Back to School. In color

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

Free Coloring Page - Back to School

It's time to think about going back to school. Enjoy this free coloring page/digital stamp.
Click on the image to print and color.

Illustration of girl playing with dog

This is another finished illustration from last week's drawing session.

Illustration Friday: Dusty

Nothing like a bad fall to end up all dusty!

At the beach...

I know that summer is over, but I'm beginning to miss it.

IF: PERSPECTIVE

This is an illustration I created a while ago for an online children's magazine.
I thought it fit the prompt perfectly.

IF: PATTERN

It is never too late to start a new pattern of behavior and start helping out our planet!

This is a sketch I’ve been working on. I hope to color it soon. I recently joined an online critique group and I am really enjoying all of the feedback. This is a modified version from the original. The first one had the little girl look too much like I grown up. I think I finally have the proportions right.

Character Study

Work in progress...

Any comments or feedback are always welcomed...

MONDAY ARTDAY: 1 Character, 4 panels

I started this character as an exercise for last week's Illustration Friday theme poof. The idea evolved from a sketch to a series of illustrations for a mini story. I have colored two of the illustrations, and may complete the other two. 

As part of my process for this study, I had to use reference material. I am not sure how many artists draw from memory, but I am on of those that needs to look at the subject for better accuracy, or things begin to look a little too weird. Even if the lines of the subject are very simplified, it still gets a little tricky for me with perspective and such. I wish I had the time to take a drawing class with live models. I think it would really help my drawing abilities. For now, I will keep working with my two live models….my children! They don’t seem to mind either!

Any feedback or comments are always welcomed!

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. 

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)