RE-WORKED ILLUSTRATION

Old image


New Image


THANK YOU! I want to start this post by thanking the people that always seem to know when I need some encouragement and always know exactly what to say. I want to say thank you for caring and for taking the time to reach out. I really appreciate it!!!

The holiday season has been officially kicked off at our house, and that usually means that I'll be running around like a chicken without a head until the end of the year!

I wanted to share with you the re-make of one of my favorite illustrations. I had created and animal party a while back and really enjoyed all the characters in it. However, it no longer matched my current style and I had to pull it out of my portfolio. I decided to just re-do it with my new style and I have to say, I'm very pleased with the results.

What do you think?

IF: FAST

I was reflecting recently on my work and my career. I have dedicated a great deal of time to creating a portfolio, and improving my work so that I may become a published illustrator. I am also a freelance graphic designer and enjoy that job thoroughly. I would like to do both, but I notice that it is difficult to wear so many hats, marketing graphic design and illustration are very different things, both which are very time consuming.

My graphic design is picking up, while I'm just hearing crickets over on the illustration side. I'm not quite ready to give it up. I'm not a quitter! I know someone will see potential in my work and will value my dedication and passion. In the mean time, I just need to figure out how to manage the constant chaos of trying to do it all!

I was looking at the illustrations from the beginning of the year until now and I do see tremendous growth! That is great, right? Except that it makes for an inconsistent portfolio. I’ve gone from acrylics to digital and from static to more dynamic work; my characters have also evolved. The eyes are not the same (At some point I was experimenting with dots for eyes). I haven’t deliberately been trying to develop a style. I’ve been pushing myself to become better at what I do, which in turns has affected the look of my work…I believe that the style comes out naturally while you are going through this process.

Although I’m not published yet, I can tell that my work is the best when I’m comfortable with it, and that only happens if I draw what is more natural and comfortable to me, but I only know what that is if I experiment and try new things. I guess for me it’s a dance of balance between these two…familiarity and stretching your limits.

Anyway, my point is that I’m now once again re-touching my portfolio. I am thinking about going to the SCBWI Winter conference in NY and really would need to have a solid portfolio before I can even consider going. By the way, are any of you going?

I’m also busy with my design work, which I also enjoy so much, and is the reason why I don’t have as much time to visit other blogs as I used to. I have some friends that talk about going off grid when it comes to social media networks and Internet. These things can really consume you and take up so much of your time! I wonder myself, would I have more time to do the things I need to do if I did not have a blog and was on twitter and Facebook? Do you wonder the same sometimes? How do you do it?

As a side note, I wanted to invite you all to vote for my son @ GAP’s Casting Call http://family.go.com/gapcastingcall/entries/edrianthomidis/717418724/

Have a great week!

IF update and portfolio

I had some time last weekend and played around with my original illustration to see if I could get it to a point where I was happy with it without changing it completely. My basic problem was that the main characters (the ants) were a little lost. (see previous post) There seemed to be a lot more going on around them. I wasn't sure if the problem was the color or the overall composition. I used someone's suggestion about making the flower green, and it was a bit better, but the overall foliage still overpowered the ants. I brightened up the ants, but the big cupcake was still a major visual point, and I did not want to make the cupcake darker or more dull because, well, it's a cupcake, it needs to look yummy!

My final change was to crop the image focusing in on the ants, and I think this is a stronger piece than the original. I am still not sure if I will add it to my portfolio.

Speaking of portfolios, I have been thinking about mine quite a bit lately.  I have been thinking about how to assemble it and what pieces to put in it. Do people still use leather cases? I also think I need some good black and white or graphite pencil pieces in there.  I have read the artist portfolio 101 and think I have a little bit of everything.  However, if you have any suggestions or links please share them here.

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. 

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.

MY NEW WEB SITE IS UP!

http://www.tenengo.com/