What I've been working on

This is what I was working on last month! :-)
I took part on SCBWI-EPA's annual Illustrators Day workshop and this year the assignment was to create a few illustrations for Little Red Riding Hood.

It's been a while since I posted here on Watercolor Wednesdays, and I just wanted to say hi!

One more with Abby and Ally

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

Character development II

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

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

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!"

Celebrating the New Year

Wishing everyone a wonderful 2010, full of happiness, health and peace (and lots of illustrations!)

We just got back from a two week trip to Brazil to visit my family and we had a lovely time!

Let it snow

This is an oldie but still a favorite of mine. The original was sent to a friend in Portugal who is a big fan of beagles :-) We adopted our dog Constance a little over 6 years ago. They were not sure how old she was then, somewhere between 6 and 8. So she is at least 12 years old now, a senior girl, but still full of energy. And she has these long, long ears that flap in the wind!

Create a character | Itty Bitty Bear

Doodling with a pen, I found myself drawing this little fellow...

I then did a bit of a color sketch, and decided to call him Itty Bitty Bear.

Not sure what kind of adventures he'll be having, but he sure looks comfy in his little teacup :-)

Colors of fall

Hi, everyone! It's been a long time, I know, but here's one little watercolor for fall. It's inspired by one of my favorite books, Leaves by David Ezra Stein. And just like this little fellow, I feel a bit sad and worried when the last leaf falls and we head into winter.

Girl and Dog

Remember this girl? Sans bunny and now jumping up a bit... I did her and her dog friend as part of a series. The other ones are here and here.

From sketch to painting

I thought I'd share one little illo, from sketch to finished painting.

For this one, I started doodling a pig in an old-fashioned bathtub. I did a quick pencil sketch: I tend to sketch really small, so when I'm happy with the drawing I have to enlarge it either on a photocopier or using my scanner. Once I get it to the right size, I transfer it to watercolor paper using a small lightbox.

I can still make a few changes while transferring the sketch: in this case I changed the paper boat to a little rubber duck. On the sketch paper, I'll sometimes play with color, just to get some ideas.


Once I have the sketch on the watercolor paper, I use pen and ink to do the outline. I love ink drawings, the looser the line, the better. I prefer using a nib so that I can play with the width of the line, but I'm still learning how to control it. Also, even though I like the line to be loose, like on the sketch, once I start doing the outline in ink I have a harder time keeping it just as fresh. I like the results, but it's certainly more controlled. Once that's done, I erase the pencil marks and start painting. Selecting the colors and painting is also something I'm still working on. I guess my favorite part of any illustration is the sketch: everything else takes a bit more work and effort, and I find myself being more tentative. But the greatest thing is that I can see myself improving little by little. Having a blog and being part of Watercolor Wednesday has helped a lot! :-)

Family Reunion | Sketch

I was hoping to have this illustration done and posted on time, but I'm afraid I'm going to be late. But I wanted to at least share the sketch (rather dirty, I know!)

Lately I've been drawing a lot of bunnies, but when I saw the prompt for "Family Reunion" I couldn't resist. Say cheese, everyone! Or should it be carrot cake? :-)

Father's Day

It's been a while since my last post, but here's my entry for this week's prompt.
Happy Father's Day!

Letter A | Quick color sketch

So here's my idea for the letter "A." I'm enjoying playing with this concept for an Alphabet series: lots of white space in the background and a simple animal design for each letter. What do you think? :-)

This post is sponsored by the Letter B

I had an idea for "A" and "C" but did not have a chance to finish them. Thankfully, I did have time to finish the letter "B", presented to you by a friendly bear :-)

Bouncy Bunnies

I haven't been posting illustrations and comments consistently, but I'm still very happy to be part of Watercolor Wednesdays. And this week's prompt was just what I needed to get busy!

Girly/Spring Sketch

Just a sketch now, but this is what I had in mind for combining Girly and Spring into one illustration. I did a couple of other sketches as well, using the same characters, trying to be consistent. I'll make sure to post them (and the final piece of this illustration!) soon, I hope.

Play

Here are a couple of very playful sheep and a bird, tagging along.

Babies

Not a new illustration, but I couldn't resist once I saw the prompt for this week. I did this painting for a friend after her twin boys were born. She had a picture of them as little babies, facing each other just like this, and I thought it was such a cute pose!

Crowded

Crowded, but cosy :-)

Not a new illustration, but I thought it fit the theme. I have been enjoying everyone's work this month, and I hope to join you all with more original work next month (maybe even post some ideas that I had for this month's prompts, but that I did not have a chance to finalize!)

Cave | Just a Sketch

I haven't been posting regularly, but I wanted to at least post the sketch for my idea for "Cave." This topic made me think of the one cave I would love to visit (though the real one is closed now): Lascaux, where one can see the most amazing prehistoric art.

That was my idea for a quick spot, done quickly in pencil. The next topic is coming up soon, so I'll try to post a finished piece for it!