Wednesday, October 28, 2009

second baby illustration -- little boy blue

to welcome a new little boy into the girl-laden lot, i made a piece for mr. spenser everett that was based on little boy blue. again, i accomplished it all on my wacom cintiq, and i documented a bit of the process below.

i started out with a brown grounding in the background to work off of, just as i would a painting. i wrote out the colors that i wanted in my sketch layer, and then quickly blocked them out in my painting layer so that everything could come together faster.

as you can see, i started to lay in the dark details, like these on the house, after i had layed in the majority of the basic colors. my "brush" technique was influenced by this tutorial from digital arts online.

i started to actually lay in the brighter color details after that.

as you can see, the sketch layer remained available to me to work from as i moved forward in the project. i tried to bring all areas together at the same time so that it was a united piece. the last this i had to address as of this point was the boy himself.

when the sketch level was hidden, you can see the level of completion in the overall piece, and how the details had yet to be added to the boy.

and the piece is complete! i'm really happy with how this turned out. i hope you enjoyed seeing the steps in the process! it's good to know that you can still get a fulfilling "painting" experience when you cannot use paints at the moment. its definitely not the same as a palette, a brush, and my pigments, but it's the next best thing.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

baby gift #1 - mary mary quite contrary

there are an awful lot of babies in our lives right now! we're meeting new little people every day, and getting ready for the arrival of others. i decided to make a few gifts last week for some very special babies in my life.

first, there is the gift for my friend kelly's daughter-to-be, kayla aubrey. kelly is due in january (the day before anna's bday), and her shower was saturday the 24th. i decided to go to nursery rhymes for inspiration, and decided on "mary, mary, quite contrary", as kelly is an avid gardener.


the piece was started and completed on my cintiq screen, since i still haven't figured out how best to paint in the house without harming anna with the fumes. but as i've learned, i can get the feeling of painting really easily with my cintiq -- no wet paint and brush, unfortunately, but otherwise it's pretty close.

i went with a very fantastical version of the nursery rhyme, as i found out what the rhyme really was about (bloody mary!) and i had to move as far from that as possible.

kelly seemed to love it! i really hope she did.

enjoy!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

the next installment...

can you tell where i'm going yet? probably not...

Sunday, August 30, 2009

i'm back... with a new project

hello all!

well, i've worked out a schedule for my days -- how i will conduct myself, take care of anna, and get work done, all at the same time! sound impossible? yes, well, near impossible. but... the schedule helps keep me in line.

so, to that end, i'm working on a new project for an ongoing project. did i lose you there? sorry... i've been working on my promo kit, and i wanted to do a new pattern for it. i'm not going to reveal my plan for the pattern yet, but i did want to start posting up my drawings on here.

so here goes... first drawing is below. enjoy!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

and it's done.

here's the finished product -- the lollipop girl with the candy cane arms and legs. i would have liked to have done more to it, and tied more of the color from the lollipop into her body, but i hit the deadline. i hope you enjoy it!


Thursday, June 18, 2009

progress -- lollipop girl

just wanted to post my progress on the lollipop girl illustration. i still have to make her body, complete with candy cane arms and legs. =D


just wanted to post my progress on the lollipop girl illustration.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

current inspiration

my illustration assignment right now is a private commission, but it's for an original children's story that the author wrote for her daughter. it's actually quite tricky -- i have to draw/paint a lollipop girl! how to make the rainbow stripes in the lollipop work for her face? tough work.

so here is some of my major inspiration at the moment, the greatest source being david shannon's "a bad case of stripes."