Illustration Friday: Holiday

Here's a piece with some characterized animals in it...haven't shown those for a while. Our Holiday seemed a little like this scene at times...everything a little on the hectic side. But it was all good in the end and the spirit of it was lovely. My kids weren't greedy and loved their gifts, the food was good, and I got to see my sister and her family for a few hours (they live out of state).

Illustration Friday: IMAGINE

Imagine you were transported to a fairy land where you ruled as princess. At the end of a long day, you find yourself back in your room with all your toys. Was it real?

Illustration Friday: BLUE

I was searching through old photos to see if something would spark a thought and out came a little picture of my little boy at the hospital emergency room. So sad. When my son was 2 I accidentally shut the car door on his hand. There's not a more horrible feeling than hurting your own child. He and I both were pretty blue. I thought..."what a horrible mother I am." It's not a fun feeling.

What do snowmen do at night?

I went to a lecture given by illustrator Mark Beuhner the other night. He showed a lot of work along with originals from his new best seller "Snowmen at Christmas." They were wonderful and full of color. His first snowman book was called "Snowment at Night," all about what snowmen do at night. Then I checked Guy Francis' blog (who went to the lecture as well) and his toilet paper snowman inspired me. I also used a sepia ink instead of black as the accent on the outline as Guy suggested previously. So, here's what came of it.

Art for Christmas Gifts

This year I decided to do portraits of my brother's 5 boys for him and his wife for Christmas (I just finished the last of them). I had my parents provide some pictures as reference so it'll be a surprise (unless they read this blog of course...which they don't). I did portraits of my sister's kids a few years ago for her. I think doing portraits of people you know has to be one of the hardest things. It's hard to show that light in their eyes or that personality you know is in there. It's much easier for me to draw someone I've never met. But hopefully these will be to their liking. This picture is of their second youngest (4 years old). I use a beige canson paper and black and white prisma color pencils.

By the way, I've finished ALL of the spot illustrations for the Already Asleep book. It feels good to have 1/2 the book done in a manner of speaking. I think the double page spreads will be harder than the spots and more time consuming.

Painting More Spots

So, my days have been spent painting the illustrations for the Already Asleep book. I think I'm seeing spots...spot illustrations that is. I decided to do all of them first and leave the double page spreads for last. There are 25 spot illo's in all. And then 8 double page spreads and the cover. Anyway, here's another spot I liked...I used my son as a reference.

I liked the comment on my pigs about trying a sepia ink instead of black. Maybe I'll do a non book illustration and try that there (if I can organize my life well enough to have time to do an illustration other than work illustrations). It's a hectic time of year. Wish me luck on that endeavor.