I picked up some paint pens for our Easter egg decorating, and I love them. I tried them here on a sloppy watercolor sketch I made a few days ago, and I really like how it added new life to it. I'll be trying this on other potential discards and see what I can create...
Illustrating a cookbook!
I am currently illustrating a cookbook of 12 yummy soups for my longtime friend, Melissa at M Delish Boutique.
We revealed our first page yesterday (sans recipe)...
If you're interested in getting a copy, Melissa is offering a discounted pre-order price for a limited time here. Delish!
Happy 1st Day of Spring!
We had two early-morning guests today. One was a three-year-old who wanted to watercolor.
I can't remember the last time I broke out my watercolors before 9am, but it was such a fantastic way to start my day, I think I'll try a morning like this tomorrow as well.
Happy Spring, All!
Illustration Friday, "Path"
Last night I submitted art to the Illustration Friday challenge for the first time. The word to illustrate was Path.
This is what I sent in...
Another nudge to animate
This is a collage of my cat, Tyco. He's cool, and he likes to drive his truck around.
Thanks to a great friend's suggestion, this is now his theme song:
I love it. Love it, I say! This might be my final push to start learning animation. Stay tuned....
Illustrating the Ogre of Rashomon
For an upcoming critique with Mark Mitchell and Jeff Crosby, I created a few illustrations for the Japanese folktale, The Ogre of Rashomon. I wanted a very graphic, in-your-face look for this. A couple of my ideas...
Transferring my collage onto wood
The collage I'd made for this month's MATS Bootcamp really lent itself to a burnt wood look, so I bought a few rounds of wood and a wood-burning tool at my local art store.
Though I really loved sketching with the wood burner, I just couldn't get an even burn for large flat areas. So I found this great Photoshop tutorial, made some additional tweaks, and submitted this final piece:
Creating my own scene for MATS Bootcamp
In Lilla Rogers' MATS Bootcamp course, our main assignment this month is to paint a picturesque scene on a round wooden surface.
I started my mini assignment by sketching scenic plates that Lilla had provided (you can see one of them here). I then moved on to create my own scene, using collage. But I decided to eliminate the texture and work toward more of a cinematic, dark effect.
This was my final layout. Now to transfer it on wood....
She's not afraid of the wolf
In fact, she kind of likes him. Work-in-progress...
Work in progress, The Guitar Player
I've been working on this guitar-playing character the past couple days. Today, I plan to build her an audience. It might just be one child flanked on her shoulder. Perhaps another at her feet. I'll post again when she's complete. Thanks for visiting!
More character development + creating the scene
In my last post, I'd just started to develop this new character. I have since been working on editing some of her details and creating the scene to place her in. I decided upon this semi-fantastical, wintry backdrop, a green jacket and a mysterious book...
Another character I'm illustrating right now
In addition to this new character that I posted about yesterday, I have also been working on this girl. I'm still developing her story, but she is about to embark on an unexpected mission...