I managed to sqeeze in 20 minutes of sketching from the couch yesterday for SketchCrawl 18, while holding my 6-week old daughter. Sketching babies is one of those things you have to do really loosely… they just wriggle around too much to get too focused on the details, so quick gestural drawings are all I really had time to do. Was fun though, will be keeping my sketchbook closeby to do more scribbles of her cuteness.

Be sure to check out some of the fabulous sketches up on the SketchCrawl forum, such as the one above by Marc Taro.

We also had a nice time for Earth Hour last night… hung around with family and chatted in candlelight for my birthday. Was kind of fun not having the lights on, with the occasional cheeky comment from brother-in-laws about the fridge light being on whenever someone went for a snack!

This is a bit of fun : The HowDesign.com forum has an album up where you can upload a pic of your desktop, and the designer who receives the most votes wins a free subscription to How Magazine… very cool!

This Saturday, March 29th, aside from celebrating my 28th birthday, I’ll be satisfying my creative and green sides by participating in SketchCrawl 18, followed by playing a game of Settlers of Catan by candlelight during Earth Hour from 8pm-9pm.

Earth Hour is an event set up by the WWF, where they’ve encouraged thousands of people worldwide to turn off their lights for one hour to increase awareness of the need for action to act against global warming. Just switch your lights off between 8pm-9pm your time… and if you’re really enthusiastic, switch all electrical appliances off, too. Then take a moonlit walk outside and watch the stars with friends, or just take a catnap for an hour. For more details check out the Earth Hour website. (They’ve got a cool web-banner in which your name floats by once you’ve signed up, ta-hee!)

SketchCrawl 18 is basically the artist version of a pub crawl… meet up with a bunch of friends / artists, and sketch like crazy all day! Combine it with some good food (or even with a pub crawl!) and unique locations to visit, then visit the Sketch Crawl forum to share your sketches! Our sketches will be up on my blog as well as on the SketchCrawl forum under Adelaide.

Well, I’m (kind of) back from my time off for maternity leave… as much as I can be back into the swing of things with a new little girl to take care of 24/7! My day is now broken down from one feed or diaper change to the next, with not a lot of time in between for myself… but it’s sooooo worth it!
I have thoroughly enjoyed the last five weeks since Hera was born, especially having my husband home on paternity leave, and both my parents visiting from Canada during that time. It certainly made the transition into motherhood much easier with all their support!

So this is going to be the first day of my gradual return to freelance illustrating… I’ve two books on the go at the moment, and will post their progress as I find time to work on them (during Hera’s afternoon naps!)

Author Lisa Chalifoux just took part in an interview over at Blog Talk Radio, and shares a little about her experience working with me on our book “Spotty & Eddie Learn to Compromise.” Lisa also chats a bit about her experience with self-publishing her first book.
You can listen to the interview here!

I just read a kind review of my book, “Good-bye, Baby Max” by Lillian Brummet over at Chrsty’s Book Reviews :

“Good-bye Baby Max is a wonderful children’s book for those who are coping with the end of life. A former kindergarten teacher who currently works as a professional counselor and life coach in Texas wrote the hardcover book. The author, Diane Cantrell, states that the book was written to stimulate discussion on a topic that is often difficult to broach.

The illustrations are filled with gold, red, green and blue in the art are filled with activity, creations on the walls by the class and teacher’s lessons displayed here and there. The nature scenes are lovely and occasionally spotted with cute ladybugs - which might be fun to inspire your children find them….

Children will enjoy the opening and closing pages that are filled with tiny yellow chicks…. Rating 4 out of 5 stars.”

“Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” – Unknown

If only I’d known it was this simple :) I came across the above here.

Thought I’d share a palette I created using myPANTONE, inspired by one of my children’s books, “Spotty & Eddie Learn to Compromise” by Lisa Chalifoux.

Here’s a palette I created using myPANTONE, inspired by one of my children’s books, “The Little Boy’s Smile” by Tom Krause.