He who waits....

Wolfgang's Dream~ After you Leap...you may fall....

He never went to sleep to easily. Wolfie was always afraid of falling out of bed.

One night he did just that. He fell into a land of strange little houses, tiny flattened people and rushing rivers.


Wolfgang fell into that land of dreams. Ah ha, I see him. Do you?



And fell





And fell





But before he had a chance to reach the river, he woke up. He always did.

You may have noticed that he dreams in black and white. Maybe next week his dream will be in color!

Recommended for your pet...

Winter is still here .....

Welcome to our house! Winter is still here in New Hampshire.


Even though we try to keep up with it, Snow has a way of piling up!


If you check out the red circle on the rhododendron bush you can see where the deer ate away the lower shoots and leaves.



This is the forest behind our home. The deer gracefully make their way through here.
In the spring we will most likely see big old Mr. Bear again.

We still have more digging out to do!

Tagged... by Ryan to show my studio

One look out the studio window will let you know just what our weather is like today.....Heavy wet snow and lots of it..coming down quite hard as I write.

I have been tagged by Ryan Loghry to show my studio. It has been fun putting things together so that they work well for me and it has taken a good three years to settle on a plan that is best for my type of work. As a digital artist with a traditional background, I normally sketch a lot before I can decide on a direction for an illustration. Somehow the traditional pen and ink or pencil gives me a certain freedom and I love the feel of the paper under a pen or pencil. So I need a drawing table... a light box if I want to make some changes and, of course, the computer. My mac and wacom tablet combine to allow me to create digital illustrations using Corel Painter.

Right in front of the window I have a small Japanese folding screen to block out the sun when I need to.

I need my big desk with all the drawers and cabinets to store all kinds of useful items. I also have several bookshelves in here that are packed with picture books, drawings, portfolios and some really old floppy disks of my very early work on AOL.
Then there is the neat drawing table that my husband patiently put together for me. It is on wheels so I can move it to get to books, printer and other large format printing papers stored under the printer.


A collection of stuffed animals and little gifts from friends and children are scattered about. They provide a comfort zone and often an inspiration.

Experimenting ...

I have begun experimenting with digital watercolor in Painter.    My normal media is usually digital oils, but I found the challenge of the watercolors rather intriguing. I am not sure how far I will pursue this, but for now it is fun to try something new.

Be Mine.....

Just a little humor to brighten your day.

©Ginger Nielson 2008

Mystery Solved...

The past couple of days I have seen tracks all over the lawn, in the snow, of course. But they are going every which way and there are many of them.

I figured it was squirrels or more turkeys or some kind of mice .....

Yesterday we saw the two deer but they were in the woods behind the house. Well this evening just as I was beginning dinner, the deer returned to the woods. We watched the two or three move across the back to our neighbors and were astounded to see about 13 more following. An entire herd was traveling near the back yards looking for twigs and new shoots. Then they returned across our back woods and came right into the yard to feast on .... my huge Rhododendron bushes.

I felt so sorry for them to be so hungry, but I can't put any food out for them. If I do they won't be afraid of humans and might get hunted down too easily. There is a nature preserve behind and attached to our woods, so I think the keepers there, feed them in winter.

To see so many at once was such a joy for my mother. I brought a chair to the window so she could watch them until they disappeared back into the woods.

It explains the tracks all over the front and side yards, and the interest Henry has in sniffing everywhere in the driveway where they must have crossed.
Some are big, some are medium and there were at least two really little guys. All does and their young I expect. I wonder if we will see them again?.... I guess as long as there is any Rhododendron left they will be back. They really chomped away at that.

If I had my way I would knit them all leg warmers and nice blankets to wear on their cold winter hunts for food.

MULTIPLE FISH KITES ~ to fly on Good Friday

In Bermuda people make homemade kites and fly them on Good Friday to celebrate the risen Christ. I have taken the idea and am using it with my Sunday School students as a whole group multi age craft lesson. We will be making huge tissue paper creations that won't actually 'fly' in the true sense of the word. But they will be able to be wafted around using balloon sticks with an elastic string that attaches to the fish. Then the children can wave or bobble their fish around.

To create the fish we use a basic fish pattern of two back to back tissue forms. These are glued only along the top and bottom leaving the mouth and tail ends open. Next we stuff lightly with newspaper. Once that is done an oak tag mouth is fitted in the mouth end and glued in place.

Next the scales are applied. This is really easy and fun. Thin ribbons of elmers glue are run up and down along the fish in vertical lines. Before the glue dries...( this takes a while) we use tissue paper rounds. These are 4" wide and are available from craft supply houses in colorfast tissue packs of about 480 per pack. We cut these circles in half and just start laying them all over the fish where the glue is. Starting at the back, the process is fairly easy. When one side is done we switch to the other side and since the tissue scales cover all the glue it isn't too too messy. I do keep wet paper towels near the children so that they can easily clean their fingers from time to time.

A small amount of glitter can be added on one side if you wish. We use tiny glitter pens as they have a nice flow and dry quickly.

We use stick on eyes instead of plastic google eyes, since the stickers are lighter. When the fish is covered in scales the children can decide if they want to add a shredded tissue paper tail and then we attach the string and sticks and the fish are ready to bounce and fly. To attach the string I punch a hole in the bottom end of the mouth that was created with the oak tag glued inside the mouth to keep it open.


It makes a great party craft for kddie birthdays and even the boys love this one.....especially the "FLYING" part.
The large fish is approximately 28 inches long and the smaller one is about 18 inches.
Colorfast tissue comes in bulk also in an assortment of 24 colors per pack of 480. If you want any details on where to order, just email me and I'll be happy to give you the information.

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY ~ MULTIPLE

Multiple snow storms did not phase Mrs. Rosario. It wasn't shopping for multiple items at the grocery store. It wasn't even having to feed multiple mouths. The thing that required her to engage the services of a Nanny was getting all six children dressed to go out before any one of them began undressing again.

TAGGED...by a great friend...

So, here we go again. My good friend Sherry Rogers tagged me and invited me to play along with 5 random things about me.
Should be easy...most of my life has been random lately.

1.) If they let me, I would draw and paint 24/7. But they ( the BIG THEY..husband, dog, cat, mother ) insist on eating regularly.

2.) I have ALWAYS loved snow! Until this year. We have had a winter of snow, ice, mix, over 90 inches of it. And of course, as I type this ...it is snowing...hard. Enough already!

3.) Chocolate. ( many of you will understand why this only requires one word )

4.) I can't watch TV without a sketch pad and pencil in hand.

5.) I dream in vivid color. (I'll bet you do too!) And since we are on the subject of dreams, I often drive someplace in my dreams, park my car and am unable to find it when I look for it. There may be a meaning in this, but often even in my dreams I will tell myself I can't find the car because I am, in fact, dreaming. And I will STILL continue to look for the car. Go Figure!

Since this is a circle of fun I am tagging,

Kate Reitz

Paige Keiser

Nancy Lefko

Isay Hansen

Bron Smith

Play along if you all have some time.
CHEERS!

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY ~ THEORY

Jerome had a theory that if he thought about something long enough it might actaully happen. So he began to think about writing and illustrating his life story, beginning with his early life as a very small child.

©Ginger Nielson2008

I also have another version just completed in tones of gray with some added texture from watercolor paper.

An Ocean of Snow

We live in an area that this year has had over 86 inches of snow during our winter. After the last 8 or 9 inches fell on top of the existing 20 of snow and ice layers, we had a drenching rain. The waves it created in the snow look like an icy ocean. At night this is pretty spectacular, but it is difficult to photograph at night.

Loving What You Do...

The Picture Bookies Artist's Group is showing the process involved in creating their illustrations. Visit the Picture Bookies Blog to see the various techniques, tools and thoughts that go behind a professional illustrator's final product.

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY ~ CHOOSE

©Ginger Nielson

It Hasn't stopped!

It snows here a lot.... and this winter is no exception. The exception to the exception is all the ice and sleet that has managed to slip in with the snow. This means there is a lot of time spent indoors .... when not shoveling, blowing, or plowing snow, ice, slush and other debris. But one can only dream of taking flight on a day like today.

Flying High

There is a competition in April for the New England S C B W I Conference, called Take Flight. A poster must be created that tells the story, fits the theme, and is constrained by a specific size.

While this is not my final entry, it was one of the possibilities I had in mind. In the end I chose a much different illustration which I will post in late April. For now here is one version of Take Flight!

As for this illustration it is the fourth version of this view so far this year. Someday I will be satisfied, maybe after I take my own balloon flight!

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY ~ BLANKET

©Ginger Nielson

Finding your flaws....

Somehow it never looks the same in print as it does during those wonderful hours after 2 am when you are finally finished with a project. The realization is good, just the same, because it only means I can do better. Today I received my copy of an educational reader segment. While on the surface it is good, colorful, tells the story exactly as requested, it lacks the perfection that I am currently striving for. I can only print this tiny example of a painting within a painting, but even here in this image that reproduces at maybe one third the size, I can see areas for improvement.

I suppose we all feel the same way, or at least most of us do...we can always do better. The big shocker for me is how many of the illustrators and artists I know or read about occasionally have the some of same feelings. And their work is amazing!

So do you all ever feel that way? Like there is a long way to go...uphill....with a bag of rocks on your back....??