ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

CRUNCHY

This week's word immediately brought to mind Monty Python's Whizzo Quality Assortment of chocolates—in particular, "Crunchy Frog."

This confection is made of "the finest baby frogs, dew-picked and flown from Iraq, cleansed in the finest quality spring water, lightly killed, and then sealed in a succulent Swiss quintuple smooth treble cream milk chocolate envelope, and lovingly frosted with glucose."

"If we took the bones out it wouldn't be crunchy would it?"

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pen and ink; color added in Photoshop

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

INFINITE

Silently one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven, Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


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pen and ink; color added in Photoshop

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

MAGNIFY

Bread mold (penicillium) magnified 1200x—and given an art nouveau twist. I was aiming for the look of a glazed tile in the third image (best viewed in larger version).

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pen and ink; color added in Photoshop

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

WRAPPED

A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma—and tied with a bow!

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pen and ink; color added in Photoshop

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

IMPATIENCE

Due to a cold wet spring and summer in New England this year—in addition to a two-week delay in sprinkling the seeds—our much-anticipated zinnias were very late in blooming. The impatiens were right on schedule though!

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pen and ink; color added in Photoshop

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

UNFOLD

“God is the Sun and when His rays fall upon your heart, not impeded by the clouds of egoism, the lotus blooms and the petals unfold.”

— Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Indian spiritual leader


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pen and ink, color added in Photoshop

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

HIERARCHY

A little bird did what an entire army couldn't. Even a most powerful person can sometimes be persuaded by the voice of the smallest. Use strategy and alternate paths for a chance to have your views heard.

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ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

THEATER

This drawing could illustrate a number of ideas, but, while working on it, I was thinking about how much of politics is really nothing more than theater.

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pen and ink, color added in Photoshop

OUR RESCUE PUP

MONTY

Three days before Christmas, my husband and I, and our four dogs, adopted a three-pound, four-month-old blind toy poodle from a local rescue group. We named him Monty—after Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks—because he certainly had a funny one. He is now eight months old and doing wonderfully. But he has a strange habit of following with his eyes something only he can see up near the ceiling. I always say he is watching the angels—who almost certainly brought us all together.

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pen and ink, color added in Photoshop

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

IMPOSSIBILITY

When I bought my clivia plant about 10 years ago, I expected to see flowers fairly quickly since my book on houseplants rated it as an easy plant to grow. But after about 5 years, I finally gave up all hope of it ever flowering. And then last week it bloomed!

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pen and ink, color added in Photoshop

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

FLEETING

“Nothing is more fleeting than external form, which withers and alters like the flowers of the field at the appearance of autumn”

— Umberto Eco

This quote reminded me of the dried poppy seed pods I saved from our garden several years ago and have been meaning to draw ever since. The design in the background is a top view of the seed pod.

pen and ink, color added in Photoshop

Blackbird Backyard Brew label

My husband is brewing his first batch of beer and asked me to design a label.

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

TALISMAN

It's not always lucky for everyone involved.

Just a quick one this week. In memory of Violette, the rabbit, and her sister Emily.

pen and ink, color added in Photoshop

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

POISE

It is difficult to maintain one’s poise when the sky is falling.

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pen and ink, color added in Photoshop

copyright Patricia Anne Lane 2009

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

LEGENDARY

The Native American thunderbird is a legendary protector with glowing red eyes who flies in with storms and has the ability to control lightning. The flapping of his gigantic wings produces thunder, and he is large enough to carry a whale.

pen and ink, color added in Photoshop

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

BREEZY

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ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

INSTINCT

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ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

pen and ink, color added in Photoshop

FLAWED

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

pen and ink, color added in Photoshop



PALE

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “party per pale” (or, simply, “per pale”) is a term used in heraldry to describe the division of the field of a shield into two equal parts by a perpendicular line.

There is a lot of interesting information at www.americanheraldry.org. To quote from the Heraldic Primer found on that site: "Heraldry has been very much alive and well in America since the first Europeans set foot on the continent. It is as much a part of our heritage as our language, laws, or any other part of the common Western culture in which Americans share."

This was all news to me. So I decided to try my hand at heraldry design. Periwinkle Gardens is my first effort — but most likely not my last. Everyone in my family might just get their own personal design next Christmas. Try it — it’s fun!

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

pen and ink, color added in Photoshop

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