picture pages

I've been totally MIA on this blog. I'm so sorry. I've been crafting, arting and doing all kinds of luxurious things, but just not blogging about it. One change is that I have set up an Etsy site again that is strictly my artwork. It is called angie y. studios. I will be expanding the work in there, but for now there are some mizuko jizo, some meditating mamas, some of my element and labyrinth prints and even a tarot reading. (I love giving readings! Tell me if it is too expensive.) I realize the common theme of my artwork is the sacred and grasping for the Divine. So, hopefully, that is coming through the artwork. If there is anything you want to see for sale, or think should be for sale, in there, let me know. I have many many greeting cards for sale in there, because I find them incredibly useful. But I think they might be too expensive? I don't know. It is hard to know what to charge. The blank cards cost me 1.50/card. I am also wondering if anyone is interested in an ATC swap. Not sure the theme, but sure would be cool.

ANYWAY, summer is here. Beezus' last day of pre-k was on the 15th. YAY, SCHOOL'S OUT!

I love having Beezus home. Lazy days of artwork and swimming. Popsicles and bathing suits all day long. My mother-in-law has been visiting, so everything has been slightly off schedule. Not in a bad way, just that we aren't in those long dog days of summer yet. We have been going out most days. We had a mini-heat wave last week, which kept us inside. We colored a lot. I love crayons and coloring. I have the tendency to shy away from coloring books, as a rule. I think a blank sheet of paper is a wonderful thing. But answering the questions, "What should I draw, Mama?" all coloring time is annoying too. So, I have a few coloring books. My favorite one, by far, is Taro Gomi's Doodle All Year. In fact, this year, I decided I was going to buy myself one and one for Beezus, so we each have a book to color. And we can color the same thing.

As I was thinking about this future buying spree, I thought about how much Bea loves for me to draw her pictures to color. So, I drew some and she colored them.

I draw pictures of her brother and Bea. Beezus swinging. Beezus baking. Anything they do, I draw. With crayon. On white paper. Then hand it off, and they color them. At Lakeshore, they sell little blank books. I bought a few for Beezus, because she is really into writing books right now. I think they are 1.59 a piece, or something like that. I grabbed one last week and made a coloring book.

None of these pictures are perfect. I made a ton of mistakes drawing, but Beezus LOVED it, because it is all about her. There are something like sixteen spreads. I drew scenes from our life, things they love to do, from summer to autumn to winter.

I basically drew these while the kids were coloring. It took me a week to make the book. Obviously, I wasn't dedicating time to it. Just doing it to color with the kids. Now they have their own coloring book. As you can see, Beezus started coloring it immediately, before I took pictures. The picture pages are great too, because you can do one-offs, copy them, and pull them out anytime you need a coloring page. Kids love to color the same picture over and over again. Or you can draw them as they are coloring and ask them to invent scenes with you. That is how the cupcake one came to be.

I like Beezus' choice to make her and her brother yellow, eating green cupcakes. Yuck.

Hope this gave you some ideas. Many of my drawings are terrible, but my children just love them. Remember that. And all of my drawings are simply fatter stick drawings. Remember that too.