Illustration Friday - PINK

I did this sweet girl (my step-daughter named her Luna) this week as a practice exercise on my ipad in the Procreate App. When I started her the Illustration Friday word of the week was CROWN. I tried putting a crown on her and making her a princess but it just wasn't looking right and my original sketch showed a flower in her hair. I'm glad I stuck to the original and WOW! how serendipitous that this week the IF word was PINK! 

Illustration Friday - MAIL

     Remember when the mail used to bring more than flyers and ads?

     Email is great. It's efficient. It doesn't waste paper. But, I remember how exciting it was to wait for my college acceptance envelope (they mostly come via email these days), for birthday cards (which have become a short happy-birthday-post on Facebook), for letters (yes, actual letters because it was too expensive to call long distance) from friends and family. Those days aren't totally gone but the joy of mail has diminished somewhat. This illustration is a shout out to all those loyal, and faithful mailboxes (and of course the mailmen and mailwomen) who carry on.

     Here is a sketch that I did about 5 and a half years ago, when the Illustration Friday prompt word of the week was FORWARD. The idea is along the same lines.

     I feel like my illustration skills have improved.

Spring

     

     It's almost this time of year! My eyes are on my lilac bush and I intend to appreciate every last blossom this year. I intend to make bouquets and bring them into my house and sit and just breathe. 

     I did a piece very similar to this about 3 years ago when I was participating on a website called Illustration Friday The word prompt for the week was LUSH and below is my old submission. 

I wish everyone a Happy Easter!

For anyone checking out this blog on a regular basis, I'm nearly done with the portrait of my great-granddaughter and will probably post it by the end of the week.

Dress Up

I seem to have a very strong desire to "perfect" this image. It is my fourth attempt at working on the idea.

For most of my adult life I've painted realistically. I always said I couldn't draw from my imagination if my life depended on it. If it wasn't set up in front of me to view, I couldn't get it on paper. When people wanted me on their Pictionary team I warned them that my drawing skills would be no better than anyone else's. And I was correct.

But I've always wanted to illustrate children's books and knew that unless I worked on the skill of drawing from my imagination, I would never be able to come close to making that a reality.

In 2011 my step-daughter Ashley (my personal cheerleader) bought me a sketch-a-day book for Christmas. That little book started to change everything for me. On March 4 2012 I drew this image in that sketchbook for the Illustration Friday word of the week - INTENTION: (Well, at least she had good intentions)

I was pretty proud of it at the time and thought "Hey! Now I can be of benefit to a Pictionary team!

Almost exactly a year later I felt that I had improved my skills and could do a much better version. I did this one for the Illustration Friday word of the week - PROTEST (the fish was definitely protesting).

And in 2015 I felt like an absolute expert and decided I could do so much better. Here's that one:

So there you have it.  The top image is where I am after 5 years of drawing while relying heavily on my imagination. I certainly use reference material in my process, but to be able to have done the top image 5 years ago I would have needed a little girl model, a happy dog, a curious cat (one that would allow me to put clothes on it and then pose nicely), and a fish that I would have had to put through way too much trama.

Have we all seen the last attempt of this image?

Probably not.

Illustration Friday - CHILDHOOD

This is an update - May 27, 2016

I finished this piece up with oils. No digital work because I wanted a piece that I could frame.

                                      

    

 This bottom one started as an 8 x 10 watercolor on clayboard and finished up in Corel Painter.
I took a photo of this awesome treehouse many years ago and I've always intended to get it out and add the kids. Here it is!
     If you're interested in seeing an even older version of kids playing in a tree click here. I am slowly but surely learning the art of children's illustration.    

Illustration Friday - VILLAGE

     This is the fountain in my wonderful home town of Greenville, Ohio. I've taken a few liberties. For instance, the fountain sits in our traffic circle and isn't usually populated with people. 

      I'm still working on this piece in my studio as a rather large pastel, but time was running out for me to get it posted to IF, so I took a photo, scanned it into the computer, and added the people and some other details. Now when I return to the pastel I'll have some extra reference material.

Illustration Friday - SHELTER

Colored pencil with a little bit of marker on gray paper.

Awwwww.

Illustration Friday - SMART

"Lars climbed atop the books and sat for a moment in contemplation. He considered himself a smart fellow. But, for the life of him, he couldn't figure out the reason for plastic fruit."

     I have been playing with clay recently. For a short story I have been working on, I created this guy:
                                                 

I did the piece in colored pencil first, then scanned it in to Corel Painter. This is what the original drawing looks like.  I'm still not entirely happy with the face, so I'll probably go back and rework him in a week or two. 

Illustration Friday - SPIN

Watercolor sketch with a bit of marker.

This is a quick glimpse into the psyche of a vegan.  Or maybe I'm a closet sociopath.

My daughter, Louisa, describes it as "disturbing."

Illustration Friday - TROPICAL

     This is about as close as I can get to being tropical in January. In Ohio. 

     I, however, am not complaining. I am one of those people who love snow. I smile and nod when other people complain about the weather, but I am not actually feeling their pain. Once in a while I come right out there and admit that yes, I am a snow lover. People usually accept me anyway. They may roll their eyes and pat me kindly on the head. To my knowledge, I've not lost friends over it. 

Just Being Girls

     This piece started back in 2012 with the Illustration Friday word prompt- CARRY. While I brainstormed I came up with the phrases "carry on a conversation" and "voices carry". The original is a simple black and white line drawing that I just decided to drop in the computer and color.

     Nothing beats a good conversation over a cup of coffee and a piece of pie! 

     

     Just for fun I'll share the other sketch I did in that 2012 sketch-a-day book for the same word prompt.

Illustration Friday - MOON

     This is an 8 x 10 drawing with charcoal pencil and white pastel pencil on gray paper that came out of my brainstorming session. I haven't experienced a break-up for over 26 years, and don't plan on experiencing one ever again, but the romantic in me thought up this little drawing with hope that whatever happens in a person's life, the moon can make it right. (Don't fail to take note of the shadow).

     So I am off to a good start in 2016. I may not always do a polished piece for Illustration Friday but one of my goals this year is to bring an idea each week to at least this level. In 2012 I had a sketch-a-day notebook. I may have mentioned it before, it was a gift from my step-daughter Ashley and one of the best gifts I've ever received. Even if I didn't do a sketch each day, I managed to do a sketch for IF each week. That sketchbook is full of ideas that I still refer to. In fact another version of this image is in there for the word - LONELY. That one had a happy couple seated on a bench in the moonlight while the moon looks on crying for a different reason.

     If you stop back by this blog from time to time you may someday see a more polished version of this image. I tend to do that a lot. Redo, redo, redo. 

Illustration Friday - CITY

WOOHOO! Unbelievable timing. We just got back from visiting my step-daughter and her husband in Las Vegas and the IF word of the week is . . . CITY!  Everything is fresh on my mind and the photos I worked from, freshly imported into the computer. 

I started with a quick acrylic painting:

I took a photo of this, dropped it into Corel Painter and violá.

Next step is to finish up the painting and now I can use the digital version as reference.

IF - WHIMSICAL

Oil on gessoed illustration board (this finished piece shown has a little digital enhancing - just a little)

Sometime in early 2014 the Illustration Friday word of the week was SPACE and I came up with this idea. I didn't finish it in time to post it on IF but in April of that year I put the image on my blog post and called it Personal Space. A pretty WHIMSICAL idea of personal space. I recently decided to redo it, making it more colorful and fun (more whimsical) and I wanted, in the end, to have an actual piece of artwork in my hands instead of just an image that only exists in cyberspace or print. On top is the redo, on the bottom is the digital version from April 2014.

For a peak at a version further into the future (2021) click here.

EXOTIC

     I am attending a conference for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators in just a few weeks.  For the last couple of months I have been concentrating on my portfolio, pulling out old pieces that I liked but thought I could make stronger, as well as working on new pieces. I'm choosing my 15 strongest pieces for a face-to-face portfolio review scheduled during the conference with someone in the industry who can give me some input and constructive criticism. I am sooooooooooo excited.  (Sorry for the gush there.)

     This is what the original piece looked like that I did for Illustration Friday - EXOTIC.  I did it about a year and a half ago. It was not too bad but the poor little tiger doesn't have a chest and the background was just so-so.

Illustration Friday - HEART

I did some brainstorming and word association for Heart and came up with this.  Can you hear the music from the piano? 

Heart and soul, I fell in love with you; heart and soul, the way a fool would do; madly . . . 

Illustration Friday - POINTY

 I had two paintings of my daughter in progress at the same time, and finished them this week within a day of each other.  This one fits nicely into the IF word of the week - POINTY (good timing). Louisa wearing a pointy witch's hat.

Illustration Friday - GROW

A quick (well, relatively quick) digital sketch for the word GROW, which is exactly what my kids did, and they did it well - especially my 6'5" son.  Now that my husband and I are nearly empty nesters, I've been thinking quite a bit about moving to a new home with features more suited to us and the next phase of our lives. One of the saddest things we'll be leaving behind is the growth chart in our kitchen. 

Illustration Friday - TREASURE

One man's trash . . . 

     I did this one in several steps.  I started with a very rough pencil sketch in my sketchbook (brainstorming phase). Once I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do, I sketched it digitally so that I could get a good plan for my color and value. Here's that one:

My original plan was to use this as something to copy from and I wanted to have a very nice finished watercolor. Here's my watercolor:

I just didn't have enough patience for the painting and I was fighting against the paper - I wasn't using the best kind for my painting style. I'm also a bit spoiled with being able to fix any mistakes in the computer, so I dropped it back into the digital world for reworking.  There are some areas of the digital sketch that I like more, but all in all I'm happiest with my finished piece.

Illustration Friday - SHARP

"Every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man"

and if you're a nerd (like me and proud of it) you might go crazy 'bout a sharpened pencil too.

Quick digital sketch.