I’ve been very busy this month. Last month I decided to do a daily doodle. The reasons behind this are many, but mainly, I wanted to get into the habit of drawing something (anything) every day. When I was much younger, the daily drawing habit was something I never had to think about. With the responsibilities of adulthood, like mortgage and bills and parenting, the days seem to be much shorter.

Obviously, there are still 24 hours in a day, it’s just that they’ve become clogged with other things.

I also have been working hard behind the scenes to update (and upgrade) my web presence. I am on myspace, facebook, live journal and a half a dozen other networking sites. I have not twittered yet, but that may change eventually as many of my art friends have been forming twitter groups to network with each other. I hate to think I may be missing something.

Since my injury earlier this year, I have been home a lot more than usual because I wasn’t able to travel for my usual tour season this spring and summer. It’s put a dent in my income that I will have a hard time recovering from in the remaining months, but the down time has allowed me to concentrate on the many chores that piled up because I was either packing, traveling or unpacking for much of the years previously.

I have high hopes that 2010 will bring many new events, friends and opportunities. I just have to be patient and lay the ground work.

This month’s ABC Goddess is Pax, a Roman Goddess of Peace. Her festival day happens in July, so it seemed a perfect choice for the free coloring page. Enjoy.

No Comments | Tags: Abc lesser known Goddesses, art nouveau, free coloring pages, Pax

July is half way through. Time just seems to go faster and faster as I get older. To the left is a portion of the newest installment for the free coloring pages at Magical Child News. This month features the letter J and the Goddess is Jerah, a Semetic Goddess. Sign up for the yahoo group mailing list to download this and previous free coloring pages.

I joined a new blog group this week called Watercolor Wednesdays. The members have to be watercolor artists doing children’s book illustration. Every Wednesday we receive a prompt for a new painting. This week’s prompt is “this little piggy.” We are to let our imaginations run wild, and mine is working over time. So much so I haven’t been able to decide what to do yet.

Work on Rabbit’s Song is moving along smoothly. The rough layout for the cover has received approval and I am busy finalizing all the changes and tiny details. The publisher will be making the book available for pre-order as soon as the cover receives final approval. The authors and I will all be appearing together in Tennessee for a pre-release party. All the books pre-ordered before the mid October event will be signed by all three of us. I am very excited about this.

I’ve decided that watching the scale inch up over the summer has got to end. I got my bike out of the basement and dusted off the cobwebs yesterday morning. I rode out to the post office and back in the morning. It actually felt kind of good to be doing something just for me. In fact it felt so good that I decided to ride the bike down to A Visual Impact in the afternoon to get my hair cut. (Check out the logo — I designed it for them.) I arrived at the shop without incident, got my hair cut and started on my way home. I took the main drag home (fewer hills) instead of taking the side streets I traveled on my way downtown. That was a mistake. Not only was the traffic heavier, the folks in the cars seemed to think they needed to honk their horns at me as they drove past. The side of the rode is not in good repair, so it was tough going. I gritted my teeth and struggled on until I cam to the rail road tracks. The tracks cut across the road at an angle. I was attempting to pedal my sorry self across them and avoid the worst of the potholes and road debris when a car swooshed by rather closely with horn blaring. It startled me and I took my eyes off the road momentarily to see the car rush past only to have the front tire of the bike catch in the track and get stuck. Needless to say, I kept going and my bike didn’t. OW! I now have a nice pair of matching road rash on my right knee and left leg. I wear leather biking gloves, so my hands are undamaged. A good thing because I used them to stop my face from landing in the gravel by the side of the road.

Suffice it to say, I won’t be traveling that section of road again!

No Comments | Tags: art nouveau, free coloring page, girl, Goddess, line art, semitic