The Social Media Samba

You may have noticed that there are a few new links on the sidebar, notably tumblr and twitter links.  I've decided to step further into the waters of social media, so if you're inclined to take a look: tumblr- which will be leaning more towards watercolor doodles and nifty things from the internet, and twitter- which will be split between work updates and brain burbles.

Illustration Friday- Future

Space-themed jumpsuits will be all the rage in the future!

Out and About part 2

So more on creating work for SCBWI, part 2!  Let's start from the very beginning- the horrifically awful looking composition doodle.

Every drawing I make starts with something this loose and scribbly.  It's easier to work out a idea if I'm just doodling it out first- better to figure out it's not going to work after five minutes of scribbling than hour after hour of painting!  Now the idea is good, but the composition needs some work.  Next step is to do a rough drawing.

The characters are designed and positioned and the layout is fixed up.  The statue is moved over and the characters are smaller so they don't take up too much space.  Time to clean the drawing up!

The placement of the paint is figured out and the tiger gets repositioned slightly.  The linework is touched up- and this version was sent to Patti Ann Harris for review as part of the SCBWI class.

The feedback I got could be basically boiled down to 'more context!'  The tiger was being naughty, but I needed to show a bit more of his rampage of paint.  I decided to add an official looking building to the background to convey that nothing was safe from the tiger's artistic tendencies- statues, buildings and even his friends!

I then scan the drawing into Photoshop and roughly color it in.  It helps me plan what colors I'm going to use when I break out the paints.  I use gouache, so it can be trouble having to replace an entirely different color late in the process.  

Here we have the final painting!  Some of the colors have changed from the color roughs to the final art (I decided that pinstripes on Tiger's pants would be a bit more stylish).  And there you have it- a painting from sketchy, scribbly start to colorful, paint-spattered finish!

Out and About at the SCBWI conference

Last weekend was a time of busily running around doing my best to look professional and fantastic-  it was time for the yearly Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators conference (Western Washington edition).  For those of you looking to get into doing children's books, you'll want to check out their website (here!) or head to one of their conferences.

SCBWI conferences host a ton of learning opportunities, including the chance to talk with professionals in the industry.  This piece of art was created specifically for the conference; I was lucky enough to be able to sign up for an illustration class taught by Patti Ann Harris, who is an extremely nice Senior Art Director at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.  You might have heard of that publishing company!

Part of the class was to have a critique of the art at while it was a sketch and then take the comments into account when creating the final art.  So next post, I'll show you the process of creating this particular painting- stay tuned!

In the Papers!

  If you happened to pick up the Seattle Times on Sunday, you might have noticed something familiar on the front page of the NW Arts & Life section.  An interview with the Ladies of Mischief about the Needles and Artifice knitting book, written by Katya Yefimova!  Personally, I love the article- so if you haven't had a chance to read it, the online version is here.

Illustration Friday- Egg

You've got to be careful about which eggs you pick to paint!

Illustration Friday- Eye Glasses

The most excellent Captain Thaddeus Lorgne (owner of the largest spectacles on the seven seas) for Illustration Friday.

Also as a reminder, the children's book app series 3 Red Birds is available on the app store for a limited time at the low, low price of: absolutely free!  Have a look!