Glow for me, Girl.

Wow, just under the wire and this is my submission for Illustration Friday's word of the week, "Glow".

Get your glow on, girl and the sounds of Led Zeppelin come to mind.

Cropped from an unpublished work for a contract job, this is my take on the essence of glow.  The creature is a hummingbird and the book is inspiration focused.  The colors resonate the core of glow as it is a gazing word.  A word I associate with extended long looks.

Enjoy the glow!

12-21-12, my snow submission to Illustration Friday.  I hear it's snowing in the mid US.

It's a TREE kinda day!

So the word is TREE.  I immediately knew I had a drawing, again done long ago back in the 90's, but I really like the drawing and then I got to thinking about trees, because I know I have to go find the drawing somewhere on my computer....  I also got to thinking about the illustration I was going to post, I also got to thinking about this blog and what I wanted to say. I do a lot of thinking, it is important to think before you speak or write, makes for a better step when walking or talking.

I realized trees allow us to have paper.  I am sure they go kicking and screaming on this one, but I am really glad man made this happen for us, because paper is one of my most favorite materials to use for many of my creations.  I can make just about anything from paper. And I do, that is, make lots of things from paper.  My best friend tells a story about when she watched me  make an entire concept box for my day time job, completely out of paper and then come back and show her the finished product the next night when we hooked back up at our night job we shared together.  She thinks I am amazing.  I just think paper is amazing and I am just really lucky to have this ability to make paper into cool stuff.

But I really have to hand it to the trees of the world.  They are truly awesome.  Trees can live a long time, withstand a lot of abuse and make new trees to grow underneath them and populate the world with air and paper of course.  (Paper is a man made item, trees do not volunteer for paper duty.)

So I honor the Trees out there.  Thank you for showing you can do double duty as paper, though I know would prefer not to be paper… (LOL) Thank you Trees for growing, giving me shade, a place to climb and see far away things from a great vantage point high up in their branches and just being awesome. Oh, and thank you for the beauty you have brought into my world, you look great, sound great and smell great, no matter where you grow. Here is my picture to honor trees on IF.  My tree.

Illustration Friday Backside

LINK.

You, like I, may not have done the due diligence to understand what waters we travel, before we jump in and start sailing.  Like me, you may be an explorer who just slaps on a backpack and runs willy nilly out into the world, not knowing what or who you may run into.

Then, when you start to slow down, the glee of that first step tells you "first steps" need some grounding here, you know, when you realize how important it might have been to have done the due diligence first!

The good news is when you do slow done you discover, hopefully, some rather impressive, or shocking or even better, WONDERFUL  stuff, like I just did!

So, since I only launched this blog yesterday and I am doing everything I can at this exact moment before slapping on my explorer backpack again to head out to enjoying the fun of running around the wild blue wilderness…click the link here or above and see what the power of one did for me! Impressive. IF you only could.

Thanks Penelope! You are awesome.

Today is IF launch of the Art of JP

Ok, here it is: I started to subscribe to IF's subscription list and what was the first thing they mentioned?  Make it easy for you all to find the art posted by (moi) and to find the "word of the week" submissions by the masses and of course IF staffers (I guess).  I assume this all falls under the theory of KISS, for the lack of a better acronym.

When I was ready to send in my submission for the word of the week (SHY)  I got stalled by this singular request.  Oh the power of words to someone like me.  Organized, meticulous and rule bender/follower to a fault.

So here it is.  The launch of Illustration Fridays "Art Of JP Submissions"; my weekly contribution (only once a week) into the land of an illustration world (or more fondly thought of in my head as the Art of JP, my art, fine or otherwise.

This week's word is SHY.  Something I am vastly familiar with, when you realize, like I did, you are the tallest among the people you hang out with and you are making excuses to not go outside, on a sunny day, you think, could I be a shy person?  Do you retreat behind objects, hide behind computers and stand so close to the wall you know it will fall over if you actually try to mingle among a group of new people?  Is life from the far reaches of the center stage your comfort zone? Yes in deed, it is, I am and I was once, terribly shy, however I only now do I occasionally feel shy, that is, but not like before.  I got over my bad self and moved shyness off to the corner to only allow shyness out when it suits me.

Here is my submission.  Let the courts of the world see fit to observe and hope that you all will go back to my "other blog" to see the facts of life in the Art of JP, a wild and crazy woman artist, graphic designer & package creator extraordinaire, who knows there is more to life than what we can possibly understand. What did she mean?  Well, the world, silly, the world.  It is filled with such creations plus beauty and now with the internet, the world can be a pearl in the oyster for us shy types where we feel gratitude everyday when we do not have to go out the door.