new

I did this illo of a new bride for this week's Illustration Friday topic of "New"!

mince pies

Making mince pies for Christmas was the subject of this illo I did for this month's issue of Ideal Home magazine. Mince pies are a tradition in most British homes. Coming from a Danish family I've never made them, but I love the idea of topping the mini pies with a star shaped crust!

hanukkah cards

This is a Hanukkah card I illustrated for Hallmark! It's available as a set of 10. Hope all that celebrate Hanukkah had a beautiful holiday!

december embarrassment

This illustration can be seen in this month's issue of M Magazine, on newsstands now! It's for their monthly LOL Stories feature. A reader wrote in to tell of her humiliation when she went to the mall and her mom forced her to sit on Santa's lap – and her crush happened to walk by at the same time!

cappuccino stencils

The perfect gift for a coffee lover according to Ideal Home magazine! This illustration of mine is featured in their December issue on newsstands now.

not from a can

Today you can see my new illustrated recipe on TheyDraw&Cook.com! It's for REAL cranberry sauce, not from a can. I usually don't like REAL cranberry sauce but I tried this recipe for Thanksgiving and it is so good!

click image for a closer look!

christmas wrapping

I started wrapping gifts last night. I don't think I would have started so early (to me December 3rd is early!) if the tree wasn't standing there looking so beautiful and sparkly just begging for gifts to be under it's boughs! One of the papers I used is black with silver snowflakes. It looked so pretty in the store, but truth be told, now that it's under the tree I don't think I'd choose a black paper again. Not festive!

The above illustration is featured in this month's issue of Ideal Home magazine. Now they are festive! I also submitted it for this week's Illustration Friday topic of "Stretch" because she's stretching out the ribbon. But I don't know, that may be a stretch. :)

december!

My new Facebook page banner, fresh and ready for the holidays!

new cover!

Just released! You can see my artwork gracing the cover of the latest installment in the Annie Valentine series "Shopping with the Enemy" by Carmen Reid!

small treasures show

This is the painting I did for the Paso Robles Art Association's Small Treasures show and fundraiser. It sold at the preview party last night!

When I paint it's quite the opposite of my illustration work which is clean and neat. I start out using brushes to put in the large areas of color and then I switch to a palette knife to add shading, texture and color details.

This particular painting is of the stray cat that decided to adopt me a few years ago. Another artist said she looks mad, I told him that's the look she gives me when she doesn't want to go back outside! Not mad, just trying to control my mind. :) 

murder is a piece of cake

Just released today! My cover for the novel Murder Is a Piece of Cake by Elaine Viets! Flowers, cake, and a killer bridezilla murder mystery, who could ask for anything more!?

bookplates! update

Here's a look at the plate I painted for the BookPlates! fundraiser, it's been fired! The plate will be auctioned off by the Paso Robles Library Foundation on November 30th accompanied by a few books that I've illustrated.

Tickets to the event can be purchased on their website.

if autumn was a castle...

This is an autumn themed castle I created for a Princess by Vera Wang fragrance promotion. I want to live here!

relaxing weekend

This is an illo I did for Ideal Home magazine. Drinking champagne and eating a Cadbury Flake candy bar while relaxing in a bubble bath sounds like a life well lived! I will be ready to reenact this scene after my 10 mile run tomorrow!

Sidenote: Flake candy bar is my absolute favorite candy bar from overseas. It's hard to resist picking one up whenever I visit Cost Plus World Market!

october must have monsters!

©2012, Monika Roe

My October illo for M Magazine! A girl's plan to get close to her crush in a haunted house goes awry when she grabs the hand of a monster instead of her date!

october must have skulls

Just in time for October! TAPS Truck & Auto Accessories came to me when they wanted a design to put on the back of their grey Dickies work shirts. Their wish list included a 3 color design that had an oxy gas torch (for welding), a skull and lots of tribal flames. Check, check and check!

pugsgiving extras

All sorts of "Pugsgiving" goings on around here! Recent design work I did for the event include a Facebook banner, flyer and postcard.

On another note, ever cut your pointer finger and have a hard time typing? I cut my finger last night bad enough to require a bandaid and that makes for A LOT of typing mistakes this morning. :(

©2012, Monika Roe

monster cake is here!

©2012, Monika Roe

The cover of the September/October 2012 American Girl magazine beckons you to bake a yummy monster cake! Turn to page 12 and follow my step-by-step illustrations on how to make this frightfully good Halloween treat! A creative and tasty way to have fun with your kids in the kitchen this fall season, the decorating possibilities are endless...

pugsgiving

Central Coast Pug Rescue asked me to create the logo and design materials for their 1st Annual "Pugsgiving" event in November. Since I have a pug I was more than happy to take on this assignment!

I first found CCPR a couple months ago. When I took Ladybug to the vet, there was a flyer on the bulletin board. CCPR not only rescues pugs and finds homes for them, they host many events and get togethers for pugs and their owners. They meet at a park in Arroyo Grande every month so in August I took Ladybug to mingle with the other pugs and to meet the people behind this great group. I've never seen so many pugs together at one time! It was a lot of fun.

Pugsgiving will be held on November 10th at the Pismo Beach Golf Course. For ticket info go to www.helppugs.com.

book plates!

A couple months ago I was asked to paint a plate for the annual "Book Plates" fundraiser for the Paso Robles Library Foundation. There were so many possibilites to ponder when deciding on a design! My schedule has been packed but I finally found time over the weekend to sit down and get my plate finished. My neck is so sore from being hunched over it while painting. When will I learn good "artist posture"?! My guess is NEVER!

My finished plate was dropped off this morning to be fired and will be auctioned off at the event on November 30th, it's going to be a fantastic night! For more information visit the Paso Robles Library Foundation's Facebook page.

napa valley marathon

©2012, Monika Roe

Last year I joined the California 500 Mile Native American Spiritual Marathon running team. I'm not Native American, but that's not a requirement to be a part of the team. I found them through my man who has been involved with the team for years, first as a runner and now as a member of the support crew (due to an injury).

I've never been a runner, but the team needed runners so I decided to try it out and see how it went. The team meets once a month for a run somewhere in the San Jose/Bay Area. We run on all sorts of terrain, from city streets to the breathtakingly beautiful trails overlooking Half Moon Bay.

All of this training is in preparation for the annual 500 Mile marathon in June. The team covers 500 miles in 5 days with the purpose of spreading the message that "all life is sacred". The team is split up into smaller teams, usually there's around 10 people per team and each team runs 100 miles a day in a relay style, camping every night along the way.

As the run approached, I was more worried about the camping than the running! I'm more of a city comfort girl than a camper! In the end I survived and averaged around 12 miles per day. On the last day, I ran better than I had run on the first day! I was really happy and proud to have been a part of the 34th year of this event.

We had a couple months off before training began again this month. I kept up my running. Kind of. They say that the hardest part of running is getting out of the front door and I find that to be true. And then I watched a documentary about the Chicago marathon called Spirit of the Marathon.

I've never even thought about running a marathon until I watched that documentary. Something about "normal" people from all walks of life running that thing resonated with me and I started thinking about it non-stop. I casually researched marathons here in California and ended up signing myself up for the Napa Valley Marathon on March 3, 2013!

Now that I have a goal it's much easier to get out the door and run. If I don't, I won't be able to run the marathon in March. It's that simple! I'm following the marathon training plan that I found on the Marathon Rookie site. Because I have more than 16 weeks to train I'll stagger my training by jumping back a week every 4th week. This will add more weeks of training and vary the intensity of the weeks instead of increasing mileage every single week.

I'm on week 3 of training and it's going really well. I added a new pair of Asics Gel shoes to my running shoe rotation. I really like my older pair of Asics Gels so I didn't hesitate to buy this new pair. Unfortunately they seem to be a little too snug across the widest part of my foot. When I was on Pinterest the other day I found a pin leading to a website that showed different ways from a podiatrist to lace your shoes depending on your foot concerns.

And that FINALLY leads me to the above illustration! The shoe on the right shows the way to lace a shoe to alleviate tightness across the foot. In my illo I kept that shoe shown in mostly line art and made the lace a bright color so it would be easy to see the lacing technique.

I laced up both of my shoes in this way and went on a 3 mile run. The next day my feet were sore and I think it's because I need the support of the laces across my feet. So this lacing tactic didn't help my run after all. I think I'm going to have to break these new shoes in the old fashioned way, just wear them around until they stretch out!

parenting magazine part 2

A large spot illo I did for Parenting Magazine's August story on negotiation between parents and their children. This went with the one I posted on Tuesday.

parenting magazine

©2012, Monika Roe

Parenting Magazine asked me to illustrate their August feature about negotiation between parents and their children. This illo was for the opening spread and shows a family negotiating in a court setting.

The challenge of this particular illustration was to work it around the text! The headline was on the upper left hand page and the article's body copy started on the bottom of the right hand page.

©2012, Monika Roe

baking bliss

©2012, Monika Roe

It's been a while since I let my baking skills loose. My man has been watching his diet so that means no surprise batch of brownies, or trying out that chocolate malted crunch cake recipe I've had my eye on. However, my brother and his girlfriend have moved into a new house so I'm pretty sure it's mandatory I make them a batch of housewarming cookies! I'm looking forward to making something sinful and sweet!

(The illo shown above can be seen in this month's September issue of Ideal Home Magazine.)

they draw and cook for kids

My illustrated recipe for a FlufferNutter Sandwich is featured in the new ebook They Draw & Cook for Kids! 

This ebook contains 20 illustrated recipes that are easy to make and yummy to eat. It's a very fun way to introduce kids to cooking!

They Draw & Cook for Kids is published by Nate Padavick and Salli Swindell, the creators of the websites They Draw & Cook and They Draw & Travel. Go check it out!

september

This is an illo I did for the current September issue of Ideal Home Magazine in the UK. I was excited to use warm fall colors of pumpkin and sage for this one. These colors make me want a pumpkin spice latte!

dreaming of the coast

©2012, Monika Roe

This is an illo I did for the current August issue of Ideal Home Magazine in the UK. I love the feeling of this, it makes me want to jump in my car and take a short drive to the coast where the temperature is about 30 degrees cooler. I've had enough of the 109 degree heat we've been having for the last couple of weeks!

more little olympians!

©2012, Monika Roe

Here's another little Olympian demonstrating his ability to make a mess by unraveling a toilet paper roll!

And finally, here's an illo of a girl learning how to walk with an Olympic torch carrier in the background. This was inspired by the editor's story of her little girl taking her first steps during the Olympics!

©2012, Monika Roe

olympic fans

©2012, Monika Roe

This is the next illo I did in the Olympic baby series for the current August issue of Babytalk Magazine. It shows babies reaching the developmental milestone of communicating!

another olympic baby

©2012, Monika Roe

This baby has bounce! He's another Olympic baby I drew for the current August issue of Babytalk Magazine.

olympic babies

©2012, Monika Roe

This is illo #1 in a series I did for the August 2012 issue of Babytalk Magazine. My illos feature babies showing off their accumulating motor skills by competing in different baby-style events. Being able to turn over a bowl of spaghetti on his head shows that this baby has motor strength!

featured on they draw & cook

This week my illustrated recipe, "Maui Luau Sandwich", is featured in They Draw & Cook's "Summer Delights" recipe collection on the home page. I loved drawing this recipe! Thanks to TD&C for highlighting my illo!

lonely

©2012, Monika Roe

No, I'm not lonely! It's just this week's topic over at Illustration Friday! This is my take on it...

who gets to call it art?

©2012, Monika Roe

The Paso Robles Art Association hosts a monthly art movie event and they've asked me to create the posters! Here is the artwork I created for next month's film, the documentary entitled Who Gets To Call It Art?

In the 60's Henry Geldzahler was the Metropolitan Museum of Arts's first curator of contemporary art. This film combines his recollections of the art scene in New York along with interviews from artists of that period including David Hockney and Frank Stella. You can view the trailer here.

Sadly it's not available for streaming on Netflix, but you can get it by mail if you're hardcore!

carry

©2012, Monika Roe

Inspired by this week's Illustration Friday topic of "carry"...

american girl magazine july/august 2012

This month in American Girl Magazine follow my illustrated steps on how to get seaworthy style by braiding a fishtail braid!

suspend

©2012, Monika Roe

My illo for this week's Illustration Friday topic of "suspend"...

lethal outlook

Lethal Outlook by Victoria Laurie is available now at your preferred bookseller! Look for my cover illustrated to show there's a storm brewing when psychic Abigail Cooper must rely on her inner vision to search for a missing woman!

it's back!

Back by popular demand! I'm holding another Paper Sculpture workshop for kids this month! This is an exciting, creative opportunity for kids ages 10 through 12 to explore 3 dimensional art and spatial concepts with paper.

Class will be held at The Art Hub at Studios on the Park here in Paso Robles, July 25, 26, 27, 28. Deadline to register is Wednesday, July 18. Go to http://pasoroblesart.org/schedule to sign up. Space is limited!

paper, paper everywhere

©2012, Monika Roe

Busy hands this morning, day 3 of my June Paper Sculpting class! I am so impressed with my students! They work with joy and are always open to trying new things! We're working on all sorts of paper art experimenting with color, dimension and depth. A very creative group...

shiny

©2012, Monika Roe

For this week's Illustration Friday topic of "shiny"...

hurry!

It's summer, so hurry and break out the Pimm's! In keeping with the Queen's Jubilee celebration, here's the recipe for the classic UK libation, Pimm's Cup...

the queen's diamond jubilee

The UK is marking 60 years of the Queen's reign with Diamond Jubilee celebrations over the weekend extending into this week. Here's an illo I did for this month's issue of Ideal Home Magazine. It shows their "Savvy Shopper" hosting a block party with her children to celebrate!