Rohling Studios

Creative Souls

Visit Creative Souls

My blog friend Izabella has started a wonderful group called "Creative Souls".  I met Izabella when I began my blog two and a half years ago.  I loved her work immediately and asked her if I could feature it.  Now Izabella has gathered over four-hundred creative souls all in one wonderful site!  It is a diverse gathering of people who love creativity, a place she has made where artists can help promote each other.  She says~All creative people welcome~

New At PFATT

It's always exciting when PFATT is posting new items for the month!  It's SPRING!  Check it out by clicking on the banner above.  Next month will be our Halloween in June promotion (with doorprizes!) and in July we plan a Christmas in July promotion.   PFATT a wonderful place full of goodies to get lost in! I am so proud to be a part of these wonderful folks!

Happy Easter/Whateverings/Paula J Becker

Happy Easter Everyone!  It's a good thing to see that the bunnies are hard at work UNDER the ground because we just got socked with the biggest snow storm we have had all year!!! This cute little illustration is the work of Illustrator Paula J. Becker.  Paula is a fellow Ilustration Friday participant.  She has been freelancing as an illustrator For over 15 years.  Born and raised in South Texas, she moved to Montreal, Quebec in 2000, though she retains a studio space in Texas so she "can escape the insufferable Canadian winters!" (Apparently no one has told her about Wisconsin!!)  Her blog enables her to "be in contact with others in our field, to post her creative endevors, and work on her writing skills".  I am glad to have met her and to be one of the fortunate ones to have gotten in contact with her.  Thanks, Paula, for letting me post your Illustration.  I hope you take time to visit her blog HERE and her website HERE.

Illustration Friday~Blanket

This week's assignment is "Blanket".  This is an illustration I did for a greeting card.  Bankets are so great to snugge up beneath to get warm under this time of year.  I just made my first quilt this year thanks to my daughter's help (help and then help!)   

Halloween Fairy

 

The Halloween Fairy floats on the autumn leaves where ever the wind will blow her.  She is fond of black cats, the smell of fresh pumpkin bread and the taste of apple cider.  The Halloween Fairy flies through pumpkin fields at night and chooses the pumpkins that are ready for Halloween.  With one magic touch of her wand, a pumpkin turns from green to a bright happy halloween orange..... sometimes she will turn a whole field orange in one night! 

              Copyright Claudia Rohling 2007

Ed Emberley

When my children were young I picked up a cute little book by Ed Emberley that taught ways of using shapes to drawing the most adorable little things.  We drew trucks, cars and boats.  Then we drew cats, dogs and people.  We got hooked on drawing the little figures!  I have to wonder how many children grew up learning how to draw because of Ed Emberley.  As you can see.....this post and the new banner was done to pay tribute to a man who has gotten people of all ages to pick up pencils, fingerpaints, and crayons.....to cut and paste and color their hearts out!  Ed Emberley has gotten parents all over the world to play with their own creativity while teaching their children to draw.  I designed my current banner using the Ed Emberley Drawing Book of Halloween.  Be sure to check it out on Amazon.  And while you are there buy one or two of his books and try drawing the Emberley way!

Illustration Friday ~ Juggle

I know, I know, it is early for Santa but, this week's topic for Illustration Friday is "Juggle".  I went to my archives for this one.  One of our best sellers was this Santa with the little juggling  toy in his pack.  Sorry it is an old one but it was one of my favorites.

Illustration Friday~Momentum

                        

This is my entry for this week's Illustration Friday topic...MOMENTUM!  It was the image that popped into my mind the minute I read the assignment...All I could think of was a drop or two of paint gathering momentum until it hit the paper.  I have also been trying to gather up my own momentum to post an entry...much has been happening.  Last Thursday my old neighborhood friends and I met for Stitch and Bitch.  As always, there was much to catch up on.  Four of us had painted toes...four of us did not....I don't have a clue why I noticed that much less counted!  I borrowed some tables from my friend, Jean for the rummage sale we had over the weekend.  After Stitch and Bitch there was much to do to get ready!  Move the boat...carry out things and cover them with tarps...try to go to sleep because I am sooooooo excited!  (Maybe it was nervous about getting up so soon.)  I sold lots of old frames, my friend Faye sold lots of antiques and Ang sold just tons of stuff!  It was a huge rummage sale!  It took up the whole front yard!  I met neighbors I didn't know I had!  I always love that part of a rummage sale.  It brings  all ages together from blocks and blocks away. People talk and laugh with each other.  And sometimes in the middle of it all the heavens open up and pour down all over it all.  Just such a thing happened on Friday one half hour before the sale was to end for the day.  Everyone scampered to help cover things up and afterwards I went into the house...dripping and soaking wet down to the insides of my CROCS.  I took a nap.  I hadn't allowed myself time for a nap all summer long!  Saturday....more rummage sale!  It was warm and it would have been beautiful had the mosquitoes not descended on us in swarms!  They were the size of sparrows!!!!  We could have made more money if we had charged 50 cents to spray each shopper with our super strong bug spray...everyone was swatting and jumping around.  It was quite comical until we mercifully offered to share the spray and bombed the yard several times.  The sale ended without further welts.  We cleaned up and called Saint Vincent DePaul to schedule a pickup date for the rest of our rummage.

   Sunday was a totally different day. When we moved into this house ten years ago David was a young boy from the neighborhood who would come over to chat and play with the dogs.  Now he is a grown and a grown up married man.  He, his wife and baby joined Paul, Laura and I out on the boat for the afternoon.  We had a great time watching the kites imposed on the skyline for the Milwaukee Kite Festival. 

 

See IKE Jeff's Photostream HERE for more pictures.  These are huge kites!  Next year I'd love to see them as the string starts to unravel and they take flight! (Do they still use string?)  Before we called it a day, Paul and David dropped us off for a little bit at a restaurant on the river so that they could pound the waves for a thrill or two we didn't want to experience.  Autumn was in the air.  It was a very different lake front.  There was a bite to the air and the water was choppy.  There were no cigarette boats...no wait to put the boat in or out of the water.  Now the weatherman is predicting frost later this week.  I can't say I will be sad to see the mosquitoes bite the dust....but....winter is gathering MOMENTUM....hmmmm I will have to get out my markers again!

Illustration Friday~Alphabet

F is for Flower.  This week's Illustration Friday is "Alphabet".  I played around with  few designs.  There are so many unlimited possibilites.  Be sure to check out the site and see all the great ideas everyone has!

Let's Go FISHING

I've had fun playing with this piece....it's a real mixture of media! I don't know if it is done yet or not...I feel like it needs some ribbons and bows. 

Wow!  It is Labor Day Weekend already!  I haven't even bought a fishing license yet this year!!!  Summer shouldn't begin until I've at least gone fishing.  Summer is supposed to be the time to hang out the "Gone Fishing" sign, kick back and relax!  !  The smoke trailed behind my heels...(or, so it seems it should have) while I spent the summer blazing from one thing to the next!  (The reality is that the slower I go....the faster time goes.)

I am looking at three whole days off!  I am so happy....I look around the house at all the things I SHOULD do and I don't care about ANY of it!  I am more than giddy with the fact that we are supposed to have three beautiful days of sunshine....NO RAIN!!!  Maybe I will lay down on the driveway and soak up the sun!  It is so good to see it again!  I have three whole days!!! Maybe I will start that book I've been wanting to read.  Or I might see a movie, sew, draw or paint.  I might do a little tap dance every now and then just so people stop and say, "Did you see that!???"  Maybe I'll have a bonfire with just the dogs, the mosquitoes and me!  Maybe I will get out the phone and talk to all the friends I have been missing!  Maybe I will take the dogs for a long drive and try to get lost! I just love having... not only three whole days but I also have part of today to think about all of the possibilities!  The leaves are starting to turn...From my window, I can see the tips are beginning to yellow...Maybe I will just watch them turn to reds and oranges.   If this sounds like I don't have a life.........HOORAY!  I have three whole days to disengage!  Hey....does anyone know how to put a design in the background of a blog???  Maybe I will do that!