Handy Spandy

Handy Spandy
sugar and candy,
French almond rock-
I spy a lark
Shining in the dark-
Echo! Echo!

--Mother Goose

TV

This is a quick sketch with a germ of an idea. I'll see if I can flesh it out a bit more.

The Morning Rush

Illustration Friday: Pet Peeves

This pup's pet peeve is not being able to dance with his owners. So he howls instead.

More Pictures Of The Dummy Book

Sorry for the mirror images - I used the built in camera on my Macbook Pro!

Kitty on a Hot Tin Roof

Well, it's not really a tin roof, but I liked the sound of it. This was on of those drawings that just kept growing. At first I drew the boys looking out the window on a piece of watercolor paper - just intending to draw the kids, but then added the roof, and the tree, and last but not least, the dare-devil kitty and moon. Drawing this sort of thing without thumbnail sketches and planning usually spells disaster for me, but I'm actually happy with how this came out. What luck!

Done!

I have completed the mock-up of a book I wrote - YAY! Above is one of the final images. Putting your own manuscript in book form is extremely exciting but takes a lot of hard work as well. It's up to you to be a designer, a typographer, an artist, a writer, and business person all at once. That's a lot of hats to wear!

So many books I've started and later realize weeks into it that it's not working. But this one remained a solid presentation up to the very last dummy page.

I'm off to Staples to bind two copies to see how they do. I'll probably pick the ring binding so the book can lay flat when opened--although the flat binding looks better on the outside.

I already know of a couple publishers I want to send this to, but will be researching others tonight using amazon.com's 'advance search' tool. You can search by publisher and age and that way get a feel for what type of books each publisher sells. Much faster than ordering catalogs.

Heart

Character Sketch

Since I like working with a looser line, I've decided to have two styles - the charcoal style and a pen-ink/watercolor style. One thing I've noticed while playing around on this particular picture, is the less I touch my brush to the paper (in other words, finishing the boy's hair with one strong layer of paint as opposed to several built up layers) the more vibrant my colors. I think I read in an article a long time ago that the more you use the brush, the more you 'upset' the threads of the paper, and the color quality suffers. I guess that's what they mean by working a painting to death.

These were drawn pretty quickly, just to test out some things.

Illustration Friday : Heavy

Saying goodbye with a heavy heart.

Blogging Spotlight

Blogging newcomer, Phyllis Harris, is a talented artist I've admired since I first decided to become an illustrator several years ago. I happened upon her website and fell in love with her whimsical and magical drawings. Grab a cup of tea, hop on over to Phyllis Harris Illustration, and prepare to find yourself smiling at her charming artwork!

Water Fountain

There's always that one kid who likes to lick the water fountain spout.

Ah-HA!

I've searched high and low for a waterproof medium that resembles charcoal, but to no avail.  Fixative over the drawing repels my watercolors, so that doesn't seem to work either.  BUT, I think I have a solution: photocopies.  I draw with charcoal on a plain piece of paper, make a high resolution scan and print it out on watercolor paper with waterproof ink!  Ha!  I'll let you know if it works.

Another neat little plus with this is if I mess up with a painting, I just print another one out.  AND I don't have to use my light table.  

We shall see.  I'll report more on this later.

Three Chicks, A Bear and A Book - FINAL

Three Chicks, A Bear and A Book

Sisters Final

Sisters and Lollipops...

..what a wonderful combination!

Puddles Final

A Girl's Best Friend is her Mother

Puddle sketch revised.

Took a Vacation

Well I took a creative break to recharge my batteries and did not draw a thing for several days. Let me tell you, it felt weird! My mind kept saying, "you REALLY should be doing some practicing today, you shouldn't be wasting time." But then I realized that rest is just as important as work. I felt much more inspired when I got back to it. Beforehand I was sort of forcing myself, and of course, the end result was uninspired.

Here are some character sketches in charcoal. I like this little boy a lot. I feel like he's someone I'd like to know. Can't wait to finish this in color!

Town Puddles Sketch

I'm doing some drawings of kids for my agent's online portfolio. This is a quick sketch and color study.