Saturday, September 11, 2010

Soft Pals

I am sure everyone grew up with one of these. I had a teddy bear my dad bought from Australia when I was 8, it stayed with me until I was 11 ^^. I bought the the Beluga Whale on the left and the Sea Otter on the right for my 2 and half year old niece in Malaysia. The one in the middle is my wife's favorite frog Moko which she's been having for years now. So what is BFF? It means Best Friends Forever =)
 Water color, color pencils and pen markers On 5"x8" Moleskine Sketchpad 

And in the mail yesterday I got a major surprise from Italy! Cathy Holtom(and everyone knows she's an awesome artist, click on her site here) sent me a couple of gorgeous post cards of Sicily, 3 ultra realism work of hers printed in strips(I really like these!) and an original, the one and only hand drawn 12.5cm X 13.5cm sketch of an ancient roman ruins, AUTOGRAPHED! Yay! It seems like it's done with ink pen and color pencils, and I love it! Thank you so much Cathy!

26 comments:

  1. Your furry little friends are WONDERFUL models for your portrait, Alex!! I love how cozy they look, as though in conversation :-) Terrific!

    And your surprise in the mail . . . beautiful!!!

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  2. Your soft pals are adorable and oh, so cozy. And, lucky you to have those wonderful pieces from Cathy - they're lovely. nancy

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  3. Yay, I think this is so adorable!

    I know I should give up my little frog Moko, but I can't, so I guess I'll just have to give it to our future kids later on.... at least, that's my excuse

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  4. Wonderful painting of the various "loveys" as they are called in our family since my oldest grandchildren lived in London.

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  5. Love these Alex!

    Cathy's mail surprise is lovely too, you are very lucky.

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  6. Teddy bears...stuffed animals. My son (who is 12 and just starting junior high), told me that he took one of his favorite teddies to school for his new locker. I said aren't you afraid you'll get teased about it if someone sees it? He said I don't care if I do, having him there with me makes it worth the teasing! So glad you've paid them the honor they deserve!

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  7. These are so lovely, Alex! I'm especially impressed how you pictured their -- uh -- texture (?) so very well... the fur and the fluffy look. The frog looks particularly cuddly! ^-^

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  8. I'm glad you got everything ok, it's strange to see them on another blog :)
    I like your drawing a lot, the frog looks like he's grinning!

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  9. So lucky to have an art friend share her art!

    Your little snuggly pals are just too cute. You did a great job expressing what they mean to you.

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  10. You've had a nice idea to paint those little soft friends of your childhood... I think everyone has some lovely animals like them in his memories! They look like they're alive!

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  11. Great BFF's Alex.....(maybe I should draw my very sad old teddybear...which if you look at it you may think I'm over 100)
    Thanks for stopping by
    weird thing in blog world, haven't seen an up-date on my dashboard for ages and tonight had 25 updates in a row(?)

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  12. Adorable BFFs! I love your drawing of them. Your niece will be thrilled with her plush gifts, I'm sure. And what great gifts from Cathy!

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  13. Your BFF sketch is just wonderful, and lucky you to have some of Cathy's artwork--so beautiful!

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  14. Nice job, Alex. Stuffed animals used to hang out all over our house when our kids were small (they are both "out" now); and we still have a few hiding out that just don't want to leave.

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  15. I had a terrible time trying to comment on this yesterday, kept getting an error message. Not sure what is up with blogger lately, someone said the same thing about my blog recently.

    Anyway, I think you did great on this, really capturing the textures well. And I love this idea for a subject. I have a huge garbage bag of these in the attic that I haven't thought about in years!

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  16. Your little friends are so lovely! You have made a great drawing of them - the textures are so well drawn that I can almost feel what they are like to the touch.

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  17. Been away, so I had to catch up to see what you have been up too... All amazing work (and I think I found what I need, a Rock!!!... my other once dont last so well with me). Crayfish, funny and I love the coffee loving crayfish. And the soft animals, so cute and the sea otter for sure my favourite. Great work. And teh pieces from Cathy are very nice, what a gift.

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  18. Charming!
    I like very much how you render the fur.

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  19. Nice sketch as usual! Love the new blog design! (Well, you may have had it for a while... I have been quite absent lately due to vacations and too much work - logic?)

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  20. Those BFF's are so cute....great job!!!

    A lovely surprise from Cathy too.

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  21. The stuffed animals look wonderful. How lucky you are to have some of her work. Wow. Does she have some of yours? If so, she is lucky too!

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  22. Your soft toy sketch is just lovely, I keep saying that I think your drawing gets stronger and stronger with each item you produce and I'm thinking it again! Which is not me saying your earlier sketches were weak!!! They were all fab, but you just keep on pulling it out of the hat!
    As for the gift from Sicily, how generous is that? Cathy's pencil drawings are just beautiful - you lucky thing!

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  23. Ha! I recently did the same thing, rediscovering old stuffed animals from the basement boxes. How adorable your sketches are. And how lucky of you to get an "original" from Cathy Holtom!

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  24. your lil friends are very cute!! really want to give a cuddle!!

    and i love Cathy's mail surprise! beautiful and heartwarming

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  25. hi!like so much these friends of your , expecially the bold electric colour and the style you drawed them ! thank you for stopping @ my blog ^^ stay in touch

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