my small history of clean teeth

Animals need clean teeth too. At least that is part of the advertisement in this Colgate add from 1911. I found this little book at my local Barnes and Noble which has a wonderful used book section. The book is a rhyming sort of essay/ode to animals who come upon a tube of Colgate and realize how sparkly and healthy it makes there teeth. All the animals without teeth are saddened that they don't get to experience this new fad that is sweeping the jungle.

This is the book I just bought. See how cute yet informative it is! This is my favorite page spread. I especially enjoy the crocodile who is holding the large tube of paste. I must note as well that the these colorful illustrations are from the book "The Jungle Pow-Wow" by Jessie Imbrie Miller. It is copyright 1911 by Colgate & Co.

Not only do I love this book but finding it inspired me to show you a few of my favorite childhood possessions that have to do with the art of tooth brushing. In looking threw these ordinary objects around me I see that I have always understood the importance of clean chompers and I also realized how some of these objects have inspired me to integrate tooth brushing illustrations into the books I have worked on so far. I had never even noticed!

This is a picture from the book "Theodore Mouse Goes to Sea" where a brave little mouse sets out to sea to fill his life with adventure, but not before he brushes his teeth. It is a lovely book of the golden spine verity that was always a classic with me. Illustrations are by the great Lucinda McQueen, I gotta give props! Look her up she has done absolutely amazing illustrations threw out the years!

This picture was just used to give evidence to inspirations from childhood. Text copyright is 1983 by Michaela Muntean and illustration copyright is 1983 by Lucinda McQueen. It is a little golden book.

This is my childhood toothbrush holder which I have gracing the top of my jewelry cabinet. Although not currently in it's former use it is still loved and enjoyed everyday as I pass by it. I find that hello kitty always brings a touch of classic whimsy to any room, don't you?

Again this photo is used only to show the whimsical nature of my childhood influences. It is Sanrio copyright 1976 as all Hello Kitty items seem to be.

This is the retro poster I have hanging in my bathroom. It has always been with me even if sometimes in storage. I must have gotten it from the dentist when I was little and when I first started to date my husband I gave it to him to show how cool I was and he promptly put it on his wall(yay desired affect!) Kermit is always watching and sending his approving glance at those pearly whites. He always looks so cheerful, it makes you want to brush, floss, annnnnnd use mouthwash.

The poster is from 1985 in honer of national Children's dental health month. Kermit the frog is Copyright © The Jim Henson Company and is only used to show childhood influence.

 The last two pictures are my very own illustrations. They show my characters in their respective bathrooms brushing their teeth. When I went to do this post I knew that these pictures would fit right in. They would help me to write the post and make it personal (as this blog is supposed to be, i say.)

Both pictures have been illustrated by me and as with everything on this site they are copyright 2010 Megan Rheault of Pixie girl studios.

This is a pastel illustration from 2005. The book it belongs to, with some 39 large pastel images, remains unpublished. I am very proud of the work and am still amazed at myself when I look at the pictures. They are so pretty and the colors are so bright.

Here is my dear little cat creation that you may have seen in my previous posts. This picture is a pencil drawing that has been scanned into the computer and colored in photoshop. I intended this to be a color study with the final version to be done in pastel.

With the end of this post I can say that the subject of tooth brushing is something I hadn't really thought about. But then again seeing all of these images I realize I always had. So maybe we can be inspired to pay attention to the smaller everyday things or realize what we pay attention to - even though we think we don't.............
And may we all understand the importance of keeping the cleanness of teeth alive!

dearest little blog of mine

I didn't get to do my second post for last week but I accomplished a major goal of mine, so I still definitely win. I finished doing revisions to my children's book that I am writing and illustrating. In my previous post I showed a change in two different layouts which is similar to what I did for most of my 18 page spreads. All the revisions make my book easier to read and graphically stronger. Now I am ready to print out copies of my book and send them to publishers and editors. This is a project I have been working on for years and to have it to this point is quite a milestone in my whole process. When I do print copies and send them I will take pictures as a farewell to this stage and as a sign of a new "chapter" to the story behind my little book.

So dear little blog you see I haven't forgotten you, I was just saving up my good news. I have some great posts planned for my future writings to you. Really good ideas coming up!!!!

building blocks..... of text

In getting my children's book ready to be sent out I have been doing a lot of work on it in the past few weeks to make all those final adjustments. One of the biggest things I did was to go back through the book and look at how readable all of my text was. Being an illustrator, pictures seam to be the most important part but really the words are just as important. After all I want people to read my story and that's the goal. Next time i'll think about how I integrate the text more as I start my book. Text shouldn't be an afterthought cause its really important and if it isn't incorporated it takes you out of the story. So those are my little thoughts about my words.

This is one of the first pages of my book. Notice how the text is very hard to read because of the background color. There is also a lot going on in the picture so the text needs breathing space as well so your eyes can pay attention to it.

I drew a paper with folded corners and put in behind the text to maker it stand out and easier to read. Hopefully it also anchors the picture and makes your eye move around the page.

The words on this page are really not that bad, but they could be better. Again this is a highly detailed page and the words blend in just a little to much with the background.

The words become easier to read now with a lighter color behind them. The bricks in the back lend themselves to making a shaped boarder for the words.

  These are two pages of my final color mock ups.

the five year dollhouse plan

In five years, among all the other things I hope to accomplish, I hope to have a lovely house......a dollhouse that is!  I can just envision in my mind a quaint yet impressively sweet Victorian (inspired) with a garden, fence, and a little house in the back for having tea on the pleasantest of summer days that will last forever. Sounds dreamy right and yet so doable in five years I figure. I always like to have a project on the shelf and this is one I will be storing for quite a while to share an idea from every now and then. So far no ground breaking has taken place and no supplies have been purchased but there are plenty of ideas and of course some sketches.

This is the studio because of course my dolls are artists. There is a desk on each side and a large worktable in the center. Along the back wall there is a sink in between two storage shelves that go all the way to the ceiling.

This is showing three possible floors of the house. The first floor is a library sitting room with bookshelves along the back wall and an elevator. The second level was supposed to be the studio with an open section in the middle overlooking the library. The top floor attic space is just where the fairies live of course.

This is a bathroom to be shared. There are two sinks with a shelf in between and a laundry hamper. There is a claw foot tub and a cabinet above the toilet. The walls are tiled and have a chair rail.

I can be sketchy...yeah

I am not a big sketcher. I tend to only sketch when I am working on a project.. in a way I like to have a reason to draw and for it to be really purposeful. But I do draw and I do sketch. What usually happens when I sketch is that it turns into an idea and I loooooove ideas. My mind runs away with ideas and wants to turn them into finished paintings and illustrations. So there goes my mind hand in happy hand with an idea and therefor....oooo that makes me think of an illustration. And that's the problem with sketches I get lost in them and they all want to turn into ideas. So if you think of every idea getting fully realized you understand that it can't, there has to be editing somewhere. There also has to be an understanding that it's ok for a sketch to just be a sketch. Because sketches are for learning, for growing, understanding, explaining, jotting down ideas, saving a thought from your mind............

So these are some thoughts. Mostly some sweet little somethings from my tiny notebook in my purse.

an interview with the empress....the Abundant Empress that is!

Last wednesday evening my husband Joe and I were happy to entertain a lovely couple. The wife has a blog called the abundant empress and writes newsletters to correspond with her quest to seek out inperational individuals. Her previouse newsletter featured an interview all about Joe and I pertaining to our artmaking and process. It was a great interview and she told us last week about all the hits that the interview has been getting from around the world.

During our visit we talked further about blogging, art supplies, art storage and organization and the goals for our work. It definitely made me think of some possible blog topics for the future. Also to realize that I don't always need a picture for my posts and that even when I don't think I have a topic to write about I am always working on some project I could discuss. I can also keep a back log of ideas to blog about as well as writing about topics that might be more informational, such as how i would prime a canvas for instance.  Ideas ideas, so that's what happens when you have an empress and her husband over.

So please go and visit her site and take a read!
click below
                

click on me to see the interview yay!

all the Megans that get up...make Ferlins in color

What happens when a Megan like myself wakes up early...Well I am not a morning person but my husband woke up for a new job  this morning and I as well would like to take advantage of the extra hours that could be applied to my artsy-ness. I have always liked the idea of waking with the sun or in winter watching the sky begin to light up for the day. The idea of having those few magic hours of the morning to myself where anything is possible is quite alluring. So although my sweet warm bed will always call to me, I hope the promise of creativity will win.Hopefully the weeks to come are full of projects getting finished, old ideas getting attention, and new blog posts most of all.

For this week all of my attention is going to be on new posts and working on my children's book "Ferlin and his paper hat." In case I have not told you about "Ferlin and his paper hat", it's a children's book that I have written and illustrated. So far I have,well, written it and finalized all the illustrations, scanned in and colored all my pencil sketches on the computer, added my text, and have done five final pastel images to be used in the printed book. I am now getting the book ready to be sent out to publishers which includes; adding text blocks to the pages for easier readability, scanning in my pastel images, printing and putting together book moc ups, and designing a finished layout with my pastel. I hope a publisher likes my pastel images and sees the book being finished with them as I do. I have colored my entire book on the computer so not only do I have a set of colors to fallow when I work with my pastels but it also gives viewers a more finished book experience. Most people say "isn't it finished already?" and then I show them them how the pastels look in comparison. Maybe I should do the same here and end my post.

This process has all taken a looooooong time and it is so strange to sum it up in just a few sentences so if any of my explaining seems not detailed enough and you would like any further details of my process let me know what you would like to hear about.

I will put up the picts for this post latter this evening so be sure to check it out..... and da da da dah here they are just as I said and all before the clock strikes midnight!(36 minutes before to be exact)

1. Ferlin trying on his hat. This was the first sketch for this image.

2. As I continued to draw Felin he became more refined and he wans't so sketchy anymore.

3. Then he got to try out his colors, which were all done in photoshop using the lasso tool and layers.

4. After his colors were decided I printed the line image of Ferlin, from step 2 on a sheet of tan colored canson paper and went to town with my pastels....then I took his picture with my phone, but of course I still need to scan it to get a nice hi resolution image that is print worthy!