Blondie

Sketch of Rapunzel from Tangled.

My Friend the Bookworm

A 2016 calendar I painted for a friend.

She loves books and wants to be a librarian, so the calendar follows a little girl reading through the seasons. 

Into the Sketchbook

The kind of things kicking around in my head when I'm trying to come up with a concept:

Mostly simplistic watercolor doodles...

...a couple lists...

... a few word bubbles...

...and the very occasional full-color concept page.

Learning

My return to a more realistic style.  Painting the first wash in this style is a lot of fun because I can be creative and loose with the coloring.  It's exciting to see how they turn out.

The second wash is more structured as I start defining the features.  I also restrict my palette, using mostly browns and pinks from here onward.

I debated between finishing with a brown watercolor outline or a dark ink outline.  I went with the ink.

In retrospect, I should have used the brown watercolor; the ink is too harsh.  

Oh well, the artist's path is paved with failed experiments. So I'm going to try this one again soon, and see if I can improve it. :)

Dwellings

Making a house-warming card for a friend who recently moved into town.

Rough sketches from my sketchbook while I play around with what to paint.

Getting the idea...

The finished product.

  Now on to the Christmas cards!

What Do You Want To Know?

Another character design piece.  This month's challenge was to create a character in a circus troupe, so I went with a fortune teller in the sideshow.  

Here's my first attempt.  I liked the background and the crystal ball but the Seer himself was too stiff, so I re-did it.

The pose in this piece is relaxed and natural compared to the other one, and I think the Seer's expression is more engaging, so this is the one I submitted to the contest.

La pâtissière

My third submission to the Character Design Contest.  

This month's theme is "Master Chef", so I created Madeleine.  She makes the best macarons in the world for the renown french patisserie "Laduree".

More Bookworms!

Haven't painted anything in a while so I thought I'd post this old piece in the meantime.  

Have you guessed? I love painting books and people who love books.

Beach House

To Neverland

Illustrating my favorite book of all time.

Into the Garden

Got some new hanging baskets in the garden yesterday and now all I want to do is paint flowers.

My family has a beautiful backyard, thanks to my mom's irrepressible green thumb.  There are birdhouses, a veggie patch...

...loads of fantastic flowers...

...and some very happy bees!

Black Lace and Bed Head

So much bed head.

Working for Papyrus is Still On My Bucket List

A year or so ago I was obsessed with creating and selling hand-made greeting cards.  This is what got me to seriously consider becoming an illustrator.  Because I was making every card by hand, my art consisted of simple line drawings and very restricted palettes.

It's been a while since I've used watercolor and ink together, but I want to return to it.  This is my first attempt:

More to come!

Fresh Ink

My new Pigma art pens.  One has a brush tip and the other has a super-fine tip so I've been playing with both in the same sketch, figuring out which pens work best for where.

These guys are partially inspired by the main characters from an anime called Kyokai no Kanata, or Beyond the Boundary.  It is my favorite, and the whole series is available on Youtube!

It'd be fun to do a graphic novel, I think.  I'd have to get better at drawing backgrounds though.  Maybe I'll practice a few of those this week.

Ione the Sea-Witch

I'm joining a Facebook art group that hosts a character design challenge every month.  The theme for this month is "Witches and Wizards".  

I played with a couple concepts (a Louisianian witch doctor and and ice-witch) before settling on this one. My final witch design is a cross between a Celtic druid and a sea witch.   I gave her a sea-glass scepter, a fish-scale dress, and lots of seaweed!

The cleaned-up sketch, ready for the light box.

I imagine her living in cold, stormy conditions, so I painted her in muted colors to mirror her surroundings.

All done!  

The sea-witch Ione lives in a ship graveyard in the North sea.  Viking sailors and fishermen come to her for spells and potions that will grant them good luck and protection during their ocean voyages.  However, they must remember to repay the sea-witch for her kindness.  If not, Ione sends violent storms to sink their ships, and adds the wreckage to her sea-bound castle.

My Favorite Shows are Mystery Shows

Crime and mystery, I love them both.  These are two bookish professors finding clues and and solving crime in the 1960s. 

A Selection of Cephalopods

I've been practicing a couple of different styles by painting octopi and squid.  This one I painted with a direct reference picture, so the shapes and colors are sharp and precise.

This one I painted from the same sketch, but without a reference, so the lines are softer and the colors are more dramatic.

And finally, a squid doodle for fun.  I really enjoy playing with a restricted palette like this.

Wild

A painting for my dad's office.  He's a doctor.

Kelly by the Sea

Concept art for a children's book.  I started with a simple sketch and flat colors.

At this point I added shadows and highlights, especially to the skirt.  The story is set on the seaside, so I also painted a simple ocean background to see how the colors work together.  I think the green I used in Kelly's shirt and shin guards is too intense, so I'll alter that in the future.  

A little detailing in pencil, and I'm done!

Wendy

This is my design for Wendy from Peter Pan.  My version of Wendy is bratty and spoiled, and she gets bored easily.  Her parents dress her in pink and put her hair in complicated braids, and they don't like her playing with her brothers and getting messy - they treat her like a doll.  When she gets to Neverland she freaks out when her hair comes undone and her dress rips, but she also learns she likes to play in mud.

Hello Baby!

My cousin Ryan was born yesterday!  Very excited to meet this kid.  In the meantime I'm working on a children's book for him.

My aunt and uncle are pretty sporty so these are the characters I'm working with so far.  Not sure what the story is yet; I'm just going to keep drawing them until one shows up.

A Bookworm and a Witch

Mother

Little Chef

My best friend and I love to bake.  And eat.  I painted this on the inside of a recipe box for her last Christmas.

The Firebird

Dots and Stripes

First attempt at fashion illustration.