[caption id="attachment_282" align="aligncenter" width="364" caption="Searching for Bertram in the fog"][/caption]

I found the delightful website, "Illustration Friday", and decided to participate this week.  "Illustration Friday" is a weekly art exhibit that anyone, illustrators and artists of any skill level, can participate in by creating a picture in any medium that responds to the week's one word topic. 

This week's topic was "foggy".  "Searching for Bertram in the Fog" is a small (5" x 7") digital painting made in Adobe Illustrator and Corel Painter.  I used a Wacom tablet with pen for doing the drawing.

"Highest Spring" is the first acupuncture point of the heart meridian. I found a nice article explaining different important points along the heart meridian (Using the Spirits of the Points: The Heart Meridian). It uses the metaphor of the heart as the benevolent ruler over the other organs. I also found another article online that says the Liver is the ruler. Probably much farther along in the studying of traditional chinese medicine is the answer as to how they are both rulers on different levels. But I'm not there yet. So for now, since this is a blog about hearts, I declare the heart to be the "Supreme Controller".

In the middle of filling my head full of eastern medicine theory and western anatomy I joined a doodle swap. Apparently there is a trendy new method for doing doodles with a trademarked brand name: Zentangle. The swap organizer mentioned it and that sent me off on a hunt for more info. It seems to be about a 9 on the art fad scale these days. My hunting/gathering/Googling expedition inspired me to start another Squidoo lens about doodle art. That, in turn, is making me accept the notion that I'm really happiest at doing art when I'm just doodling and it's okay, it's finally a legitimate art form. All of that led to heArt #134.

By the way, the irony of this being called Highest Spring at the beginning of the spring season in the northern hemisphere is not lost on me. This point is located in the very heart of your armpit. Seems to be exactly where Spring is this year -deadpans-.

Drawn in Photoshop with a Wacom tablet.

When I was in San Francisco for Macworld I was handed a flyer with what appeared to be half naked women all over it. I shrugged it off as another very strange person wandering the exhibit floor (there were many). That was until I saw "gender illusionists" written across the top. Turns out it was a flyer for a Drag club haha. If I was a guy, I probably would've felt a little dirty thinking that some of the Drag Queens were hot. As a girl, I give them props for being able to get that much cleavage with pecs, it's really quite impressive. What was used? Tape? Toilet paper? I gotta try that.

Anyways, doing some 3D modeling in my classes, I've come to understand that the proportions of the human body you learn in basic drawing classes are something that you don't just forget and never use. I dread the day that I have to create a character in Maya and it looks more like a mutant ninja turtle than a human. I guess that I could play it off as an identity trait, but I think I should start brushing up on the human form.

I've hosted this image at Flickr so that you can choose different sizes to download. Click on the heart image below and once at Flickr you'll see a small magnifier icon above the image that says "all sizes". Click on that and you'll see the different sizes. I'm asking for attribution but I know that sometimes that's more trouble than it's worth. If you use it for something you post on a blog, I'd really love a link back to this blog and I will, in turn, feature your work and blog in an entry here.

Check out the new heArt-a-Day website for more clip art, as well as the heArt-a-Day gift shop for already made heart art items.

Enjoy!!

While I was getting it ready for the blog I decided that the colors were reminiscent of Tuscany, and the border I put on it gives it the illusion of being 3-D, like a tile.

Painted in Photoshop, as usual.

Alternate title: I IZ NAPPING, DREAMING OF U . If you don't know about the "lolcat" phenomenon, visit the I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER blog. It's just about the only thing that guarantees me a belly laugh every time I visit it.

This is one of my daily drawings for my boyfriend, cause he calls me "kitten". -blush- I used my cat sleeping on the piano as my model.

Drawn using Photoshop and a Wacom Graphire4. All rights reserved.

There is a Japanese legend that says if you fold 1000 origami cranes you will have good luck. I drew this while adding some "mojo" to bring good luck to the viewer in matters of the heart. Drawn in Photoshop.

Available on shirts, mugs, greeting cards, kids clothes, at Cafepress.

Drawn in Photoshop. For more about the heart compass, see A Piece of My Heart.

Mugs, shirts, and a tote available at Cafepress.