How to stave off a heat wave...

Hot in Chicago this weekend... :)

Just Because...

For all of you freelance artists out there whose studio companion has 4 legs and a waggly tail, this is for you...

Meet Sunshine!

Every artist needs an assistant. This is Sunshine. She is my happy girl. :)

playing in the snow...

For all of you bloggers in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa...happy summer!

Tuesday's Tidbits

Ok, here's a teaser for you. I cannot post the book cover I am working on...not yet anyway. But here is a tiny tiny section of it in progress. The book cover illo is almost 25" wide, so this really is just a peek. That's all I can dare show you, though. Once the book is showcased in a catalog in September, I should be able to reveal the entire cover.

Also, I would like to thank Ginger and Monica for bestowing this award upon me.

Everyone knows I love my Sunshine girl. Here we are working in our studio. Do you like Sunshine's summer haircut? I did it myself.
In turn, I will pass on the award to Diane, and her little beast Basha.

Okay, back to work!

200

Hello everyone!! Thanks for visiting. Today Sunshine and I are celebrating my 200th blog post! There is lots to share with you, so please read on...

Here I am posting my latest illustration in my Flower Girls series:
I am creating this series to sell as note cards/invitations when I launch my new online shop in July. They will all be printed in color (as the first girl is in the post below), and sold as a set of 6 (or 8..I have not decided yet). I will also be selling full-color prints of many of my other illustrations, including Halloween and Sea Princess.


Now, on to the fun stuff. A couple of months ago, Joan tagged me to list 10 facts about myself. For the sake of saving space (and because I cannot think of that many interesting things), I am adding my own twist to the list! So here are My Five Favorites for June 2008:

1. I love unusual scents, such as wool, silk, rain and lime peel.
2. Robert Reed, the actor who played Mike Brady on the Brady Bunch...well, he was my cousin. He was born John Robert Rietz. I never met him and he died in '92, but he is buried back here in Skokie, IL. I guess that makes me a Brady. Sort of. : )
3. I laugh when I am in pain. No, really. Ask my sister. She thinks it is the funniest thing in the world when I stub a toe or smack my head on a shelf because pain makes me laugh.
4. I love listening to this when I am painting or drawing. You can go to Pandora.com and create a sound track for your drawing session. So cool!
5. I love looking at photos of beautiful food and reading the recipes. In fact, unleash me in Borders and I head straight for the food magazines, grab 2 or 3, and sit for hours reading them from cover to cover. Occasionally, I will even BUY one. But my latest tasty morsel is this website! This photo below makes my mouth water. And chef Russell James even holds classes. So if I am ever in the UK, I will have to look him up.
(photo courtesy of The Raw Chef Blog and chef Russell James) The most amazing part of this Cacao Pistachio Florentine & Mint Ice Cream Sandwich is that is is raw and it is vegan.


I still have news I want to tell you all, but I can't yet. The suspense is killing me! But you never count your chickens before they are hatched, and so I'll wait. I'll wait until it is official and all my ducks are in a row. Hee hee....enough about chickens and ducks, this post is turning fowl. : ) (sorry, couldn't resist)

Thanks to all my peeps (another fowl pun) who have visited my blog on a regular basis and have been kind enough to leave me comments or email me. I am looking forward to the next 200 posts with all of you! Fo' shizzle. : )

Day 1 of 21

©Kathleen Rietz
I was invited by Alicia Padron and Gina Perry to participate in a 21 day challenge. The challenge is to create for 15 minutes every day. The idea is to try something new, whether it be to use a medium that you are not accustomed to, employ a challenging angle or perspective, draw characters you do not normally draw, work more loosely and spontaneously...basically to push the boundaries of your creativity and shake out of whatever rut you are in. For me, I actually started doing this in February. I have tried to develop a style of children's illustration that I like for myself and to loosen up a bit. But most of my work is done in a sketchbook, and I find that my colors often turn out muddy because the paper is really not meant for wet media. So I am going to try experimenting with other paper and board and "get out of my sketchbook" a little more.

I drew this sketch of Sunshine a few nights ago. Today I added watercolor washes to it as loosely and quickly as I could, just letting my brushstrokes show and being "okay" with the brushstrokes. I often think things like brushstrokes add character to an illustration, but I used to try to control my illustrations too much. So I am trying to break old habits.

off to bed...

©Kathleen Rietz, goodnite sweet pup...

Illustration Friday - "Homage"

©Kathleen Rietz
Paying homage to childhood...
It is said that, as artists, every piece of art we create is a self portrait. I can definitely say this illustration is "me". Regardless of my age on the outside, I am still this girl dancing on my bed with my dog and making lots of noise.
I am still working out some of the details in the bed and overall proportions, but I hope to take this to color in the future.

Illustration Friday - "Pet Peeves" & an Easter I will never forget!

© Kathleen Rietz
One of my biggest pet peeves is gossip. We all know what it feels like to be the target. Makes you not want to go to school.
© Kathleen Rietz (the elusive Easter Skunk)
Just after 10pm on Saturday night, my dog Sunshine had a run-in with - among all things - the Easter Skunk. I let her out into the yard to do her business, but she never even made her way off the patio before she was sprayed in the face by a skunk. For those of you who do not have skunks in your part of the world in which you live and have never smelled the aroma emitted by these creatures of darkness, I cannot even begin to describe the smell to you because nothing compares to it. But it is oily, deep, intense and nauseating. My friend Joan who lives in Hawaii found my story rather amusing because she "thought these things only happened in cartoons"....like Pe Pe Le Pew. Needless to say, I nearly cleared out the drug store as I waited in line to pay for my remedy.....NO ONE would stand next to me. I also did not make it to church today to celebrate Easter. Nor brunch at the country club where my sister works. No one wants to eat an omelet in a room that smells of skunk funk.

Anyhoo - if any of you are interested, here is how you get rid of skunk funk:

On your pet, shampoo the pet with a mixture of:
1 pint hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
1 tsp Dawn liquid dish soap
Leave on pet for 10 minutes, rinse.

In your house:
In a large pot, boil water, Clorox bleach and salt on your stove on high heat for several hours. I was so pleasantly surprised to find how well this one works! We boiled the pot all day and the smell is actually gone!

I hope you all had a much more relaxing and enjoyable Easter weekend than I did. I am looking forward to hitting a post-Easter candy sale to soothe my psyche with a chocolate marshmallow bunny if I can still find one!

Illustration Friday - "Theory"

I actually drew this as a Valentine for my dog Sunshine, but it fits the theme "Theory", and I am not sure I will find time to complete another drawing this week. So I wanted to share it with you all.
Scientific studies have shown the benefits of keeping a pet. They lower your blood pressure, raise your sense of well being, and caring for an animal can give a person a sense of purpose and love. Dogs and cats are used for all kinds of therapy, and there are programs which bring animals into retirement homes for visits.
My dog and I are inseparable. She really does make me laugh everyday...I'd say she has been very good for my sense of well being!
©Kathleen Rietz
For all of you who have pets to hug today.
Happy Valentine's Day. (my original message from the original posting on Valentine's Day)