Circus Elephant

May 1, 2014 | Doreen E. Lepore

This is an illustration for a picture book that I’m working on. It’s an Asian elephant that I saw at the circus last year.

The paper is 140 lb. Arches hot press and the painting was done with watercolor and drawn, first in pencil then ink. There weren’t very many colors used, mostly purple, yellow and blue. There is actually a decorative border on the painting but it didn’t fit on the scanner.

Before you get all angry activist on me for going to the circus, you should know that Ringling Bros. founded the Center for Elephant Conservation here in Florida in 1995. The “200-acre, state-of-the-art facility is dedicated to the conservation, breeding, and understanding of these amazing animals.” http://www.elephantcenter.com/about-us/about-cec/

The Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) weighs between 3-7 tons (6,000-14,000 lbs.) and is between 7-12 feet tall. They have been on the endangered species list since 1976.
Ringling is putting their many years of experience to good use and these heartwarming pictures of their elephant calves are proof of their success: http://www.elephantcenter.com/meet-our-herd/elephant-calves/

The circus is where we get to meet and fall in love with the elephant in person. Once you see an elephant you never forget them.

Spring

March 24, 2014March 24, 2014 | Doreen E. Lepore

Inspired by a fellow blogger’s challenge to come up with something blue that says “spring”. http://decorartuk.wordpress.com/2014/03/22/something-in-common/ The local manatees came to mind right away. They are also known as sea cows and have a fairly bovine personality – sweet, slow and docile, not to mention big.

One time while walking near a dock I saw some manatees and one seemed to have a problem. After talking to a local officer they found that she had been playing this trick all along the coast and in fact she was fine, but seemed to like the attention. Silly cow.

Here’s a nice video, so you can see what they look like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7txP9MOCqs

Some basic manatee facts:

http://www.savethemanatee.org/manfcts.htm

and then there’s this – were they the basis for the myth of mermaids? I think so!

http://www.savethemanatee.org/sirenian.htm

Changing Course in 2014

January 12, 2014January 12, 2014 | Doreen E. Lepore

As usual in the beginning of the year I think of all the millions of things that I want to do and this year I’m going to start with focusing on one thing. It’s a huge thing, sort of overwhelming at times, but, I think I need to do it …… and it will consume the whole year.

For the past two years I’ve been participating in PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) held in November – which is a challenge that Tara Lazar has organized. So, now I have two files of ideas, about 65 in all (not all good ideas) and it seems there ought to be something worth pursuing. http://taralazar.com

This year I’ve joined Julie Hedlund’s group – 12 x 12 in 2014, which is a writing challenge to write 12 children’s book drafts during the year, one a month, from the ideas generated in the aforementioned idea challenge. http://www.juliehedlund.com/

So I’m challenged and motivated to get some work done this year.

The Reed Pen

April 14, 2013 | Doreen E. Lepore

The reed pen is a very simple instrument that van Gogh used to perfection during his time in Arles. Vincent made his own pens and after buying some I see why. The pens that you can buy at art supply stores are made of bamboo and the ones that I bought were marked small, medium and large – all the same price. It took me a little while to figure out what the sizing meant. The sticks were similar in size and it was actually the points that were different sizes. After using the pens, I’ve decided to modify them to suit my needs because I find that the finer points aren’t very useful.

Drawing with a reed pen is fun and requires a mark making language. Mine needs more development. The paper I used was a heavy weight, 140 lb., hot pressed watercolor paper. van Gogh used laid paper and I did find some at Staples but haven’t tried it yet, other than to scribble and see how it feels. The reed pen flows better on the stationery than the watercolor paper. I’ll keep trying other papers until I find one that works best for me.

Here is my attempt at a reed pen ink drawing:

2013 Sketchbook Project – Frogology

February 8, 2013 | Doreen E. Lepore

My 2013 Sketchbook Project is called Frogology because it’s about Frogs. Most of the frogs in the book are extinct and on the back cover there is a list of frogs that are missing. I wasn’t able to scan the whole list but the website is written there where you can read the list for yourselves.

Again, I used mostly watercolor crayons and ink. Some drawings are in colored pencil and the last is graphite. It was a fun sketchbook to do because the frogs are colorful and fun to draw. It also felt good to give the frog issue attention. The cover is brightly printed fabric.

Nanowrimo and PiBoIdMo

November 30, 2012December 1, 2012 | Doreen E. Lepore

The month of November is always hectic and to add to the usual hecticness is Nanowrimo [National Novel Writing Month]and now PiBoIdMo [Picture Book Idea Month], both of which I wanted to participate in. This year was more difficult because I had to take precious time out because of a hand injury, which is healing now, thank goodness.

As usual, I didn’t finish Nanowrimo but am okay with that because I did finish PiBoIdMo.

piboidmo12winnerlarge

It’s been difficult to get the badge inserted somewhere so I’m posting it here now.

The creator of PiBoIdMo is Tara Lazar and she hosted daily guest posts on her blog which were very insightful and inspiring: http://taralazar.com/

The idea is to come up with an idea a day for the month of November. Since it wasn’t necessary to actually write the whole book every day, it was do-able and I exceeded the goal. Some of the ideas might actually pan out. I sure hope so. In the mean time I’m still working on a tree frog book, now with several more ideas to follow.

Thanks to Tara and all her guest authors and illustrators.

P.S. Last night’s fortune cookie: “Right now there’s an energy pushing you in a new direction.”

My tree frog obsession

August 27, 2012 | Doreen E. Lepore

Lately, I’ve been working on tree frog drawings and paintings because I’m totally obsessed with frogs. Well, I’ve always liked frogs and I’m not really totally obsessed but actually trying to write and illustrate a children’s book about tree frogs.

This drawing is just my idea for a character I call Aunt Lily.

While researching the tree frogs I came upon disturbing information about our amphibian population and if you are a facebook friend, I’ve posted this organization on there a couple of times and want to put their link here too.

Amphibian Rescue

http://amphibianrescue.org/

Also, here is a very informative video that you can watch in full on PBS.org – “Frogs – The Thin Green Line”

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/frogs-the-thin-green-line/video-full-episode/4882/

Hopefully you don’t get bored with the subject of frogs, but they are in serious danger from many environmental factors and a devastating fungus that has recently killed off way too many frogs. The situation needs as much attention as it can get.