Monster-Themed Music Lesson Pack - Free Sample Lessons

I love opportunities to design characters for my music education site products. These monster illustrations are for my new monster-themed music lesson pack. Below are a few images of the characters and links to the music resources on MakingMusicFun.net.

Here's a picture of the whole gang. It was interesting work, because sometimes you can just start with a wacky shape and see what happens.

Monster-Themed Music Lesson Plan Pack | K-3

This is the cover art for the 34 page collection of lesson plan and worksheets. It includes monster-themed music composer lesson plans and resources, lesson plans for composition and drumming, treble and bass clef note name and rhythm worksheets, activity songs, and bulletin board posters. Learn more...

Monster-Themed Musical Spelling Bee - Free Treble Clef Note Name Worksheet

If you're visiting this post for the music lesson pack, here's a link to a free sample worksheet. Students can learn treble clef note names and practice music notation with this free monster-themed musical spelling bee worksheet.

Monster-Themed Musical Spelling Bee - Free Treble Clef Note Name Worksheet

Maestro Owl Music Award | Free Certificate (Digital)

I write a lot of sheet music arrangements for my elementary music education site, MakingMusicFun.net. I always enjoy that, but I also jump at the chance to design a character for a music resource. Here's my most recent design for a music award certificate.



If you landed here looking for the music award certificate, here's the link:

Maestro Owl Music Award | Free Certificate

Math Education Logo | Vector Design (Einstein)

Here's a logo I put together for a TeachersPayTeachers.com digital product store. All that crazy hair for Einstein sure does make for a lively illustration.

Young Woman Holding iPad | Vector Illustration

I recently created a image for a friend of a young woman holding an iPad. I really pushed my skills to the limit on this one. I hope you enjoy the results.

Carnegie Hall Illustration and Music Theory Game

It's always fun to develop new resources for my elementary music and art websites. I just finished this free printable board game to teach kids basic music theory skills.

Get Carnegie Hall Park | Music Theory Board Game

Carnegie Hall Park | Music Theory Board Game
The board is designed to fit onto two pieces of printer paper. The size allows kids to drive Matchbox cars around the board as they answer the questions.

Here's the illustrations I created for the game:

Composing with Kids | Free Piano eBook

My Composing with Kids eBook was a little lighter project that the piano primer. With this one the only significant illustrating was the cover. If your interested in checking out the rest of the book, or sharing it with your piano teacher, I've included the link below.

Composing with Kids | Free eBook

Duck Playing the Banjo | Sketchbook

 Here's an illustration for a project that I'm working on. The sketch is below.

A Pirate I Am | Illustration and Free Piano Sheet Music

This weeks Illustration Friday word is "Crooked".  I designed this character, and even wrote a pirate song this weekend.

Here's the first verse and chorus:

I'll pillage a village to grab all the loot,
I'll hijack a ship and I won't give a hoot.
I'll kidnap fair maidens, the fairest I meet,
Then give them a smile and tickle their feet.

A pirate I am,
I'll sail my tall ship upon the sea,
A bad egg I'll be,
So long as my mummy loves me.

Here's the free sheet music for piano if you're interested:
A Pirate I Am for Easy Piano | Free Sheet Music


One more... I wanted to design a shipmate for him, so I came up with this one too.

In the Hall of the Mountain King | Listening Map Worksheet

I created this character and additional graphics for a music listening map for my website, MakingMusicFun.net. The final worksheet, seen below, helps kids to visually understand elements within a piece of music. This one focuses on musical form, pitch, and note length.

If you're interested, you can download the worksheet here:

In the Hall of the Mountain King | Listening Map Worksheet

Monster Vase Face (Optical Illusion) | Illustration Friday

I decided to include a second entry for Illustration Friday's word of the week - Identical. I created this image a few years back for a drawing lesson on my art website MakingArtFun.com. Women's Day later included the image in an article on optical illusions in their online magazine.

A Perfect Match | Illustration Friday

This week's entry for Illustration Friday work of the week - Identical. They look so happy!

T is for Tall | Illustration Friday

Illustration Friday's work of the week is "Tall". I had fun with this one, and couldn't seem to stop. It's now 2:41 in the morning, but I finally finished it.

Steampunk Girl with Telescope | Website Illustration

I created this illustration and website design for a telescope site. (This is a little cropped piece of it.) A steampunk theme seemed like the perfect thing, as the accessories often seem to include a telescope - not necessarily one like this - but a telescope all the same.

On the Flying Trapeze | Digital Illustration

I was browsing Pinterest.com and got inspired. This illustration wound up in a totally different place than the piece I was inspired by, but at least it challenged me.

If you're interested...
I photographed a sketch of the girl, then created the scene with flat color (for the most part) and drop shadows in Adobe Illustrator. The highlights and shadows were added in Photoshop.

The Wee Little Scare | eBook

I created a counting book for my general music classes awhile back. (I taught music in Christian and public schools for 14 years.) I thought I might be able to spruce up the look of the illustrations, so I gave it a go.

Below are a few pages from the book. The publisher I'm working with on another project has accepted it, though it's in line behind a bunch of other stuff. When it comes out it will be available as an interactive eBook. I'll let you know when it's published.

You can also print it from my music site, MakingMusicFun.net - The Wee Little Scare | Music/Counting eBook.

You probably know where it's going from here... :-)

Meet Mozart | Digital Illustration

Here's the next in the series of great composer illustrations for the cover of an upcoming interactive resource that I working to create.

In case you missed the last Meet the Composer series post....
An interactive eBook/App publisher contacted me a while back to create a series of music composer resources. They will include content from my music site, MakingMusicFun.net, as well as stuff specifically created for these editions. I'll share more about these resources as they progress.

Meet Beethoven | Digital Illustration

An interactive eBook/App publisher contacted me a while back to create a series of music composer resources. They will include content from my music site, MakingMusicFun.net, as well as stuff specifically created for these editions. I'll share more about these resources as they progress. The composer bust will be used on the cover.

And then this funny pizza guy will be used in a quiz...

"Test your knowledge of Beethoven by completing this 10 question quiz. Answer at least 7 questions correctly and Beethoven gets a delicious pizza for dinner. Miss 4 questions or more and Beethoven goes to bed hungry."

It's so fun to be kooky!

Swing Daddy-O | Digital Illustration

I went to a Big Bad Voodoo Daddy concert at the Ventura County Fair this week. The bass player struck a pretty cool pose that stuck in my head.

Here's the sketch that I started with...

 Here's what the final image looks like.

I even sent it to Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. We'll see if they "dig it".

Avatar for Website | Digital

I created this avatar and designed a simple site for LollipopiPadAppsforKids.com. Eyes and expressions are always a challenge, though so rewarding when things finally click.

Tinkerbell | Watercolor and Digital

Tinkerbell was a project that I used to help me grow in my ability to allow the watercolor paint to mix on the paper. I didn't like the original background, so I threw in a little digital pizazz.