Making Faces

Worried, Happy, Sad, Surprised, Angry, Hungry
by Lily

Cousin Lovin

Merry Christmas cousin Eden!
mosaic by Isaac, Grace, and Lily

"Backwards" by Gracie

"Backwards" for Illustration Friday
by Gracie, age 7

A mouse riding a cat backwards...

"Little Things" by Gracie

"Little Things" for Illustration Friday
by Gracie, age 7

A band of little princess fairies

"Excess" by Isaac

"Excess" for Illustration Friday
by Isaac, age 9

"He wanted donuts, not just a few but hundreds and thousands and millions -- more donuts than his mother and father could ever buy him."
(quote from "Who Needs Donuts?" by M.A.Stamaty)

Entomology

This summer Isaac started collecting bugs from the backyard, studying them with a magnifying glass, and crafting detailed visual records of his finds. Here are a couple of examples:


The pictures in the top-left corners are a record of where he found each bug, and the descriptions at the bottom-right are what Isaac was doing at the time.


You might be a bit surprised what sparked Isaac's naturalist endeavor. It was actually Tony Diterlizzi's fantastical Spiderwick Guides....

"Zoo"

"Zoo" for Illustration Friday
by Gracie (age 7), Lily (age 4), Elijah (age 2) and Dad

This was a fun family collaborative for I.F. this week -- Noah's Ark, the floating zoo. Dad drew a big ark on big paper, and then we filled it with animals - each person taking just one animal per pairing. Even Elijah wanted in on the fun, adding lots of air creatures up in the right-hand corner. You can click it for a larger view...

"Superstition" by Isaac

Black Cat for Illustration Friday
cut paper, by Isaac, age 9

"Scales" by Isaac

King Cobra for Illustration Friday
by Isaac, age 9

Isaac created this picture for the "scales" theme using our big box of cut-up magazine mosaic squares. Dad is impressed with how big the project was for Isaac -- he worked on it for four days! You can click the image for a close up...

What is it?

Gracie (age 7) has a puzzle for us:

Think you know? Scroll down for the answer....

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1


If you guessed magnified snake scales, you're right! (See the magnifying glass?)

"Scales" by Lily

Scaly Dragon for Illustration Friday
by Lily, age 4

Harvest

Fruity
by Gracie

A picture for our good friend Mr. Sandford

Art Imitating Life

Hand in Hand
by Gracie

I saw this picture lying around and thought it was so funny in concept: Gracie traced her hand on a piece of paper to make a picture of someone tracing a hand on a piece of paper. What random fancy sparked such a picture?

"Grow" by Isaac

"Grow" for Illustration Friday
by Isaac, age 9

3D art, made with cut paper

"Extreme" by Isaac

"Extreme" for Illustration Friday
by Isaac, age 9

Extreme biking: he's changing a tire in mid-jump!

"Open" by Lily

"Open" for Illustration Friday
by Lily, age 4

An egg cracks open and out pops a duckling!

Adam Rex

Family favorite author/illustrator Adam Rex recently added Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty to the links list on his blog! Wow!

We love his books!
Here is some Adam Rex fan art by the Z-Kids:

Elephant in a Tree
by Lily (from "Tree Ring Circus")



Clown Watching a Boov
by Gracie (from "Tree Ring Circus" and "Smekday")



The Narwhal Gets a Turn on the Zoomobile
by Isaac (From "Pssst!")

Check out Mr. Rex's books! I think he's nicely poised for near-future kid lit dominion.

"Blue" by Isaac

"Blue" for Illustration Friday
by Isaac, age 9

A frost breathing blue dragon in his cave...

"The Blues" by Gracie

"The Blues" for Illustration Friday
by Gracie, age 7

This little blue guy is singing the blues because he dropped his blue icecream cone on the ground.

"Juggle" by Gracie

"Juggle" for Illustration Friday
by Gracie, age 7

It seems the clown is upset that the baby is cutting in on his act -- and able to juggle ice cream, no less!

"Wedding" by Lily

"Wedding" for Illustration Friday
by Lily, age 4

(Dad loves how their arms are reaching for each other!)

"Wedding" by Gracie

"Wedding" for Illustration Friday
by Gracie, age 7

She knows he's an alien, but she loves him anyway...

Cousin Lovin

Happy Birthday cousin Mercy!
mosaic by Isaac, Grace, and Lily

"Momentum" by Isaac

Uncle Andy Falling Off His Bike
by Isaac, age 8

We thought this picture was perfect for this week's Illustration Friday "Momentum" theme. (You can see the whole fall replayed in all it's dramatic glory here.)

"Alphabet" by Isaac

"Alphabet" for Illustration Friday
by Isaac, age 8

Isaac painted the letters with watercolor and then added lines with a pen to make the critters...

100th Post

You're supposed to celebrate your 100th posting, right?  Well this is it!  I thought in honor of post number 100, we'd share some more Family Trading Cards.  I pulled these ones from among the cards in the 2 packs that Mom and Lily have collected.  Keep in mind, some of these could have been made up to two years ago...


by Lily


by Gracie


by Isaac


by Mom


by Dad

"Visitor" by Gracie

"Visitor" for Illustration Friday
by Gracie, age 7

Little Red Riding Hood visits her Grandmother. (But another visitor had visited first!)

"Visitor" by Isaac

"Visitor" for Illustration Friday
by Isaac, age 8

The door whips open and a mysterious shadowy visitor enters from the cold...
(made with oil pastels)

Long Leg Captain

Long Leg Captain by Isaac


Long Leg Captain is another character Isaac created.
Like Sharkman, Long Leg is a figure who seems to pop up often in Isaac's pictures.



Dad's favorite things about Long Leg Captain are the blades on the corners of his cape and the fact that he's got two sets of knees on each leg. Way cool!



Dad thinks Long Leg Captain is so cool, he did some Fan Art a while back.

"Captain" by Lily

"Captain" for Illustration Friday
by Lily, age 4

A bunny pirate with a map in her hand...

"Captain" by Gracie

 
"Captain" for Illustration Friday
by Gracie, age 7

A fierce captain she-pirate...

Hi Baby!

Welcome to the world Kaitlin!
by Gracie

Wow

Ballerinas
by Lily

I tried for 5 minutes to convince Lily that she was mistaken and that Gracie had drawn this picture -- until Gracie confirmed that nope -- it was indeed 4 year old Lily's... WOW!

Tribal

Masked Native
by Isaac

"Missing" by Isaac

"Missing" for Illustration Friday
made with cut paper by Isaac, age 8

The police arrive at the crime scene and discover an empty jewelcase -- the necklace is missing! Quickly swinging away is the caped villain, necklace in hand...

"Moon" by Gracie

"Moon" for Illustration Friday
by Gracie, age 7