Lizjonesbooks

Life craziness has prevented my drawing lately, but this topic reminded me of a drawing I did a couple months back, so I scanned and played with it a bit.

This is an image from a dream I had-- someone held a small doll's house out for me to see, in the kitchen of my childhood home. I peered inside, and suddenly was there, in a room with someone playing on a piano, and dark blue thunderclouds and a brilliant white horizon over a plain outside the windows. Within the dream, every time I walked in or out of a door, I was somewhere completely different-- and a hundred years had passed.

I still mull that one-- makes me think about all the layers of the world, large and small, that spin along around us, unseen. It would be so interesting to be able to walk through them at will...
and then come home.

I guess it's a bit of a stretch, combining these two topics...

But I think you could say that this lizard has an instinct for celebration.

This is a detail from a picture I did some years back when Dan and I did a lot more climbing-- he'd requested that I do a cliff. Of course, I felt compelled to add a little more story to the picture than just the story in the layers of stone-- though that's a pretty huge story all by itself.

When I saw that today's prompt was "time", I got to thinking about this image... and then about last week's "flaw" prompt as well.

Time batters us, like ocean batters the shore. The weakest structures are the first to rejoin the sea, while the strongest remain, twisting interesting shapes into our faces.

Are we shaped more by our weaknesses, or our strengths?

It's been a crazy month, and I have really missed having time to do illo friday. This one was kind of cathartic for me-- one of those times when I connected with the word and an image popped into my head immediately.

Maybe it's the economic crisis, maybe war, maybe something closer to home-- but I bet you've been where this guy is. The walls hold a lot of shadows, some nights...

Harry and Thelma were so similar.
Both loved dancing barefoot in the moonlight, for instance.

And the last of my black friday images--

I always think that milkweed seeds look like tiny balloons, floating in late autumn winds.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Here's an owl composed of the things that owls like to eat. If you click in for a closer view, you'll see a lot of birds, and mice, and bats, and the occasional weasel...
Wise old owl? Or just a hungry one...








Image now available on My Cafepress Shop

It is this sheep's considered opinion that berries always taste better after a hard frost.

Mama bear found a vacant tree, just in time for the first real storm of the winter.

In honor of Black Friday, I'm going to post a bunch of images I've done over the past few weeks and had no time to post for Illustration Friday.
(the black is for the black ink of the originals)

I doubt I'll post these in order, but I think I've got one for each of the prompts.
Four of these five are postcards I did for an online exchange.(the owl is the exception)

Why "Pretend" for a still life?
When I think of still life, I think about how we're pretending that we can hold on to the ripeness and beauty of things at their peak. Stillness is a lie, in a world of perpetual transformation.

It was a fine Thursday evening, so Lucius and Cuthbert repaired to the tower for a bit of bat fishing.

Buy this print on Cafepress

I'm a bit late in posting this Fishobirdous-- and I can't remember anymore who asked for it. But here it is, for what it's worth.

Fish and bird are thinking the same thing-- I've got you JUST where I want you! Too late for you! Hahahahahahaa!

Edited to add:
This print now available(in various forms) on my cafepress shop

So I'm all backed up on my illo friday images again. My schedule is packed-- There's fall canning to be done, 1/4 of a living room floor to be sanded (still), homework to be checked-- and of course, fall students are sending papers.
Usually, all of this would be fine-- I would just squeeze in an image before bed. But right now, my writing is getting all the creative juice.I'm participating in jonowrimo, in which writers support each other in their writing goals. It began on Sept 15, and will end November 30th.
My goals were to complete revisions on my midgrade novel, "My Essay on Government Cheese", and to do all the research and outlining for another novel (YA with an emphasis on the A) that I've dubbed the Blackbird project.
I'm planning to have both of these goals accomplished by November first, at which point, I will switch on over to Nanowrimo and write the text for the Blackbird project.
I haven't been updating much here, though I've posted updates over on the jonowrimo community.

But I do miss my illustrating time, and once the pears are sauced and the grapes all juiced, I'll be back. Here's a little quiet space for resting your eyes, in the meanwhile.

I wanted to incorporate some of the fractal generation software and fractal brushes I discovered yesterday in today's Illustration Friday image-- and what a great word this was, for chaotic additions!
The clutter here is autumn-formed-- leaves falling, birds leaving their summer grounds.
It's probably my favorite kind of clutter.

I thought I was going to be more regular about Illustration friday, and here I am again, three weeks out without an image! Partly that's because the image I have for "Poof" is very specific and detailed and time consuming, and I really wanted to do *that* image. Had my heart set on it. It will appear here at some point, I promise.

Meanwhile-- Dan likes my black and white art and got me a new sketchbook, which I've slowly been filling with what I call bug pictures. They aren't *real* bugs-- but I sort of focus on that idea and see what pops up.

Here's a spider I did this afternoon while we were soaking our feet in Indian Creek (everyone else was swimming and fishing-- Dan got Z a good rod for his birthday.) We had a great day, which I would write more about except that it's very late already!

Here's my spider, as drawn:


And then as scanned and colored in Photoshop:


I think she's sailing around catching stars in her web, and when she gets home, she'll detach the strings and...
I wonder what she'll do with them?
Hmmm...


Buy this print on Cafepress

Canned laughter. Clowns.
They always seem kinda evil, to me...

Lia will meet this guy when she finally heads into the starry skies of Daydream (my graphic midgrade).
Lucky her.

This article kept popping to mind as I thought about what I wanted to do for this week's theme.

Seems like climate changes are creating a "feast or famine" situation with water worldwide-- rising sea levels threaten millions in coastal areas, while others watch crops die as fossil water table levels drop, alongside fossil fuel levels. Worse, food production now competes with biofuel production in many areas.

It's hard to imagine the human suffering behind all these statistics-- and to think about what it means for our collective future.

I kept coming back to the old real estate saw-- Location, location, location.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could grab a few dozen bergs from those calving glaciers at the poles, and dump them in the Sahara?

That would refill some ancient aquifers...

Anyone who read my last entry will soon figure out what's going on here...

I would like to add for the record that I utterly detest the following:
Vista,
Adobe Updater,
and whichever cheese-for-brains design team came to the conclusion that Photoshop users wouldn't be just as delighted as Word users to have temp files available to work from when resurrecting projects abruptly eaten by aggressive software maintenance programs.

*yawn*
Night, folks.

I know I've been AWOL for a long, long time, but thanks to today's deadline for the Waterstones story card contest, I managed to get this one done! And the topic couldn't have been more appropriate.

(click to embiggen)

Our chaos is slowly dwindling here, so I'm hopeful that I'll be a lot more regular about posting again from now on!

Do you ever have days when your to-do list feels more substantial that you do?

Once again I find myself short on time for Illustration Friday, so I've combined two topics. I'd originally thought to do a version of the 12 dancing princesses for "Multiples" but as I was reading variants of that one, I came across the story of Kate Crackernuts, and was intrigued. Originally, both the girls were named Kate, though Joseph Jacobs renamed the queen's daughter Anne for his version to avoid confusion.

So-- multiple Kates, and multiple princes-- one sick, one well. I kind of liked the parallels, and I liked Kate Crackernuts herself. Here I have her bring her sister along when she follows the prince to the fairy dancing ground, rather than sitting under the trees cracking nuts. I figured they'd have more nuts if they both gathered...

"Leap" is the fairies dancing the poor prince's feet off, of course.
peta_andersen has a very interesting commentary on this story over at her blog, if you'd like to read more.

Gravity is a theory. And it's a lot more complicated that "If you drop it, it will fall," as it turns out.
Here's an illo dedicated to all the people who have made understanding gravity part of their life's work over the centuries.

And here are a few links for anyone who'd like to learn more about
what we already know, and where we might be headed
in our understanding of that which keeps us grounded.

I've been thinking about all the celebrations this month that spread a blanket of light and warmth over a cold season.
Worldwide, people will be celebrating Mardi Gras or Carnival, and some (especially in Ireland) just finished celebrating Imbolc, AKA Candlemas. And of course, we can't forget Lunar New Year.

Whatever you're celebrating this week, I hope you have a light-filled and joyful time.





Oh-- and if you love lunar new year, and want to learn more about China--d_michiko_f has a contest going right now where you can win a copy of her new book about China!
Here it is:


Good luck!

This one's for you, jamarattigan!



So, the Grimm Brothers didn't really write this one down, but I swear it's true.

When he was young, Tom Thumb harbored dreams of being the Indiana Jones of evolutionary biology. When he read about primordial soup, he figured he knew just the spot to begin his research-- so he got on his scuba gear and prepared to get a first hand look at some  soupy flora and fauna.

He didn't realize his mistake until the nearsighted giant (a recently minted vegan) mistook him for a lump of eggplant, and slurped him down.

The scuba gear got him through the worst of it, and he went on to have other, largely non-scientific adventures.

The giant(who had bad indigestion) decided to leave off the eggplant when he made soup in the future.

I think this is the longest I've gone without drawing an illustration friday challenge since I started, back in 2005. My excuse is that I was coding my website and I had to figure out how to do that before I could work on it. But it's all done now, except for the very important step of having Dan-the-computer-guru make sure it all works, so I'm back.

Maybe it's the Pennsylvania in me, but when I thought of Stitch and Plain, I knew this was the image I had to do. Amish women are usually quilting something when they aren't working, and I can't help but think they're quilting their world into every piece they make.

And of course, the people who live in the houses at the base of the seam she's stitching must have some Tales and Legends of what she's doing up there....
(I know, that's cheating. I'll do another Tales and Legends image this weekend that's more on topic!)

Now I have 100% of the images for Lia's first chapter finished!
So I give you two samples... here's what she was seeing when she climbed out of her classroom.




(click to embiggen)

Hope you all soar to new heights this year!!

When we last left Lia, she was ripping the wall of the classroom. Now she's climbing out, and soon she'll be soaring into the bright sky. What do you think that rosy glow is coming from?
Hmmm....

Here's a quick horizon-- I'm off to do holiday parties at the elementary school.
Here's hoping there are many good things on the horizon for all of us in the new year!

"Soon a vague sense of discomfort possessed me. With variations of relief, this gradually increased, as if some evil thing were wandering about in my neighbourhood, sometimes nearer and sometimes further off, but still approaching. The feeling continued and deepened until all my pleasure in the shows of various kinds that everywhere betokened the presence of the merry fairies vanished by degrees, and left me full of anxiety and fear, which I was unable to associate with any definite object whatever. At length the thought crossed my mind with horror:"Can it be possible that the Ash is looking for me? or that in his nightly wanderings, his path is gradually verging towards mine?"

from Phantastes, by George Macdonald (1858)