illustration Friday: ROUTINE

This week we started school and it is always an opportunity to improve or introduce a new routine. My kids are little (3 and 6) and it is always a challenge to get them to do things independently in the morning and at night to get out of the house on time, or get to bed on time. I introduced the idea of a rewards chart when we were potty training my daughter, and it worked well. We used to do a small toy or ice cream at the end of the week, but now that she is older, I want her to understand the value of money. I used the same incentive for my son because even though he is only 3, he wants to do what his sister does. 

It hasn't been a full week yet, but they are doing great! We have made it to school on time every day (which was a huge problem last year) and I haven't had to get upset! 

Anyway, I thought this chart worked perfect for the theme.

On a separate note, I am posting a late IF for detach. I interpreted the topic in two ways; The obvious, the parents and the little boy 'detach' on the first day of school. For the little one and the parents, it's usually a moment filled with uncertainty and worry.

The second meaning is more personal, I 'detached' myself from my usual style and medium to experiment with something new. I recently checked out about 20 or more children's books and have been visiting the children's section at BN quite regularly trying to find books that mimic my current style, and to my surprise, I have not been able to find any that resembles mine. (if you know of one, let me know...I'm curious).
Anyway, that made me think, that perhaps my illustrations are not kid friendly enough, and I should vary my style and try more simple shapes and more flat colors.
I used gouache and watercolors for this one. Any thoughts or comments are welcomed!

And lastly, Fay kept us home for a day, and gave me some extra time.  I decided to paint a sketch I had posted for a character study.

Sorry about the long post...

Happy Weekend Everyone!

WINTER IN COLOR and one revision!

Here is the winter card. I changed it a bit from the original sketch because I wasn't completely happy with the pose of the little boy, I think this one is a little more dynamic. I also did a quick color study in Photoshop to work out the tonalities early on. I wanted the colors to be cool and wintery and not too gray or blue. 

color study in Photoshop

final in acrylics

I joined Monday Artday this past week and posted this little guy there. I received great feedback. One of the comments (which was one of my concerns) was that the little boy looked as if he was trying to burn the ants. I think I resolved the problem by changing the magnifying glass to a net. I think I like this much better, because it takes the boy from a passive role of watching, to an active role of catching bugs. 

I really like how these turned out. It was a good exercise to try to keep a common element (the tree) in all the pieces, but change the setting depending on the season. I also enjoyed using color to really show the difference of the seasons. My only concern is that the winter piece seems so different in color from the rest, but maybe that's okay.  Thanks for your feedback!

Poll results are in!

First I want to thank everyone that participated by voting or commenting in last week's poll about which illustration style you liked better.  Before I get to the final results I wanted to explain why I had the poll. In my other life time (before I had kids) I used to be involved with focus groups to test user interfaces, navigation and design for web sites. I was always amazed by some of the findings, and learned that for successful design you cannon create in a bubble, you need to always get other's opinions.

I have been creating in my studio (my bubble) for quite some time, and sometimes my objectivity gets a little skewed, so I decided to have a poll and conduct my own little focus group. The results basically corroborate what I think...which is a strong preference for the acrylics and ink. However, as Eric suggested, I will not limit my options to only one medium. If I can translate my style to different mediums successfully, I think it would help my marketability.  In other words, I have a long road ahead of me. 

Thanks again everyone...you really helped me get some perspective!

Final Poll Results:

56 total Votes

DIGITAL: 16 (28%)

ACRYLICS AND INK: 40 (71%)

I am taking a poll

DIGITAL                                   Vs.                     ACRYLICS AND INK

I am posting two versions of the same illustration as an exercise I did this week. I worked from an existing sketch and both illustrations took me about the same time to finish. I would love to see what people out there like better, the clean, crisp edges from the digital piece, or the more rough around the edges look from the painted version.

Finding a style.

I have been trying to figure out were I fit in as an illustrator. This past Saturday I attended a meeting for the local SCBWI. The moderator Sylvia Andrews was very nice and helpful and everyone who attended was very supportive toward each other. It was a very nice experience. Although there were no illustrators there, it was nice to listen to the writers talk about character development, plot; ‘show it, don’t tell it’ and other comments that helped me understand that what is important to writers is also important to illustrators. I will attend next month’s meeting. I will be able to show my work and get some feedback from the writers.

I also read and article by Kathleen Reitz on discovering your style. I found it very honest and insightful.
I have been trying to sketch every day in what I think is my style. Some days it flows and feels very natural and some days it feels like I’m stuck. Does anyone go through this?

When I do small paintings, I can finish one in about 2 hours. However, the illustrations are taking me a lot longer. About 10 hours. I know it’s way too long, but I always get caught up in the details. I need to experiment more with that. Suggestions anyone?

I have been working on 4 cards to represent the seasons. So far I have sketches for summer and spring. I am incorporating kids and animals. I will be posting those later. If they turn out nice, I may use those as portfolio pieces or promotional pieces. Stay tunned!