Illustration Friday | Memories

Looking at old family albums can bring back wonderful memories. My aunt Margarida has put together an album of our family, and I love looking at the pictures, even the ones taken before I was born, where I see my grandparents and great grandparents so young. It makes one wish one could time travel...

Folhear álbuns de fotografias de família trazem lembranças maravilhosas. Minha tia Margarida fez um álbum da nossa família, e eu adoro olhar as fotos, mesmo aquelas que foram tiradas antes de eu nascer, quando vejo meu avós e bisavós tão jovens. Dá vontade de poder viajar no tempo...

Watercolor Wednesday | Beatrix Potter

This week's theme for Watercolor Wednesdays is a homage to Beatrix Potter. As I became familiar with her life and work, I was always fascinated by her illustrated letters, her beautiful line drawings, and the start of her career as a storyteller.
So I did my own interpretation of her now very famous letter to Noel, about a little rabbit named Peter. :-)

Illustration Friday | Constance's Morning Routine

In case you cannot read the captions, this is Constance's morning routine:
1) Wake up, Beagle Girl!
2) Come on, Constance, time to get up.
3) Cooonnnstaannce!
4) Eat breakfast.
5) Beg for more breakfast.
6) Run in the park!

Ah, the good life :-)

Caso não consigam ler os subtítulos, esta é a rotina matinal da Constance:
1) Acorde, Beagle Girl!
2) Vamos, Constance, hora de levantar.
3) Cooonnnstaannce!
4) Comer café da manhã.
5) Pedir mais café da manhã.
6) Correr pelo parque!

Ah, que vida boa :-)

Dog Lover Blog Award 2008!!!

Look what I got!  The super talented Eunice Rosado from This nice dog has created, designed and given me this wonderful award, and I'm very happy and honored to display it here on my blog!  We are allowed to pass the award on to others.  I know many other artists/bloggers out there who genuinely love and care about dogs (and all animals, really!) so I'd like to nominate:

Ginger Pixels

Kathleen Rietz

Stacey Hsu

Sheree Boyd

Alicia Padrón

Erin Hensley Howe

Connie Martin

Thank you all!

Illustration Friday | Detach

Ooops... that wasn't supposed to happen! Luckily, there's a doll hospital just around the corner.

Ooopa... isso não era para ter acontecido! Ainda bem, tem um Hospital de Bonecas logo lá na esquina.

Award!

Krisztina Maros of Sketchpause has given me an award!  She is an amazing artist (check out her beautiful, color rich watercolors!) and I couldn't be happier. 

I now get to spread the joy and give this award to other bloggers who bring art and inspiration to our world.  Pretty cool...

Here are the rules: 

1-Display the logo on your blog

2-Link back to the person you received the award from.

3-Nominate 7 other blogs

4-Put links of those blogs on  yours

5-Leave a message on their blogs so they know they've been nominated.

That's always the hardest part. But here we go:

Lil Kim from lil kim's illo blog

Paola from La Señorita Pil

Kristin from Illustration blog

Alicia from My place over the hill

Eunice from This nice dog

Erin from Rapture Pet Sitting Service

Stacey from Three Red Trees

Of course, there many, many, many more...  :-)

Spotlight on Books and Illustrators

   

Time to talk about another favorite author/illustrator of mine: Stephen Michael King from Australia.  He has a wonderful, playful and loose style done in pen and ink and watercolor.  The book "Leaf" was recently published in Australia, and I learned that the U.S. rights were bought by Roaring Book Press.  I can't wait to see his latest work!  Meanwhile, look for books written and/or illustrated at your local library and check out his website.  It's a lot of fun!

One more for Watercolor Wednesdays

The theme this week is "Triplets." If you can, visit us there to see the work of the other artists.

O tema desta semana é "trigêmeos."  Se puder, visite-nos lá e veja o trabalho dos outros artistas.

Illustration Friday | Sail

Sure, they're great swimmers. But sometimes even penguins feel like trying something different!

Claro, eles são excelentes nadadores. Mas mesmo penguins às vezes sentem vontade de tentar algo diferente!

Spotlight on Books and Illustrators

A new day to talk about picture books and illustrators I admire: Sundays!

And here's the pick of this week: Peter McCarty and his books about two adorable characters. The first book, Hondo and Fabian, came out in 2002 and was a Caldecott Honor Book.  The illustrations are beautiful and original, color pencil on watercolor paper, and the story simple, fun and charming.  In 2007, Peter published a sequel, Fabian escapes, and it's just as wonderful. 

Have you read them?  If not, check them out!

Sketch for Watercolor Wednesdays

Here's the sketch for my entry this week for "Watercolor Wednesdays." You can see the finished illustration there (as well as the work of all the other artists!)

Aqui está o rascunho do meu desenho para a "Watercolor Wednesdays." Você pode ver a ilustração final lá (assim como o trabalho dos outros artistas!)

Illustration Friday | Poof

This is the first time for this little guy, and he's still learning! :-)

Essa é a primeira vez dele, ainda está aprendendo! :-)

"Enough" Finished

Here's the finished painting for "Enough." This time no ink, only watercolor and pencil. Thanks to everyone who left a comment on the post below, when this illustration was still halfway done.  I'm not 100% pleased with it, I have to say, but it's part of the learning process after all.
My family is visiting me from Brazil (Yeeyy!) so I haven't been able to participate in IF this week, but I hope to come back soon.
Thanks again!

Aqui está a pintura "Enough" terminada. Desta vez não usei nanquim, somente aquarela e lápis. Obrigada a todos que deixaram comentários no post abaixo, quando a ilustração ainda estava semi-pronta.  Tenho que admitir que não fiquei 100% satisfeita com o resultado, mas afinal faz parte do aprendizado.
Minha família está me visitando do Brasil (Oooobaaa!) então não tenho tido tempo de participar do IF nesta semana, mas espero voltar logo.
Mais uma vez, obrigada!

Illustration Friday | Enough

Well, my idea was to say one can never have enough books, but it seems I won't have enough time to finish this illustration on time. :-)
Anyway, I thought you might enjoy a look at the partially finished piece. I'm thinking of using just watercolor and pencil on this one, we'll see. I'll post the finished illustration once I get it done!

Bem, minha idéia era dizer que não é possível ter livros suficientes, mas parece que eu não vou ter tempo suficiente para terminar esta ilustração. :-)
Ainda assim, achei que gostariam de vê-la. Estou pensando em usar somente aquarela e lápis, vamos ver. Colocarei a ilustração final quando terminá-la!

Watercolor Wednesdays

Another post for the new Watercolor Wednesday blog. Stop by and see some of the other artists' lovely illustrations. This week's theme is: "This little piggy..."

Outra ilustração para o blogue Watercolor Wednesday. Visite e veja os lindos trabalhos dos outros artistas. O tema desta semana é: "Este porquinho..."

Spotlight on Books and Illustrators

If you're a fan of picture books, I'm sure you've heard of Melissa Sweet, a very talented and prolific illustrator. Her style is very whimsical and fresh: bright and clean watercolors, pencil lines and collage, all mixed together to create wonderful images and stories. Her most recent book, "Tupelo rides the rails" is no exception -- a story of a brave, adorable stray in search of her forever home (by now you must have noticed that I have a thing for books about animals in general, and about dogs!)

A special website was created to promote the book and help support shelters and rescue causes. Click here and meet some the characters in the story, the Boneheads (Benevolent Order of Nature's Exalted Hounds Earnest And Doggedly Sublime.) You can be sure my dog Constance will be joining this pack!

Illustration Friday | Foggy

"Oops, sorry... It's hard to find beehives in the early morning fog. Please go back to sleep now."

Well, this was a different piece in the sense that I added more of a background and struggled a bit with the "fog" part. I ended up using white goauche, but I'd be interested in hearing your suggestions. How would you do it? Thanks for visiting and for your comments!

"Oh, mil desculpas... é difícil encontrar colméias de manhã cedo quando tem neblina. Por favor, pode voltar a dormir."

Bem, este foi um trabalho diferente: acrescentei um fundo na ilustração e tive um pouco de dificuldade na criação da neblina. Acabei usando goauche, mas estou interessada em receber sugestões de como resolver este problema. Como você faria? Obrigada pela visita e pelos comentários!

Award!

I was given one more award!  Alicia Padrón and Tracy have given me this wonderful award, for which I am truly honored.  A big thank you to you both for adding me to your lists!

The rules of accepting are as follows:

1) Put the logo on your blog

2) Add a link to the person(s) who awarded you.

3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4) Add links to those blogs on yours.

5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

Now, the hard part is always to choose other people to receive the award since so many of you do such wonderful, beautiful and creative work.  Some of you will have already received this award, but I couldn't resist nominating you again.  And if you're too busy, don't feel pressured to pass it along. But I just want to let you know how much I enjoy seeing your wonderful work:  Kelly Medina, Sheree Boyd, SketchedOut, Gina Perry, Zari, Eunice Rosado, Ginger Pixels, and Enigma.

Oops, that's 8, right? Well, there are so many other illustrators out there, deserving of every award that is hard to choose (and to stop!)  Check out their blogs and wonderful work!

Watercolor Wednesdays

I have just joined a new art blog called "Watercolor Wednesdays" and this was my first entry for our very first theme: "It was a dark and stormy night..." So I thought I would draw a little bunny trying to make his way home through a big storm (he makes it safe and sound, everyone!)

Faço parte de um novo blogue de arte chamado "Watercolor Wednesdays" e esta é a minha primeira contribuição para o nosso primeiro tema: "Era uma noite escura e tempestuosa..." Pensei então em desenhar um coelhinho tentando ir para casa durante uma grande tempestade (ele chega são e salvo!)

Picture Book Wednesdays

Some picture books have no text, only pictures. In wordless picture books, the story is told solely through images. Because of this, authors/illustrators of wordless picture books must be especially good not only at telling an interesting story but also at creating expressive, captivating characters capable of holding the reader's attention and fueling their imagination.

One of the best known and most successful author of wordless picture books is David Wiesner, whose most recent work "Flotsam" was the winner of the 2007 Caldecott Medal. I saw him speak about working on "Flotsam" at SCBWI's conference earlier this year and it was truly inspiring!

Here's another wordless book that I simply love: "A day, a dog" by Gabrielle Vincent was published in the U.S. in 1995 and it's still one of my all-time favorites. Telling the story of an abandoned dog using simple pencil drawings on a white background, this is a moving and ultimately uplifting story that stays with you long after you've read it.