Illustration Friday: Dusty

The word for the week at illustration friday is DUSTY. Likely composed in the 1580's, Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella is an English sonnet sequence containing 108 sonnets and 11 songs. The name derives from the two Greek words, 'aster' (star) and 'phil' (lover), and the Latin word 'stella' meaning star. Astrophel is the star lover and Stella is his star.

Some have suggested that the love represented here may be a literal one - Astrophel is Sidney and Stella is Penelope Rich, the very attractive wife of a courtier. She was considered one of the beauties of Elizabeth's court. She was golden-haired with dark eyes, a gifted singer and dancer, fluent in French, Italian, and Spanish.

Details of their relationship are sketchy. Where does the word 'dusty' come in? Read the sonnet.

More Sketchbook shots

These are the final pages of my book for The Sketchbook Project. I'm having separation anxiety as this book became part of my daily life. There were so many themes to choose from- I chose "Make Mine A Double" so I thought it fitting to have me and my gal pal Cha Cha (clearly a nickname) sipping a Scorpion bowl-ish beverage. Double trouble.

More Dell Movies

Due to a Blizzard here in the Northeast, I was unable to fly out to Chicago for filming this- soooo, all my illustrations but not my hand doing the demo this time (still my hand in the Bethenny and Jenn D movies though!)  Still very fun to be a part of this. So check out all 4 celebrity movies (Kathy Buckworth, Sheldon Williams, Bethenny, and Jenn D.)

Click the image below and it will bring you to the site.

Illustration Friday: Déjà vu

I'm guessing Queen Victoria had a lot of those "gee, I feel like this has happened before" moments. She had 9 children and 42 grandchildren (despite the fact that she hated being pregnant and was repulsed by breast-feeding.) And in her extremely long reign as queen (longer than any woman in history) there were 7 assassination attempts on her life. One odd little fact about Victoria- she had "Bishopophobia." 

The Sketchbook Project

So it looks like all my fellow participants are having similar panic attacks about finishing their sketchbooks. Like I said to Deborah Mori... Shoemakers have the worst shoes. Here's a peak at the current state of my sketchbook - for more information about this project, visit the website HERE.

Illustration Friday: Resolutions

The word for the week at Illustration Friday is "Resolutions." My new year's resolution is to wear a lot of black with strands of pearls and follow the words of Coco Chanel.