So....summer?

Um...where did summer go? It seems just like yesterday and I was cleaning up my classroom and saying farewell to all my students for the summer. And now we are just weeks away from textbooks, notes and new classes! CRAZY!

I still feel like I'm in catch-up mode after such a crazy and busy summer. I'll have to do another post about teaching this summer with Arts Outreach, we did a lot of fun projects that I can't wait to share! 

Here's some of my favorite photos from our family trip to Utah this past week. Still forever one of my favorite places on this continent...

1. The roads out in Utah are pretty incredible. Miles of desert and hills and rock formations and fields with NO ONE around. 

2. I brought all my travel gear with me to watercolor and get some work done while we were there (no such thing as a real vacation anymore I guess...)

3. There were SO MANY wildflowers this summer! This was just a small sample of all of them. 

4. Our grandpa has a few horses on this ranch and they're very friendly and photogenic. 

5. My sister snapped this photo of me while I was sketching on the edge of Horseshoe Bend in Arizona. SO happy to be able to cross that spot off the sketching bucket list, it's an amazing view. 

6. This is my little watercolor of Horseshoe Bend. I was pretty terrified the wind was going to pick it up and carry it all the way to the bottom of the canyon! 

7. Before we hiked out to Horseshoe Bend, we visited Lower Antelope Canyon. INCREDIBLE! I've been wanting to go back here ever since I first visited the upper canyon a few years ago. Lower Antelope Canyon was SO MUCH BETTER! Much longer and fewer tourists. 

8. This was my backpack I snagged during a road trip to Texas a few years ago with all my travel gear. 

In other news, I'm working on a brand new newsletter with some special downloads! Sign up here and get in on it!  

Venice Beach sketches

I spent a couple days last week down in the odd but awesome Venice Beach. I LOVE Venice Beach. I've loved it since I was little. Yes, it is filthy. Yes, it is crowded. Yes, the parking is terrible. BUT! It's at the beach, it's surrounded by good food, it's eclectic in every way, everyone (I swear, EVERYONE) has succulents in their front yards, and there are canals. The canals are my favorite part of Venice. I could spend all day cruising up and down them sketching and shopping for my dream house. One day...

1. Every time I visit Venice, I always try to sketch at Cafe Collage. It's right on the corner by the famous Venice sign. Plus they have pretty tasty coffee. 

2. I was lucky enough to be there on a Friday for the Venice Farmer's Market. I got my tasty pastry and cruised the canals for an early morning sketch. 

3. I sketched this my first night back in town at the Canal Club. 

4. A quick sketch of the coastline from the Venice Pier

5. Watercoloring the canals, right around the corner from my dream house! 

6. A little souvenir from the beach, inside and out

7. One of my favorite restaurants down there is C & O Trattoria. We used to always go there when I was little. Tasty Italian food in a very entertaining space. 

And a couple photos too...

Have you been to Venice Beach before? Do you like it or hate it?

Utah road trip mini sketchbook

I finally got around to photographing my mini sketchbook from the Utah road trip. I wish I had been able to sketch more while we were on the road but I love the small collection that I was able to make. Here are my favorites from the trip, but the whole sketchbook can be seen on my Behance profile. I put it on my website too but there's a lot in flux with the site right now and it's just not quite ready to hit publish but stay tuned for that launch...it's coming soon...

Sketchbook documented: check! Sleep schedule back to normal: check! Now if only I could tackle the giant pile of laundry left in the wake from the trip...

1. Just a quick little title page in homage to all the hours on that bloody highway...

2. This was the quaint little cabin we stayed at in Glendale!

3. Zion will always be one of my favorite National Parks to visit. It's so majestic, especially during the monsoon season when the thunderheads roll in!

4. Next time I go back to Antelope Canyon, I'm going to take the photography tour. Longer tour down there with less people = more time to sketch the light and curves

5. The Natural Bridge at Bryce Canyon was high on my list to sketch this trip

6. When we visited my grandparents in Kanab, I sketches some of the many arrowheads we've all found over the years.

Puerto Rico mini sketchbook

With summer work right around the corner (Monday...eek!), I'm trying to catch up and get everything in order. Time to finish up commissions and get them mailed out before I'm battling munchkin induced exhaustion every afternoon! 

One thing high on my list to get done before Monday was to get my Puerto Rico sketchbook all documented!  These are some of my favorites from my little mini sketchbook but I have the entire Puerto Rican sketchbook posted on Behance. I'll share some more photos from my trip soon as well. 

1. I free-handed everything this trip! No preliminary pencil sketches at all! Which is always a challenge when there's cursive or writing...

2. Our hotel had a little private beach with a ton of palm trees. This was also where they had all the hammocks strung up!

3. I'm still in love with the blue streets of Old San Juan! In my dream house, I would have my whole kitchen floor made to look like those streets...

4. On one of our last days, we drove up to the Arecibo Observatory, the largest radio telescope in the world! 1000 feet across! If you've seen the movies Contact, The Losers or Golden Eye then you've seen this beast! 

5. Some quick little people sketches from my 7 hour layover in Ft. Lauderdale...

6. On our last day we threw on some goggles and chased the fish in the lagoon, where I found a giant shell! This ended up being my perfect little (free) souvenir!

Mini Collages

I haven't been sketching at all, but I have been collaging a bit! It started during the summer when I was teaching my bookmaking workshop. I was getting antsy about not having made anything for myself in so long. So I brought a blank mini sketchbook to class one day and started playing around with some of the scraps from the kiddos. 

It's been ages since I collaged! The last big project with collaging was at the end of high school when I altered an Encyclopedia for my senior project. Soooo much collaging. I did a little bit when I was off at college but there hasn't been much since. I forgot how much I love doing it! 

These days they've been taking on a traveling theme, and lots of quotes too. Not all these pages are done yet but I just wanted to give a little peek into what's happening creatively these days. 

I also won't be doing a Friday Feature this week, (forgive me!) The family and I are all headed to Vegas tomorrow for a wedding. Today I've been collaging instead of planning/blogging for this weekend, I guess I've already mentally checked out for this little mini vacation. Back on schedule next week though! 

IF: shiny!

A quickie for Illustration Friday's theme this week: SHINY!

Sparkly jewels! And an excuse to use my fountain pen some more...

mini sketches - ZOO!

It has been years, possibly even a decade, since I last went to a Zoo. I was lucky to be able to visit the Santa Barbara Zoo today with the young boy I've been homeschooling. We spent the day sketching and moseying around in search of an armadillo and lemurs. Both of which are no longer inhabiting the zoo, but there were plenty of giraffes and flamingos to distract us!

And a couple others. Been using my new fountain pens like a fiend! 

sketches lately...

Sketches from my little mini sketchbooks this week...