NEW Music Themed Colouring Postcard Booklet

Hurrah! The new colouring postcard booklets have arrived!

 The animal themed postcard booklet was such a huge hit that I decided I had to make a new one in time for summer. The booklets are made so that they're super fun to colour for both young and old and are a great alternative to just a regular colouring book, where you don't really know what to do with it after you're done colouring all the pages. Well, when you're done colouring these guys here, you can write the address of someone special on the back, and mail it to them. The booklets are so small and light that they're perfect for Summer traveling. Take one along on all your vacation travels. Tuck it in your purse, slip it in your little ones activity bag along with some markers and you're all set to go.

Each spring I start to feel very musical and so I decided to make this the theme for the new colouring booklet.... Music! Of course there are also kids and animals involved, but really when aren't there kids and animals in my drawings? I also made the suggestion on the back of the booklet that instead of writing a message on the postcard, you could draw a brand new drawing on the back of either you with your favorite instrument or your friend with theirs. Wouldn't you like to get a card in the mail that has two drawings on it? One on the front, AND one on the back? I know... me tooo!

The Flowers Are Here!

This is the most I've ever loved flowers in my life. I used to like them ok, but now I really really love them. I've been taking pictures of flowers almost every time I take my funny dog out for a walk and they are inspiring me tons. I think there might be even more flower inspired new items on the way!

How neat would it be, to be tiny and in a field of flowers? I seem to be thinking about this a lot because I keep on drawing kids that are either microscopic next to regular flowers, or even better yet, regular sized kids next to huge magical flowers. While we're at it lets just pretend that the flowers can talk too. 

Maurice Sendak - Truly a Lion

 One week ago was the day Maurice Sendak died. It's already been a whole week that has gone by since then, and that seems crazy. It was really very strange for me to hear about this. It made me realize something quite sad which is that a lot of the great illustrators or writers of children's books that I love and admire so much are either already dead, or are getting older and older, just like everyone else.
The beautiful stories they have created however won't be leaving us along with them. They will always remain with us, and for those of us who really loved them they will actually become part of us. Part of what we are made out of. Part of what we believe in and part of what we will want to pass onto those new generations to come.

I know that Maurice Sendak's stories will continue to make an impact on those that read them for years and years to come and will be responsible for many new ideas and creative projects. Thank you Maurice Sendak for your trust in yourself to tell stories that were so often the centre of controversy. You stuck with your gut and with what you knew was important to children and that takes a whole heap of courage.

I also wrote a blog entry on Maurice Sendak on the "I Heart Picture Book" blog here, and made this illustration in his honor which you can view here on my Sketchblog.

Free Download: Notebook Sticker Labels

Happy Mothers Day from Draw Me A Lion! 

Our online shop now has a "Free Downloads" section, hurray! Just in time for Mothers Day I made these notebook sticker labels for you to download and have fun with. 

For the kids to play with while you're doing whatever it is you feel like doing on this fine Mothers Day weekend, or for yourself if you are feeling crafty ;) 

*Instructions for optimal use are on the pdf itself, so have a read before you print. -enjoy. 

Thank You to all the Amazing Women in my Life

Thank You

In light of Mothers Day the last post was about my mom, but what about all the other women that helped me out so much along the way? A truly telling dedication to these women would take much more than this and the list of names would be a much longer one. But as a quick Thank You for Mother's Day it will definitely do and simultaneously it sums up my life in a nutshell prior to arriving in Canada Vancouver to study Art. Pretty neat. So thank you to All the amazing women that have supported me thus far. Here are just a few of them. 

Oma
My childhood was an odd one due to my mothers ongoing struggle with paranoid schizophrenia. There were times when she would simply be gone one day only to return weeks and sometimes months later. We had no idea where she went when this happened. She always made sure to tell me that she loved me and that this would be for the best but still, I wouldn't have my mother around for long stretches of time. We were living with my grandmother who would then, along with my mom's sister and Ilse, an artist  and friend of the family, take care of me.

Ilse
Ilse has always been like family to me. She was and still is a friend of my mothers my aunts and myself. I always loved going over to her apartment.  She had beautiful paintings and prints hanging all throughout her magical living space that was also filled with art materials which I was often allowed and encouraged to try out.

Funny Aunt
My mothers sister Liselotte lived in Germany but often went to visit her many children in the United States. Two times she brought me along on her visits. I got to fly by myself when I was about 8 years old to meet my Aunt in Boston and then go off on all sorts of adventures. We often stayed at my cousin Nan's house. They had two big cats named Zeus and Pluto and I had the time of my live checking out all sorts of stuff and working on my English.

Nan
Later on my mothers condition worsened and I moved to Boston to live with my cousin Nan. She and her husband had just had their first child. I was twelve years old. My cousin and her husband who'd had no children prior to this, all of a sudden had a baby and a teenager. Up to this day I still don't know where I would be today if my cousin wouldn't have offered to take me in. I think it was an amazing thing to do and even though I've told her this more than once I still don't think that I can ever really express this in a way that would be adequate. Thank you Nan! You are amazing and I'll never forget what you did for me.

Karen
But it wasn't all pie. At first everything was great, but then my real teens kicked in and things weren't good at all. I just couldn't seem to get along with my cousin and her husband anymore. Just before I really couldn't take it anymore I was offered by one of my best friends moms Karen to move into their basement suite. I remember immediately after moving in, feeling so much freer and at times staying up all night drawing and painting. I had just started to discover a whole new passion for creating art, a whole new world opened up to me.

Thinking about Mom

This is a picture of my Mom and me. It's the picture that is always up on the side bar of this blog because my Mom played a huge part in getting me interested in art, drawing, writing and creative thinking. She played a big part in the person that I am today. She always encouraged me to draw and be creative and this spirit is exactly what I now want to pass onto everyone else in the form of the things I create for Draw Me A Lion. 

The drawing on the left is a drawing that my mom and me did together when I was about 4 years old.  It's an exquisite corpse drawing, where you fold the piece of paper into four sections and then one person draws the head, the next the shoulders and upper body and so on... 

In this particular one things got a bit mixed up and I ended up drawing the whole top of the figure and my mom the whole bottom. My mom kept many of our drawings and it's so amazing to be able to have them today and look at what we did. We had so much fun drawing together. I loved drawing with my mom! 

On the right side is a close up of the new 'Happy Mothersday' Card I just made in honor of all those Awesome Mom's out there!