.

My latest (last minute) finish is this year's Christmas card.  It will be my last drawing this year at Practically Pippy and I hope that you all enjoy it.

I love the sweetness of this card and the look on the boy and girl's faces as they stand under the mistletoe.  Profiles tend to be hard for me to draw, but I really think this ended up worth the effort, and I just love their little clothes.

Thinking of a message was also very important to me and I hope that it expresses the joy and wonder that I wish for everyone at Christmas and the New Year.



 I finally got it completely finished and ready to be sent out to our neighbors.  I used a nice textured card stock; I think that the type of paper used to print cards makes a huge difference in the print quality.



Now, I'm off to finish wrapping some gifts and delivering jams and jellies to the neighborhood.

Have a great Christmas!

Lady October

Wow, Fall got here so fast this year I barely had time to really prepare for it.  Here in Germany, we have beautiful Falls.  I'm really enjoying all the colors this year, and the kids have taken to bringing me home the extra special leaves that they've discovered outside.  Unfortunately, they were really sad to discover that the leaves tend to dry up after a few days, so I've been scanning some of their best leaves so that they can keep them forever.  This in turn inspired my latest drawing for the month of October.



This month I'm trying two new things.  1. I tried out a new computer program to color my sketches.  2.  I'm trying to post a bit more about my sketching process which is actually a bit scary for me.

I'm very happy with this drawing.  I did have a hard time deciding between the colorings of the background, so I've included my two favorites in this posts so you can compare the differences.



This drawing was done by hand, then scanned and colored on the computer.  I tried to do it with my new program "sketch book pro", but I still need more practice with it and went back to using photoshop.  I do have to say that I love the pencil feature on Sketch book pro.  It is almost like using a real pencil.




Background two is a cooler tone than my first pick.  I like how subtle it is, and it is my second favorite of all the different backgrounds I tried out.




I wish that I could say that I'm one of those people who can just sketch out awesome images without even trying, but my preliminary ideas are often really rough.  I just want to get the idea out, and then I work on refining my ideas and doing another few drawings before I have a final image that is ready to color.  This sketch was done at an indoor play area while my kids were bouncing in the background.  I don't usually share my rough sketches, but I'm really proud of how much better I'm getting at drawing figures and objects without having to have a reference.



I love coloring my sketches by hand with paint or pencils, but I'm also loving being able to color them on the computer because there is more freedom with trying out different ideas without having to redraw the whole image and start over if you're not happy with a color.  In this drawing, I tried several ideas for the the Lady's undershirt before I finally chose these stripes.  I knew that the stripes were right because they made me smile the moment I drew them.



I also toyed with a few ideas for the dress fabric pattern before I drew out the final design.  I love the little bugs and beasts that are hidden in the pattern.  The frog might be my favorite part of her gown.

Surprisingly, I didn't struggle with the color for the cat.  I always knew that she had a grey cat :)

This drawing was a real pleasure to work on because I was so very inspired by the season.  Where do you find your inspiration?  In the seasons, daily life, in your day dreams, or somewhere else? :)

May Sketch of the Month

I know that I'm running a little behind with my sketch, but it's still May isn't it :)  

I hope that all of my American friends and followers had a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend.  We had a fun filled, albeit wet, family weekend in France and Belgium visiting WWI memorial sites.  It is often hard being so far away from friends and family here in Europe, but we are so fortunate to be able to visit many incredible cities and sites.

My May sketch was inspired by my sweet little daughter, the watermelon jelly that I just finished canning, and memories of eating the first watermelons of the year during our neighborhood's Memorial Day BBQ.

I have really been enjoying my exploration into this more illustrative drawing style.  I've found it very freeing and it has really helped me develop my ability to draw without a model or reference.  I'm also getting more confident with my Bamboo tablet.  This drawing was sketched by hand in pencil, and then scanned and colored on the computer with PSE.  

Now I need to sew something with a watermelon theme just to round this month out :)  Maybe a coffee cup sleeve?  Any ideas on a quick useful watermelon themed sewing project?

April Stork Sketch

I was working on a sketch to share for April that I really love, and then I went on a pre-Easter trip to the city of Colmar in France that totally changed my idea for this month.  The trip to Colmar was cold and a bit wet, but I got to see some beautiful architecture and visit their wonderful Easter Egg exhibit 

 
I wish I could have taken photos of some of the beautiful painted eggs that the artists there were making, but alas, photos were not allowed at the Egg exhibit, but I have lots of photos of the town that are just to beautiful not to share!

 
Colmar is sometimes called little Venice because it has these wonderful canals all through the old part of the city.  I loved the half timber buildings and the canals.

The feel of the whole town was just wonderful.  I loved walking the streets and seeing all the different buildings and colors, but what really inspired me was the symbol of Alsace, the stork.

Storks come to roost in the Alsace region and are a protected bird in the area.  The storks are encouraged to nest in town and also in various bird sanctuaries in the region.  I thought that it was super cool that we actually got to to see a stork on Colmar's main church.  I was so excited that I started sketching storks as soon as a got home that night.

I wanted to sketch something illustrative that captured the stork and a bit of the town.  I made a few color variations of this sketch by changing the window frame color and the flower colors.  This one has a red window frame with purple flowers, but I also did pink flowers and a blue colored window.  I'm having a hard time choosing between the two.

So, what do you guys think of this one?  I'd love some feedback.  

Puppy Birthday Party

This last week I have been super busy getting ready for my baby girl's 3rd birthday.  It's hard for me to believe that she's already three years old!  The time has flown by.  This year, my little lady wanted a puppy party.  She loves (and I mean LOVES!) all puppies.  Many of our neighbors have dogs, and she gets so excited when she gets to love on them.  So, we went puppy crazy this week at my house, and I'm going to share some of the craft patterns and ideas that we used for the party with all of you here.  Make sure to read to the end so that you can get all the printables for your very own puppy party.

This is the invitation that I drew for my daughter's party.  I think that most of the puppies are more interested in that cake than they are the little girl blowing out the candles :)  My daughter got super excited when she noticed that I included our neighbor's west highland terrier in the picture.  There's also an old english sheepdog, a pointer, a bulldog, and a red retriever in there.

I'm going to count this invitation as my month of March sketch.  Two birds; one stone! Buya!

The Puppy Party Decor!

This is the sign that my boys made for our front door to welcome the guests.  Sorry my cat loving friends; dogs only.  NO CATS ALLOWED :)

We did some great and practical decor for the party.  I skirted the buffet with some tissue paper and bought some cheap dog bowls to use for the buffet table.

A nice red and pink tulle swag with balloons hung across the entrance to the dining room!

We also made another sign to cover some art I had on the wall over the buffet.  I think my 8 year old did a great job with the water colors.  It's an easy way to keep the theme going without pulling down any of your decor.  It also got me thinking how much my life revolves around art. I think I spent as much time designing the art that we were making for the party as I did on the guest list, games, and food combined.  

We also made a cute and colorful "Happy Birthday" bunting to hang across the windows.  I wanted to do something simple.  I checked out a few printables available for free online and just didn't find what I wanted.  After a bit of computer work, I came up with a design that was simple, fun, and easy.

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I printed out the letter circles and water colored them to get a fun whimsical look, then I glued them onto flags cut from 12x12 cardstock.

If you would like to make your own birthday bunting like mine, You can download my simple scribbles bunting circles and flag template here.  I've included the happy birthday sign and all the other letters too, plus the flag template.  These can easily be customized to any style that you want by simply changing the flag paper or printing the letters onto colored paper.  I love options, so the choice is yours.

If you do use my templates, I'd love to see what you make!

I"m also thinking about scanning the final buntings and making them available as finished printables.  I don't know if people would rather have just the water colored circles so they can adhere them onto flag papers of their choice of if they'd prefer the whole flag?  I was just thinking that printing 14 colored flags would use a lot of printer ink!  Any opinions?

Puppy Party Fun!

Here is our Adopt a Puppy station.  Each child got to adopt a small stuffed puppy to take home with them.  They each chose a puppy, named it, and gave it a collar (I found these cheap little collar bracelets as our version of the dollar store).

You can download the bone sign for the adopt a puppy station here.  It comes in the blue and pink and also a green and blue.

They then got to fill out and color an adoption certificate.  Again, I look around the net for a puppy adoption certificate that the children could color in, but didn't find exactly what I wanted so I ended up making my own version.  You can also download the adoption coloring page to use at your party here. This was great fun.

Here's the birthday girl hard at work on her coloring page :) Notice she and her friend are wearing puppy ears.  The kids got to choose from a variety of puppy ears made from felt and glued onto a headband for their puppy makeovers. We also played games and had cake :) All the toddlers walked away sugared up and exhausted.  I know that I needed a nap when it was all over.

I know that this post was long and I'm glad that you stuck it out until the end :) I hope that you guys can use the printables that I've posted here.  Please remember that the images are for your personal use only and not to be redistributed or sold.

Let me know if you like them or if you have any problems accessing and downloading them.  Enjoy!

February Sketch

This week has been filled with many different projects, but nothing is at a point where it's shareable.  Plus, I've been busy with lots of school stuff too.  So, I wanted to share a sketch that I did for my parents and in-laws for Valentines day.  Yep, it's a bit late for Valentines, but hey, I'll take flowers and a card from my little guy any day of the year. :) I had to sketch this portrait quickly because my little son was done posing for me after about 30 seconds.  I think that I caught his look pretty accurately.

I recently got a new Wacom bamboo tablet to help make coloring my sketches with Photoshop a whole lot easier.  I love to draw and sketch, and coloring them on the computer gives me the option to easily change up a sketch for different uses.  And yes, I've started to add water marks to any art that I post online.  I've just had too many problems with people who think that my drawings are freebies that they can use in any way they want.  It's frustrating, but I think that artists need to protect their work.

I'm thinking about starting to share more sketches of the kids in the future.  Maybe one each month.  I do love monthly themes.  What should March be?  Any ideas?