Back to School. In color

This is my version on the Back to School coloring sheet I posted earlier this month all in color.

Illustration Friday: Late

This boy is upset because his play-date is late and he was looking forward to racing cars on his special race track!

Let's hope the other boy shows up!

IF: PACKED

FINAL UPDATE:

Here it is... my animal bunch eating some packed lunches. I thought I wasn't going to finish it. My kids have been sick and I have bronchitis :( , but what a great feeling to be able to post it finished and then move on to other stuff... like decorating my house for Halloween! 

Oh, I so agree with your comments, those kids did look kinda stressed out! I am much happier with these animals.

"Kids eating packed lunches"

Work in progress....

Sketch

Color Study

I'm still working on colors and composition and will post the finished product later this week.

Thanks for visiting!

UPDATE: I guess this is what happens when you see the process... I completely changed my mind! These little animal creatures kept popping up in my head and I kept thinking that it would be so much fun to draw them. The overall composition is the same, but I think this looks more fun! I still have to paint it on illustration board, but here is the general idea:

IF: Island UPDATE

Here's my finished version of the 'Island' theme for Illustration Friday. I started painting and half way through it I lost my steam. Even though I did the color study at first, I just wasn't feeling it! Has this happened to anyone? Where you start a painting or illustration and half way you think it's all wrong? I liked the sketch, but once I added color it seemed that too much was going on. I finished it anyway hoping in the end it would work out, but I'm still unsure, so I played with it in Photoshop and created the black and white version below, which I like better. What do you think? 

illustration Friday: Island

"Stranded on a Cup Cake Island"

(Diana- I love your cupcakes, and I thought of you when I was doing this. Hope you like mine!)

This week is another challenging 'time' week. I hope to color this illustration later on this week and update this post. I have some graphic design work, which I hope to share here once I'm further along. I'm still way behind on my blogs... just not enough time!

I also went to the local SCWBI meeting where I am the only illustrator attending, so the feedback was from writers only. However, it was wonderful feedback all around. It was great!

Illustration Friday: Clutter

To this boy this is not clutter, it is the pirate adventure to sail the seven seas!

and the finished 'memories' from last week.

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!

Illustration Friday: SAIL, UPDATE

I Could not resist! I had to redo this illustration with acrylics, my medium of preference. Every time I looked at the color pencils version, it just seemed unfinished, washed out and not quite right. As much as I liked the colors, I felt the background was fighting with the main characters. I fixed a couple of other things that were bugging me like the feet of the boy on the left. They were too small and made him look off balance. I think now he's more anchored.  I also made the frog bigger.

This is a quick post, and maybe the last one for another week. We are gearing up for the beginning of another school year, and getting up early, making it to school on time, homework, and after school activities will make next week CRAZY!

 

Illustration Friday: SAIL, paper boat competition...

MAY THE BEST BOAT WIN!

Here's my entry for this week. I noticed that I've been posting girls mostly, so I wanted to change it a bit, and add some boys. I also used a different medium (color pencils and acrylics on Bristol board). WOW! Color pencils are so time consuming! I like working with them, but I am not sure that it's practical working as an illustrator.

 

I am also posting the sketch for this illustration and the color study created in Photoshop. I sketch by hand, scan it and then add some quick color in Photoshop (Danidraws tutorial). I print this and then use it as a guide when I'm painting. It is so much easier this way!

Thanks everyone for all your comments. I really appreciate them!

Illustration Friday: POOF!

Read updates to this post below...

What do you know? I thought I would pass up this week’s challenge and tend to some other projects I have been putting in the back burner, but my mind kept taking me back to ‘poof’. So I started to sketch, and from the sketches I thought the idea lent itself for a book layout. It’s not really a spread, because it’s not one illustration that spans over two pages, which is something I have wanted to try out.

I went back to the drawing board and the writing pad. I am not claiming to be a writer, but I wanted to show text on the pages and I did not want to use dummy text as a placeholder. I wanted to show the same character in different poses and show how the text and the illustration relate to one another.

Well, a few tracings, scans and re-draws later, I present you … this little witch!
I usually like to post my work in color. This was such an exploratory exercise, that I did not have time to paint them, but I’ll try to finish them next week and when I do I will update this post.

BTW- If you have any recommendations or suggestions to improve these, please feel free to comment. I want to build my portfolio and it is difficult to know how strong your work is without the input of peers. My kids and my husband think everything I do deserves and award, which is so sweet, but not necessarily reality!

FIRST POST UPDATE:

Here's the first page in color. I must say, I am pleased with how it came out. I shortened the text a bit. Let's see if I can recreate the 'magic' one more time! ...I 'll post the other page before the end of the week. (if I can get to it!)

SECOND UPDATE:

I had to share this with everyone... When I realized the obvious, I chuckled! Let's see if you can realize it too. 
Now, let's play the game: What is different between the picture above and the one below?

If you guessed the dog is missing one leg, you were right!

I have no idea how that happened? Even the sketch didn't have the leg, and the whole time I was painting, I just thought of shapes, colors textures, and never noticed! Poor dog!

Anyway, I feel better now that he is complete.

THIRD ... and last... UPDATE

I was getting ready to work on the second sketch, when I received Heather's comment. She made so many good points, mostly about point of view and layout. I took her advice and made some changes to the sketch. I think this illustration has more energy and movement. 

OFF TO PRESS!!

FRONT

BACK

My business cards are off to the printers! I am so excited and can't wait to get them back! Overall, I am happy with how they turned out. It's a very clean design and I was able to fit all the right information on the card. I still hesitate about the illustration. I like the colors and how well it stands out on the front, but the characters may be too passive. Oh well, I could go on forever. 

Oh, I am using psprint.com for the printing. I will let you know what I think of their service and product when I get the cards.

Have a great weekend everyone! and thanks for visiting and for your input! 

Illustration Friday: CANNED

IF: ENOUGH

I almost didn't get a chance to post this one. This week has been very hectic with kids out of school and other family stuff!

 

I mentioned that I recently became and aunt and as a mother myself, those sleepless nights are all too fresh in my mind. Every one that is a parent can relate to the idea of never getting enough sleep when you have a newborn in the house.

I thought I would try to make this illustration look like a book cover. Any thoughts ???

I also just added my seasons illustrations over at ImageKind where you can purchase them as prints or cards, or on canvas.  This is my first time posting work on there. If anyone has any feedback about their experience with them, please share them here.

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!

Illustration Friday: FOGGY!

Oops! I just submitted my URL over at the IF site and left out the beginning 'ht' of the address so the link doesn't work. I resubmitted it.  Sorry about the double post!

This is my post for 'Foggy'. I was going to put the words 'excuse me', then I thought the dinosaurs' face  and the birds' reaction were enough. 

I went to the local monthly meeting of the SCBWI and received wonderful feedback from all the writers (I was the only illustrator attending). One comment that resonated with me was about showing  work with different perspectives and also animals. This illustration tackles both. I am happy with the colors and overall composition. However, I think it needs some tweaking...

Comments and feedback as always very much welcomed!

Illustration Friday: SOUR

 This illustration was inspired by my kids!

SPRING IN COLOR

I finally had some time to go back and start the color version of seasons sketches. I also made a sketch for winter. I am pleased with the outcome. I am getting more comfortable with the illustration board, and the time I spent was reasonable, about 4 hours.

SPRING

Acrylics and illustration board

WINTER

Illustration Friday: FIERCE ... love of nature

This is my illustration for this week's topic FIERCE. I am also using this illustration to participate in Alicia's giveaway.  

The book she illustrated "The Wish Trees" is now available at Amazon, B&N and other major stores and to celebrate she is having a contest (Kudos Alicia!!!). All you have to do is create and send her an image that depicts the importance 

of a tree. She will have her children be the judges... but hurry if you want to participate, the deadline is July 4th! For details visit her blog.

This is a sketch I had originally done for this week's theme and I thought I would have time to color it, but this week is turning out to be a little more family oriented.

girl eating sandwich

This is another spot illustration from the sketches I posted yesterday. I like the colors and the texture of this one. I think I may use it for a business card. I also like the sad girl (previous post), but I don't do a lot of colored pencil work, so I don't know if that may be a good spot illustration to represent 'me'.  I enjoyed the colored pencils so I may work more with them too.

I may go back and re-do the sad girl in acrylics and see what I think then.

As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions...

 

sketches and spot illustrations of children

I took my son to the playground yesterday and was very inspired by all the kids that were there. I made a few sketches and then turned some of them to color and timed myself just for practice. I was pleased with the outcome.

Sketches

This one is from a couple of weeks ago at gymnastics

Girl with teddy and blanket. Acrylics and ink (under 1 hour)

This little girl was just adorable!

Sad Girl. Color pencils and ink. (about 1 hour)