WaWe Banner

The banner above is an illustration used for an earlier issue of Stories for Children Magazine. I illustrated monthly for them, as did many of our members, but the magazine is now out of business--they'll be missed by both the illustrators and the children who followed the magazine. I guess it's just another sad sign of our times.

Speaking of the WaWe banner, Lyon volunteered for the April banner, and Cheryl is doing the May banner for WaWe. Don't be shy--please sign up for a month. When your month comes around, please also send me a list of monthly challenges. Thanks everyone for the great work!

Life of Pi (cover for WAWE)

I did a colour rough first in Photoshop then I found a piece of red paper and painted in tempera. One of my favourite books. Just added my name to the cover. I might as well dream big while I am at it.

Cover Art Bedtime Bunny

This is a piece of art I did for a cover.

I have story too, but I'm still working on it.

Character - sruble's Elephant Olympian

Sometimes when I watch the Olympics, I wonder about things, like do elephants have their own Olympic games? And if they do, would they have the same events as our Olympics? Here’s the first event that I imagined from their winter games – Elephant Figure Skating:

What do you think about when you watch the Olympics?

My Character in Action!

Here is my character in action. I actually did this for a job that was killed.

I was really hoping to do this project, but they felt that the character looked

too computerized and commercial. I plan on doing my own story with the character

one day.

Under painting

2/20/2010

Yesterday I worked on the under painting.

I decided to use watercolor for the underpainting because I already had the materials.

I would have had to go out to buy the right color(s) of pastel if I went with it.

As you can see I have an overall pink wash.

Then I went back in and added yellow to the sky, fencepost caps, and her scarf.

The next step will be to spray it with fixative and then start painting with more watercolor and then gouache for opaque detail.

I usually go back in at the end and do some color outlining.

Dancer

The perspective

Dancer

For WAWE

While taking her dance classes she hears and sees the soccer game going on. Her brother and his friends have said dancing isn't as skilled and doesn't require as much physically.

The ball is thrown as a taunt." Girls are stupid"

"So they don't think I have the skill; we will see"

Thank you for your many kind comments I will be sending in the perspective tomorrow. Hope you enjoy.

Character perspective

Hi Everyone! I have missed adding my two cents around here and seeing what you all have been up to. I am sharing an illo I finished today, while the perspective isn't too extreme, I did want to try a composition that was slightly off-kilter, as a way to pull in the audience.
Great prompt next week as well, I will be back with a fun jacket illo/design. Hope everyone is doing well. =)

One more with Abby and Ally

One more illustration with my bunny characters. I'm working on another one using "extreme perspective."

MIA me.

I have been hard at work on my upcoming book. And it so fits all this month's prompts. Too bad I can't share anything yet. Except the cover. See it at the pub's web site. Sorry I've been MIA, I'll be back next month.

Everybody's submissions look wonderful and fun. Miss you guys.

Splash

It may not be the most extreme perspective, but for me, it is a fun perspective.

Character

This was my start. A work in progress.

Scenes with Character

I created four scenes with my characters. I'm pretty happy with the first two, but not too sure about the last two. With the last two, I was working outside of my comfort zone: experimenting with the compositions/vantage points. I had a hard time moving the black paint around on the extreme close-ups of the dog, and I'm not sure the character looks the same as the ones in the first two. But, experimentation is how we learn, isn't it? Overall I'm pleased with this experiment!

I didn't really intend to create a duck character, too - But there he is. Right now I'm just calling them "Duck n Dog" in my head.

Character development II

Here they are again, Abby and Ally, now in color!

And as my muses for Illustration Friday's "Muddy."

Doggy?

I've decided to play with this little guy for my character. Having a little trouble with what to call him, though.

Character development

What a great challenge for this month, Michelle! Let me introduce to you all Abby and Ally, best of friends. Right now just as a rough sketch, but they'll be back :-)

"Quick, someone is coming!"

Character Development

OK, so I did a few more color studies of this little girl. I'm happiest with the vibrant red/blue combo with black hair. I think the character is fairly consistent. Do they look the same to you?

Here is a little girl that I've been working on. She's going to have a dog too. I think I may want to give her black hair instead. Hmmm. ... stay tuned.