In getting this piece ready for a show, I played with pastels to give some depth to the background. Pastels are lovely, but highly toxic and very messy on a small piece like this. I wonder about pastel pencils. I will post the before and after pieces.

Happy Spring and happy Mother's Day! My mother loves to garden. When I was little she had a big vegetable garden and grew everything from beets to brussell sprouts and cabbage to cucumbers. Now that I have a yard of my own, I have my own vegetable garden, and I have her to thank for a lot of what I know about growing things.

Here's what's been keeping me busy these days. Another creative endeavor. . . learning InDesign.
You can find out more about this business forecasting magazine I design and the international institute of forecasters at: www.forecasters.org/foresight.

How did I fit ten animals on a toboggan? Well, it was a challenge, and as you can see, the seal fell out!

Here are the players for the new book I am working on. I have had some trouble uploading images to the blog. I am hoping this will work. Happy tax day!

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep. . .

It felt good to break out the sketchbook today. I thought it was the perfect thing to take along to town meeting. Here in Vermont, we still hold town meeting once a year to have a community vote on town budget and planning. The votes are still counted by a spoken yea or nay. There was a good mix of people, lots with beards, winter jackets and even some in suspenders. Here's a little sketch of a community member standing and speaking about affordable housing in Charlotte.

I just got back from the Kindling Words retreat. It was an amazing experience to be surrounded by so many wonderful authors and illustrators.
What I found most interesting was deconstructing both images and writing and analyzing their structure. I could go on about this, but I will just post a little sample image I played with in a session with the wonderful illustrator Mary Jane Begin (http://maryjanebegin.com/).

Our new pets made their way into some artwork.

One of my favorite winter things to do is sledding. We like to go up a very small mountain that is adjacent to our yard and sled down the road that leads to the bottom on the other side.
I like to be the one in the front like the otter!

Share a meal with a friend:

Happy New Year!

Are you having trouble finding things to do with all the loofahs that your husband grew in the garden? I am, but I came up with this idea:

More sketches with a watercolor pencil. This time I never got around to using water, though.

I think I am starting to create a little village of animals in the woods.

I am playing with a pencil that was recommended by a couple of friends. Turns out I had one tucked in with my regular pencils. This is my first drawing and I think I like it.

Holiday greetings a little early!

If you are interested in purchasing note cards, mugs or tee shirts printed with my images, please visit my new store at www.cafepress.com/lizawoodruff

My feelings this morning are pretty much summed up in this illustration:

Does this goose look a little scary? I sometimes think they are when they waddle toward you while hissing. I think they could do some damage with those strong wings of theirs!