clic clic sur l'image pour lire en francais

When I was a tiny wee thing my Mom explained me the reason I loved my Poupee Jolie ( my favourite doll) so much : she was exactly the size of my hand plus my arm, the exact proportions of a new born.

I waited a few thirty years and when I was the proud mother of a big baby I happily checked. It didn't work of course, my tall ten pound baby was far longer than my arm plus my hand.

Maybe with longer arms? Like four feet long arms maybe?

When I think I waited that much time to check and it didn't work at all, I'm a tiny bit disappointed. But I love you Mom. Always.

English in khaki green

L'idee d'un pattern anime m'amuse beaucoup. J'ai "spotte" ces petits poissons de abowman chez deedeen et je me suis dit hola miam il faut que je joue avec!

I saw these funny little fishies at deedeen from abowman and I had to play with them.

Rien ne vous empeche de faire pareil:
You can do the same, just follow the links

les poissons ici (fishies)
les patterns de del4yo la...(and my patterns)

Enjoy! And don't forget to feed the fishies.

Allez hop petits poissons de Noel! Cliquez sur l'image pour les nourrir.

(click to read)

I'm not kidding. Ingineering a stuffed animal is one of the most difficult things ever. I thas to be cute and comfortable AND safe. I'm very thankfull to the people at Jellycat who created my baby's bunny. The gave him hours of fun, comfort and for me hours of good sleep. I think the bunny is one of the most precious item in the house. When I learned they stopped to do it, I bought 4 bunnies. You never know what will happen in the next 10 years.

Faut pas rigoler...Creer un jouet qui soit a la fois sur, mignon et tendre est un vrai boulot de design , et probablement un des plus difficiles. Je suis tres contente du lapin de mon bebe et je suis epatee du travail des designers de chez Jellycat. Je leur tire mon chapeau. Ce lapin a deja prodigue des heures de jeu et de reconfort a mon bebe. Et des heures de sommeil en plus pour moi. Je me demande si je ne dormirais pas mieux moi meme avec un lapin dans les bras ou sur la tete? Et si le film du dimanche soir ne serait pas meilleur en machant une oreille de lapin? Mmmh?

Welcome to my Australian readers!

To my delighted surprise I discovered  I was in the top ten of the Laketree top 101 Artist's blogs. It's an Australian website! I have a soft spot for the Aussie art culture so I'm really enthusiastic about this! It definitely brightened my day.
Please take some time to check the other artists, there is some pure gems out there.

And a very enthusiastic hello to my readers coming from other places !

And I'll post a bear.

Caus' a bear asked for a bear, I though that bear would rather like a beer but since all he would bear was a bear I happilly give that bear a bare bear.
Happy belated bearthday Moukmouk!

Donnez moi deux minutes que je poste un ours...C'est fait!

Translation of the illo (traduction): Quand je dessine sans doc' ca finit toujours en dessin mignon, c'est bizarre ca hein? Mes persos ont douvent des nombrils. On m'a interdit une fois d'en mettre, j'ai trouve ca choquant, ca voulait dire qu'ils n'ont pas de maman, c'est triste. Alors maintenant j'en mets souvent. Na.
On m'a aussi interdit de mettre un trou du c*l a des pingouins une fois, mais je leur en ai mis un quand meme. Il mangeaient, faut bien que heu ca ressorte sinon ils auraient ete de tres mauvaise humeur non? Bon. Hum. Lalala. Bientot Noel, tout ca.
Avez vous remarque? Je dessine la pluspart du temps mes fleurs avec 5 petales. Sans meme y penser paf ca tombe comme ca. En regardant travailler d'autres artistes, certains en font quatre, d'autres 6...Vous en fait combien vous? Allez essayez!

Sorry I have to much work these days to have fun and post illos. I'll come back as soon as I can.

Il faut le savoir, j'ai un ours de retard...Il dort dans mon carnet en attendant que j'ai cinq minutes vraiment a moi, et ca ne vient pas...J'espere pouvoir me remettre a poster ici bientot, mais pour l'instant j'ai trop de travail !

Sorry no translation today. I'm going to sleep!

Non contente d'avoir, dans une journe deja bien remplie, passe un certain nombres d'heures a dessiner une dizaine de designs pour mon nouveau boulot que j'ai (croise les doigts pour que ca se passe bien XXX), tout en m'occupant de mon fils cheri ( "ma maman maa ma ma " il m'a a tous les coups huhu) , puis le fils couche m'etant occupee du futur site du pere, apres une bonne quatorzaine d'heures de boulot, je me suis dit que tiens vu la tete que je fais, je ferais bien de vous dessiner Miss Fraise en gachapon*, comme ca on est assorties toutes les deux.

Dont acte.

*Je denie toute responsabilite quant a l'addiction qui pourrait suivre si vous avez le malheur de suivre ce lien, ou encore pire, celui-la.
Addendum: Aaaargh j'avais pas vu. Ils ont deja tous les accessoires de miss Fraise je n'en crois pas mes yeux...
 

I will be back soon to miss Fraise, but I've just read something and I wanted to share it with you. Since I'm a mother I read every freaky thing I can find about hygiene. I open my fridge with fear, expecting germs and molds to attack me if I left a piece of sticky cheese  unwrapped. I was delighted to find this very well made Real Simple article "Surprising expiration dates". They give a nice list of how much time you can keep groceries. May I quote one item?
Marshmallows
Unopened: 40 weeks
Opened: 3 months

When I was a teenager I loved to spend rainy afternoons reading the old "Semaine de Suzette", and "Lisette" magazines, from my grand mothers. I would snuggle cosily with my cat in an old armchair and read till I felt exausted from reading so many sad and sanctimonous stories. But I would continue anyway because I loved the illustration style so much. I wanted so bad to be able to draw like  that!

Often people tell me "Your style reminds me something but I don't know what?". I studied a lot of different style very closely to build my own personal style. I truly believe that you need to nuture your imagination by studiying and copying art you like. If you don't pratice you'll only create cliches.

I left my "Semaine de Suzette" in France. Silly me! I'm so stupid. I'm terribly sad I don't have them anymore. I tried to make a version of Miss Fraise 1940 but it was too difficult to do it without documentation. I put that aside and worked on some other versions.

Then...

Two days ago I got a parcel from France. Angel had found "a treasure" and wanted to share it with me. I couldn't believe my eyes  : she sent me a whole bunch of my beloved "Lisette" magazines !  I came back to my illustration and redid it entirely.
It's a very difficult style. Proportions, movement, everything is so different from the way we work now! I had the hardest time trying to create movements and strokes...Until I looked closely at the pictures and noticed that most faces were facing right, and most movements too...Were all the illustrators left handed? No!

The impression process reversed the picture. So I did, and bingo, it helps a lot!
Thank you so much Angel, you gave me something to help me improve, the best gift ever!

LA VERSION FRANCAISE ICI

Miss Fraise #3, version "Pomme d'Api 1973"

Avec mon meilleur souvenir.

Par ailleurs: J'ai un conseil a vous demander.

For this one, I got inspired by the children magazine I used to "read" whem I was a wee tiny girly thing.

Miss Fraise #2, version "chibi"