IF - Packed

Many thoughts came to mind for this word, but most cliché. So thinking further out...this concept came to mind. It may be a stretch, but I know I always felt packed in when my mom got us ready for school and there was snow up to our knees. Actually..I still get packed and layered to this day during the winter and snow is up to my knees. :P

Also, if you couldn't tell, I'm playing with color and not painting. I really liked how this one came out as far as the pencil texture up against the solid color. Eh, something new and different. I'm having fun with it anyway. ;)

IF - Clique

Oh buddy, the golden girls are in town!

Sketching...oy!

So I'm following Candace who is inspiring me to continue sketching. But boy, did I have little knowing that this was going to happen. I bought a little sketchbook (she made the comment of having a small sketchbook to take with her everywhere) and I can't get enough of it! Every time I get the opportunity I pull it out. I even used it today in my class to give instructions in. Loving it!

We had our Ardent (www.ardentgathering.com) meeting last night where a few of us, including Candace, got together and talked about art, teaching, and whatever else came up. But I got the chance to see her sketches up close and personal. I'm floored by her ability to fill such a small space to the max! I'm having a hard time adjusting to keeping my hand elevated so that when I draw a line I don't dip it by my wrist falling off of the edge of the book. :/ Though I think I can get used to it. She had been practicing drawing birds, and that too inspired me.

When I was younger, learning to draw the figure n' such, I would fill pages with hands, heads, noses, mouths, etc. to get a better understanding of what I was drawing. Wanting to be a children's book illustrator I determined I best get movin' with the animals. :P So last night I sat down, did some googling, and decided to draw bears.



Then tonight I wanted to sketch another illo for IF's Island. As I began to draw I decided not to but to draw little fairy boys (to go with the Fairy Blessings). Yet, now that I think about it...they don't have any words associated with them. hummm...missed that. Yet their expressions are darling. As I drew them I began to think about how different they are from the girls. They're taller, skinnier, and more Peter Pan like...not wanting to grow up. And the moment they accept that love letter from a girl, they're doomed to being mushy for the rest of their lives. Boys have it so hard. :P

The Process

I thought I'd be a bit more descriptive with my work other than just Illustration Friday posts. :P It's been awhile since I've really gotten into detail. Tho, the Fairy Blessings are doing great, having so much fun with those.

Buuuuut why not give more insight. So, in the past I've had a lot of people ask me to do tutorials n' such. Well, this isn't a tutorial, but some inside on how I go about doing a painting. Some have seen me post something similar to this in the past, but I'm very excited about this project and thought I'd share. :)

So here's the line up...

The thumbnail: Usually, I'll sketch a few little thumbnails to get a feel for the composition. Normally I do this when I have many different elements and want to try something other than what's in my head (which in this case was very cliché).



The final sketch: After I get an okay on the thumbnail I'll go in and start to draw the final sketch on tracing paper. Now, the actual sketch is in reverse (flipped here for the client). I do this so that I can place the graphite/pencil down on the watercolor paper and transfer the image. All details come in this sketch.



The color study: Sometimes I'll do a color study. In this case it's at night with a large moon and lightening bugs so I wanted to be sure the color scheme would still allow you to see the prince and toad although they are in shadow. I do this in photoshop, a lot faster than with colored pencil or marker, in my opinion.



The inked sketch ready for paint: I ink my drawings before I paint. I used to clean up the pencil and paint, but got very tired spending all of that time cleaning up graphite and being able to always see my lines. I also used to outline everything in black, but have found that sepia or brown to be a great neutral color that actually adds to the work.



The final painting:


Hope you enjoyed the layout. God bless!

IF - Island

Many find an island or their "secret spot" a blessing.
...To stick with the theme of my Fairy Blessings.

Love - Fairy Blessings (sketch)

For Candace's request, I went straight to the desk and wow...lookie what I came up with. :P Thank you Candace for such a great concept. Can't wait to paint these two!

Fairy Blessings

Being inspired by my friend Candace and all of her sketching about (which is a great habit I do not have), I decided to sketch. I had just sat down to start working on this project that I can't wait to share (soon my friends, soon), but realized I had bought the wrong color pen. :( So I had the time to sketch.

When I take out my sketch book I don't know where or even how to start without some idea to go off of. Hard to break the habits we make for ourselves. So I first drew a girl with the pen...eh...didn't really spark me...at all. So then I started to draw a cartoon version of Madie....then a heart...then a wee little fairy next to Madie. That was it! Of course it had to be fairies. I drew another fairy jumping, but stopped mid way and drew another fairy falling/flying. This of course led to a painting. Then an idea. Now a brand of characters. I love coming up with these ideas, yet, never stick with them.

So here are the sketches of the fairies...


Which led to this wee painting (about 4.5 x 4.5)...


As I was drawing this little one I started to think about why or what she comes from. First off...the striped arm warmers and tights. You see many gothic faeries and trends with these, yet I wanted to make a turn from that and bring them onto the light side. Second she has a halo. These are creatures of God. Even though they are fairies, they belong to God. Thirdly, I'm thinking ahead to Christmas. :P

Also if you didn't notice already, each of these fairies have a bird associated with them. Grace's bird is a dove, Faith's bird is a robin, and of course Hope's bird is a cardinal. I'm likin' these little ladies and hope that I can create more than just one in color. ;) Keep your fingers crossed!

God bless.

IF - Clutter

Cat slumber party on a full moon.

(I thought I had an original idea, but then when I went to view the entries at IllustrationFriday.com I discovered that a lot of people think of cats when it comes to clutter. :P )