101 Fairy Lane

ATCs from LB

Here's the two ATCs that LB of Needleroozer sent me as part of our ATC swap. Roses are beautiful, but I especially like the fabric lemon one.  :-)

My fairy name

Your fairy is called Buttercup Goblinglitter

She is a bringer of riches and wealth.

She lives in clover fields where fairy rings grow.

She is only seen in the light of a shooting star.

She wears bright clover green. She has gentle green wings like a butterfly.

Get your free fairy name here!

Oooh and green is one of my all-time favorite colors too.

Welcome Ultimate Blog Partiers!

Welcome to all the new visitors from the Ultimate Blog Party, March 7-14th! And of course a big hello and smile to my regular readers.  :-)

Here's where I post my illustrations of the orchard fairies, Lemondrop, Thistleberry, Valerienne Rose and Silvanna Cuttleberry. They've been having lots of little adventures and love for people to drop by and see what they've been up to.

Lately the orchard has been visited by some new characters, the LemonHeads. Here's the beginning of their version of Little Red Riding Hood.

And what kind of party would it be without party favors? As a giveaway, the winner of the drawing on March 15th will receive their choice of the illustrations that are currently for sale in my etsy shop. Just leave a comment here. If you add 101 Fairy Lane as a link to your blog roll then I'll put your name in the "hat" twice.

Good luck and have fun at the party!

[EDIT]: The party's over but one commenter's name was picked in the drawing. Congratulations to Krista of Boutique Flair. Email me your snail address and which illustration you'd like to receive. Thanks everyone for visiting!

Come to the Ultimate Blog Party, March 7-14th

Come on and join in the fun for The Ultimate Blog Party, March 7 - 14th, hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom. You don't have to be a mom to participate, but you do have to be female and have a blog, or at least like to read them. Hurry, go over and join today!

A LemonHead ATC for LB

LB of Needleroozer and I are trading ATCs every couple months. This is the first one that I've made for her. It's made of both paper (a print of the LemonHead girl as Little Red Riding Hood, printed on a quality art ink jet paper) and fabric which is sewn on. I didn't like the raw edges so I dipped them in some craft paint which looks to be thick enough to create a nice finish. The final touch was a little tiny pink Swarovski rhinestone on her flower. What do you think?

Little Red Riding Hood, 8

Luckily the Huntsman arrived at grandmama's cottage in time to save Little Red Riding Hood from the big, bad squirrel. But he was more pleased when he discovered that her grandmama, his dear friend, was still safe and only locked away in her wardrobe. With a subtle smile and a quick wink she promised him that later he'd have a tasty squirrel stew for dinner.

IF: Theory (Little Red Riding Hood con't)

The huntsman heard Little Red Riding Hood's terror stricken screams and ran to help her. He took his trusty ax with him because he wasn't sure what horrors awaited him. Run, huntsman, run!

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Media: Mechanical pencil illustration on tracing paper, sepia filters and colored in Photoshop. I used the multiple option in the layers for some interesting effects. Lately I've been experimenting with the Texturizer filter as well.  :-)

Now in theory he's supposed to be a grapefruit headed huntsman because his damsel in distress is a lemonhead. Perhaps he should have been called a woodsman instead? With an ax as opposed to a bow/arrow it seems like he's much more likely to be chopping down trees. Somehow huntsman sounds more dashing. Why is it that these fairy tales have someone close enough to save Little Red Riding Hood? In theory the damsels in distress are always saved by a strong hero. But in real life that's not often the case. These are the versions that are more child friendly because we all know that often the huntsman doesn't arrive in time. And sometimes the huntsman saves the damsel only for her to discover that he's just another type of threat. I much prefer when the damsels aren't in distress, but are smart enough not to get into trouble in the first place. Here's my first rough sketch of our hero. And the story begins here. I decided to start drawing the lemonheads because I have them on my banner on my craft blog, Lemon Tree Tales. It was time for them to "come to life".

Rough sketch of the huntsman

My brother Ronnie said that I should post one of the sketches before I do any cleaning up or re-drawing. So here's my quick sketch of the huntsman. Can you tell that he's going to be a grapefruit head? As you can see I didn't leave enough room on the paper to complete his feet. I'm also not happy with his hands yet. Since he's running his left arm really should be drawn behind him, but then you wouldn't see much of it at all. I'll fix it so his left hand is fisted more. Plus his right thumb would be behind the ax handle a bit more ... probably won't even see it so I'll erase that. But you can see where I've been playing with where his legs and knees should fall. Hmm, I like his mouth but it's angled down to the right too much. Finally his eyes need to be less sleepy. He is after all an angry man with an ax out to save a damsel in distress. Those eyes might need to have a bit of white around the tops of them too. At any rate this shows how I like to sketch things out ... all very scratchy and rough.

Little Red Riding Hood, 7

'Grandmama, what big teeth you have,' whispered Little Red Riding Hood with a worried look on her sweet face.

'All the better to eat you with!' roared the squirrel as it sprang out of the bed garbed in grandmama's best nightgown.

Little Red Riding Hood screamed as loudly as she could and ran around the cottage.

Little Red Riding Hood, 6

Something didn't seem quite right with grandmama today. Perhaps she was ill?

'What big eyes you have grandmama,' exclaimed Little Red Riding Hood.

'All the better to see you with my child.'

'What big ears you have grandmama.'

'All the better to hear you my child,' came the reply.