Happy Halloween
Tag: illustration
Clarence
Family Idea for All Saints’ Day: Momma Draws
We all have *that friend* who can make anything and everything as perfect as Pinterest. I, however, once attempted to make a “simple” Minecraft Creeper birthday cake. It came out looking like 50 shades of mold growing on a box.
You know what makes me even more jealous? People who can sew up coordinating Halloween costumes for a family of 10. I knew a family who did the Incredibles one year. Yeah. We don’t have the best of luck here at the “McBride” household when it comes to costumes. Here’s “Molly” one fun Hallowed Eve about 8 years ago:
Dang, the things we do to our kids for holidays!
Ok, so back to current. Momma can draw, but when we start talking about 3-dimensional art like cake and costumes, I fall short. But if I could sew really well and really fast, I’d make Victorian Era costumes.
Victorian Era French Fashion Magazine
Victorian Era Children’s Fashions
I fell in love with the Victorian Era a coupe years ago when I took on an illustration job for author Becky Arganbright. The book is about one of everyone’s favorite little saints, the Little Flower, St. Therese of Lisieux.
I had a blast researching the life and times of the Martin Family, from their charming house (now a museum!) and the plates they ate off of, to their garden tools and their clothes.
Martin Family Furniture and China
St. Therese’ Room: First Communion and Confirmation Dresses
Oh! how I’d love to go to France some day and see these things for myself. I had to be content with my old pal Pinterest to provide reference photos for this project.
Drawing St. Therese was a holy experience. Through this particular job, I drew closer to this saint (and her saintly family) than to any other saint whose life I’ve studied. I read everything she’d written that I could get my hands on, studied her artwork and her photos, and read every public letter anyone ever wrote to her. For several months before officially beginning the job, I did pencil and watercolor sketches of Therese, her mother Zelie, and her father Louis. For nearly a year, I thought of little else than the Martin Family.
After a while, when I could draw her familiar face from memory, it was time to build the story board to go with Becky’s manuscript. Here are some early scene plans:
So, if I could sew, I’d whip up the whole McBride and friends gang outfits to match the famous Martin Family, and I’m sure we’d be a hit at any Saint’s Day Feast.
Flowers for Jesus (Gracewatch Media) is available wherever books are sold and available in full PDF preview here.
How ’bout you? Any plans for family costumes for Halloween or All Saint’s Day? Don’t be afraid to share. I promise not to be jealous. Too much. 😉
Family Idea for All Saints’ Day: Momma Draws
We all have *that friend* who can make anything and everything as perfect as Pinterest. I, however, once attempted to make a “simple” Minecraft Creeper birthday cake. It came out looking like 50 shades of mold growing on a box.
You know what makes me even more jealous? People who can sew up coordinating Halloween costumes for a family of 10. I knew a family who did the Incredibles one year. Yeah. We don’t have the best of luck here at the “McBride” household when it comes to costumes. Here’s “Molly” one fun Hallowed Eve about 8 years ago:
Dang, the things we do to our kids for holidays!
Ok, so back to current. Momma can draw, but when we start talking about 3-dimensional art like cake and costumes, I fall short. But if I could sew really well and really fast, I’d make Victorian Era costumes.
Victorian Era French Fashion Magazine
Victorian Era Children’s Fashions
I fell in love with the Victorian Era a coupe years ago when I took on an illustration job for author Becky Arganbright. The book is about one of everyone’s favorite little saints, the Little Flower, St. Therese of Lisieux.
I had a blast researching the life and times of the Martin Family, from their charming house (now a museum!) and the plates they ate off of, to their garden tools and their clothes.
Martin Family Furniture and China
St. Therese’ Room: First Communion and Confirmation Dresses
Oh! how I’d love to go to France some day and see these things for myself. I had to be content with my old pal Pinterest to provide reference photos for this project.
Drawing St. Therese was a holy experience. Through this particular job, I drew closer to this saint (and her saintly family) than to any other saint whose life I’ve studied. I read everything she’d written that I could get my hands on, studied her artwork and her photos, and read every public letter anyone ever wrote to her. For several months before officially beginning the job, I did pencil and watercolor sketches of Therese, her mother Zelie, and her father Louis. For nearly a year, I thought of little else than the Martin Family.
After a while, when I could draw her familiar face from memory, it was time to build the story board to go with Becky’s manuscript. Here are some early scene plans:
So, if I could sew, I’d whip up the whole McBride and friends gang outfits to match the famous Martin Family, and I’m sure we’d be a hit at any Saint’s Day Feast.
Flowers for Jesus (Gracewatch Media) is available wherever books are sold and available in full PDF preview here.
How ’bout you? Any plans for family costumes for Halloween or All Saint’s Day? Don’t be afraid to share. I promise not to be jealous. Too much. 😉
Book Giveaway To Celebrate World Day Of Prayer For Vocations!
For the 54th World Day of Vocations, Vatican Radio has announced that the 2017 message will be “Led by the Spirit for Mission.” Pope Francis said, “I ask parish communities, associations and the many prayer groups present in the Church, not to yield to discouragement but to continue praying that the Lord will send workers to his harvest. May he give us priests enamoured of the Gospel, close to all their brothers and sisters, living signs of God’s merciful love.”
The idea to create the Molly McBride character and books came to me after many years of praying about the need for more men and women to enter the religious life. Therefore, it seems fit that I should send a free copy of “Molly” out into the world on this special day. Click below and good luck! Drawing will be Monday, May 8, the day following World Day of Prayer For Vocations.
Blessings!
Jeanie
Molly vs. Bully?
The sweetest piece of fan mail arrived today from Indiana. Tommy, a Catholic dad and campus security officer at a Catholic college, was very moved by Molly McBride and the Plaid Jumper. He wrote to me that reading about the school uniforms brought back some very clear memories:
“I remember one incident when we were out playing, this big boy was mocking me, making fun of me behind my back. This was before I got my hearing aid–I was deaf. But this girl (God bless her!) jumped on that boy and knocked him down. Her name was Nancy, but I secretly called her my Joan of Arc. From then on nobody ever poked fun at me again. Nancy followed me throughout school, all the way up to graduation. I keep my graduation picture up in the computer room, and there’s Nancy to remind me of 3rd Grade so many years ago at Immaculate Conception School.”
And just like that, I could picture a flash of plaid as a brave, heroic girl named Nancy rescued poor Tommy. But in my mind, there were streaming locks of unruly auburn curls mixed with the mess of gray-and-navy. It looked something like this:
“Maybe, Jean, you can write a Molly McBride story about bullies in school.”
God bless YOU, Tommy. I’ll see what I can do.
Let’s shop together!
It’s not too late, right? Can we still find some great Easter-basket-stuffers that won’t get our dental plan cancelled?
I’m throwing together this sharing post because I know a whole bunch of us are in the same sinking ship BOAT as we scramble to Easter shop while keeping some semblance of Lentitude (I made that up. It’s the attitude we do our best to assume during Lent.) as Holy Week approaches.
So, I’ll go first with posting the obvious. Please click here to order MMPJ direct from my awesome publisher, Gracewatch Media/ Peanut Butter and Grace Books. Not only do they have a nice sale going on with the hardcover edition, but they have made an Easter Bundle if you’re new to the Molly thing: you can get a discount on ordering both MMPH and MMPJ softcovers together.
For your convenience, you can also add to your Amazon order by clicking here for Plaid Jumper or here for Purple Habit.
Hopefully I’ll have some other cute Molly McBride swag coming soon.
Now it’s your turn! I still need to fill my Molly’s (and Sissy’s) Easter baskets. Show me what you are either selling or buying. Include links whenever possible!
Blessings!
Press Release: Molly Sequel Is a Grand Slam!
She’s out! And just in time for the Season of Purple. Molly McBride and the Plaid Jumper is officially available online and in stores and the reviews are “out of the park!” Check out Molly’s FB page for the totally awesome trailer curtesy of Peanut Butter and Grace Books.
https://www.facebook.com/peanutbutterandgrace/
To purchase your Molly books, please click: https://www.gracewatch.media/product-tag/molly-mcbride/ and have a most blessed Lent!
There Was A Little Girl…
How did that old nursery rhyme go? I’ll be honest. I couldn’t remember past “right in the middle of her forehead.” I had to Google it. Turns out, it’s a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow! Ha! Who knew? Here’s the rest:
“There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid.”
And Mr. Longfellow lived from 1807-1882! How could he have predicted “Molly?”
There’s more, but nothing quite so ingrained upon the memories of most of us (especially us mothers of curly-headed little girls) as that first stanza.
And in our case, the family’s even come to name it. The Lead Curl. It occupies a slightly more prominent frontal-scalp area than Curl Number Two, but is impressively larger than Curl Three. Ironically, the Curls neither accurately predict nor correctly reflect Molly’s moods. In fact, quite the opposite. When Molly has finally succumbed to the evil institution known as “taking a bath,” the curls come out all nice and smooth and bouncy and incredibly ringlet-y and spirally in a perfect shade of brand-new-shiny-penny-copper.
Then she is good.
But when it’s been (cough–a few days) some time since her last shampoo, the curls become less curl-like and more, well, erratic, animalistic frizz? This is the Molly whose heavy, scowling eyebrows, stomping feet and clenched jaw has worn down Momma to the point where cleanliness is relevant, right? I mean, she got most of the chocolate out of her ear and the mud between her toes, I mean, seriously. How harmful can a little mud be?
Moms of Mollies out there (you know who you are) does curl quality correlate with behavior? Please share.