The List

Back with regular strips tonight. Yay! I've started updating the blog on my regular website www.LifeWithGirls.net most days, and the comic goes up there on Tuesdays and Thursdays as well. As I start to update more there, the blog posts here are getting pretty thin, and pretty soon I will only be updating on my site. Blogger has been a good home for me for the past couple of years, and I appreciate all of you who have stuck with me as I've moved from one blog to the next.

This Studio is Running on Coffee

I should be back to the regular strips next week. Thanks for bearing with me!

If I'm Not Back By Thursday...Send Coffee.

Daddy's Buried Under a Pile of Work

Nap Time

I try to regularly draw things...Wait, let me start over.

Part of my daily routine, when I'm not just too crazy busy is doing warm up drawings and paintings. That's where the Watercolor Wednesday paintings are often made, as well as where I manage to get work done a little bit at a time on ongoing projects. It's also where I'm able to experiment with new ideas, techniques and materials.

Crow quills aren't really new to me, but honestly I don't use them that often. I thought I'd get them out the other day and play with them a bit. I've got a big project coming up that I'd like to use them for. I love the thick to thin that they naturally give line weights, and I have the feeling that as I use them more, I'll grow to love them a little bit.

This fox warrior is the result of me working out some ideas for another comic project that I'd like to do. The story outline is coming along nicely, and I'm excited to share more of it a bit at a time.

The Alex Keaton/Michael Keaton connundrum.

Some time last year, I started doing Watercolor Warm Up paintings as I got ready to work for the day, and then posting them on Watercolor Wednesdays. I got the original idea from David Peterson, and it’s such a great way to start the day, experiment, and create new content.

When April was born, she was totally bald. In fact, she didn't really have much hair until well after she was one. Ophelia on the other hand was born with a full head of hair. I did this illustration initially for the About section of this website, and she looks very different from the character I'm using in the comic right now...I think I'm going to go ahead and start drawing her more like this.

A common element in a lot of character drawings are rubber duckies. They might be on a shirt, as a pattern on wall paper or decals on the pool, or a toy. I don't know exactly why, I think I just like the iconic look of them, and they're fun to draw. :) This illustration is available in the online shop HERE.

There was a time when we watched Toy Story every day. The movie was one of the first to truly capture April's imagination. That's the power of excellent character design and great story telling. As time went on, she got all the toys. Woody and Jessie were constant companions. This illustration is available in the online shop HERE.

You can check out an album of all the Watercolor Wednesdays over on our Facebook page. Thanks for stopping by and spending some time with us!

Who's Your Keaton?

It's actually kind of amazing to me after looking him up on IMDB just how few movies Michael Keaton has been in. Favorites of course are ones like Beetlejuice, Batman, and Toy Story 3, but films like Gung Ho, and Night Shift will always hold a place in my heart.

Right now, Olive's favorite is his voice role as the title character in Porco Rosso from Studio Ghibli. I think it's so funny the movies that she get's really into, because they're very different than what you would expect a two or three-year-old girl to want to watch over and over. The last one she was like this with was Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind. Both movies, while being essentially all ages appropriate, deal with a lot of complex themes. Things like this support my feelings that even though kids will accept any brightly colored piece of plastic we hand them, they really appreciate things that are well designed.