This week’s Illustration Friday theme was ‘reverse.’ As a child I used to love looking at stamps to try and figure out what the image or text would look like on paper. Sometimes I could see it so easily, while other times it was a real surprise…

Today’s Illustration Friday topic ‘dusty’ brought to mind: old westerns, cowboys, saloons, dirty, dark, unkempt, musty…the list goes on. I just wasn’t feelin’ it. So I thought to myself, why can’t ‘dusty’ bring to mind: fantasy, ponies, sparkles, bright, fresh…and then it did!

This little pony started out as a bland brown horse and became so much more – all thanks to fairy dust! ;-)

The word artificial brought to mind so many different things…breasts, limbs, flowers and then flavoring! Hopefully you have the real deal in your pantry…

Bee to the blossom, moth to the flame.
Each to his passion; what’s in a name?
Helen Hunt Jackson

An update about the Ripple Sketch Project:

Hi Everyone at Illustration Friday!

It’s Kelly Light from the “Ripple” blog. I wanted to stop back and say a huge “THANKS!” to all of the Illustration Friday contributors who came to Ripple and donated their talent and time to help the Gulf Oil Spill animal victims. In one week Ripple went from having 100 cards to having 600 cards. We went from raising $1,000.00 to help clean oiled animals to more than $5,000.00 (as of 6/22). That figure keeps growing and the art keeps coming everyday. Artist from all over the globe showed up to throw their pebbles in. The messages they shared were of care and concern, anger and frustration and even hope for an end to this catastrophe. From across the United States the message was clear — whether near a beach or not — we need to do what we can to help. Small sketches, small donations that add up not only in dollars but in heart.

As a result of Ripple, I get personal updates from a woman cleaning birds in Florida with the IBRRC (one of the non profits Ripple helps). She said it takes 3 bottles of Dawn Dish Detergent to wash one bird. One $10 sketch card buys three bottles. So we have raised enough money to clean roughly 570 birds. I made a deal with myself to run this blog as long as the oil spills. I want the oil to stop now. But as long as it’s flowing I’ll be here and will welcome any new art submissions.

Thanks again to Penelope and Brianna for the support, the huge hook up – and the inspiration!

-Kelly

Some of the pieces I made are still available if you’re interested in donating to the cause!