February 2008

My "Doodle a Day" pocket calendar has slowed a bit. I'll catch up eventually. Here's February:

Shop around

Well, I finally got a CafePress storefront put together with lots of stuff to show off all these kid's illos. Here it is:

www.cafepress.com/nora_thompson

Lots of clothes, of course, for big and traditionally-sized kids, a tote bag, teddy bear, pet accessories, journal, mouse pad, mugs, cards, stickers, magnets--whew! I culled the images from both my traditional and twisted styles, and tried especially hard to match up the images with the product I placed them on. Not an easy task!

My favorite? Hmmm. That would probably have to be the Jeeraffe journal (pictured above). I think he fits perfectly in the space.

Take a peek or a long look around, and don't forget, holidays are just around the corner...

Wall Arch

I was pretty startled to hear the news about the falling of Wall Arch at Arches National Park in Utah. Here's the National Park Service article. We made a trip out there two years ago, and that particular arch was one I remember well because of its proximity to the hiking trail. A stone wall blocked one side and the Wall Arch spanned along the opposite wall with the trail sandwiched between. The structure seemed very delicate at the time, but I got that same impression with most of the arches we saw there. It was a humbling feeling knowing those stones could topple on our heads at any moment.

I'm glad we took so many pictures.
(Arches National Park: Wall Arch 14 June 2006)

Total redesign!

Just wanted everyone to know I've totally redesigned both my graphic design/editorial illustration site: www.graphx.us and my fine art site: www.norathompson.us. I was hoping to make both of them a little more classy than they had been, so I created the pages in Flash and dropped them in a main page I created in Dreamweaver.

And, although it's been up for a little while already, I guess this would be the official announcement of my fine artwork online. I use many mediums including oil, acrylic, graphite (powdered and in pencil form), charcoal (powdered, vine and compressed), conte crayon and many natural materials, to name a few. I have also included several of my silver gelatin photographic prints on the site as well as previous show listings, my artist's statement and bio.

I'm hoping for feedback, especially if anyone encounters problems in the technical area.

And thanks to everyone who has already fed back!

Giraffe polo

Here's a sketch I did between teaching classes yesterday. I had the thumbnail for this drawn over a year ago, but was afraid it wouldn't work and never pursued the idea. Looking for more portfolio pieces for the fall SCBWI conference made me revisit some old sketchbook ideas, and after I came across this one again I decided to give it a shot.