August, September, October 2017

In August, I worked on a SCBWI-IL writer's retreat, "Words in the Woods" held at East Bay Camp near Bloomington, IL. My responsibility was decor, design, bonfire, party and writing activities.

Designed the logo for Words in the Woods.

Most of the attendees posed on the steps for a photo.

Me, Alice and Anastasia posing at the Kid Lit Costume Party.

In September, I concentrated on making a pb dummy for Dani Duck's Dummy Challenge. Not every picturebook I write fits my style but this one did.

Character Sketches: Jackalope

One page of the dummy.

One finished illustration.

In October, I designed the booth for SCBWI-IL to promote author and illustrators latest books and school visits. We exhibited at IRC (Illinois Reading Council) and ISLMA (Illinois School Librarians and Media Association) conventions.

The display board features 2017 releases. (It was IRC's 50th anniversary so we gilltered it up!)

Sarah Aronson greeting her skype winners in girlgoyle style.

Ruth Spiro discusses her books with conference attendee.

SCBWI-IL's 2015-2017 books on display.

Piggies Part 1: Finished.

Most of the pigs I sketched in the previous post have reached a "final" stage.
Here in no particular order they are:

Pig Astair

Piggie's First Birthday

Grandpa Piggie Puts On His Socks.

Prankster Piggie At Work.

Piggie on a Swing 2

Piggie Peasant Collects Eggs

Cowboy Piggie

Piggie Can Can

Piggie Floats His Boat

Queen Piggie

Piggie Dances Flamenco

Working from sketch to final line art.

Been busy this summer working on a SCBWI-IL Writer's Conference, painting backgrounds, designing notebook pages, and creating a "camp craft" for adults. (I'll try to post some pictures next month. I want to keep things a secret until the conference is over.)

In the meantime, thought I'd share some rough sketch to line art work I've been doing. I hope to finish the line art by adding color in Photoshop.

Here are some sketches from this summer. I'm working through a "PIG" theme. At this stage I'm not positive what the background will be, or if I will combine the single figures with others. Working loosely in the sketching stage I try to capture the pose and emotion of the image, when I start the line art, I have to be more sure of what I plan to emphasize.

Once the line art is established I import it into photoshop and fill in with color, texture and shading. I was disappointed that my line work didn't remain as fluid in the digital version. I need to play around with this and get it resolved.

May 2017: Working from Photographs

Costa Rican-based artist, Maria Jose Da Luz’s illustrates infants and toddlers based on photos. Here is a sample of her work.

It looked like so much fun I decided to try a few myself. 

I started off simply and got lured into more complex images as the month went on. (I actually NEEDED drawing practice on the computer.)

Some of my images got a little funky and others captured the spirit of the original photos. I think the secret here is to keep it simple and NOT try to make an exact copy of my model photos. (Hard for me since I know several of the models.)

I want to thank all these friends for allowing me to use their photos this month: Holly Strobeck, Jennifer English, Rhonda Vercellino, Jennifer Lewis, Lori Degman, Mindy Savant, Abby Ryan Mattes, Stephanie Wilson, Jamie Schmidt and unknown faces from the internet.

Find more of Maria’s inspirational work here: https://www.facebook.com/MjDaLuz.DG/

And here: https://www.behance.net/mjdaluz

And here: https://www.pinterest.com/mjdaluz/

And here: http://society6.com/MariaJoseDaLuz

And here: www.redbubble.com/mjdaluz

And here: www.etsy.com/shop/mjdaluz

My Illustrations: April 2017

Dancing Elephant

Patterned Pig

I started out the month on a "safe" note. The gelli prints were SO complex I was hesitant to use them. My first two pieces, "Dancing Elephant" and "Pattern Pig", reflect that hesitation.

































In the next series, I found my groove and figured out how to use the prints.  In the "Experiment", bubble wrap print became the background of a witch brewing a potion.

Experiment

Inspiration

Storm Clouds

Green Man

A doily print was used for the background in "Inspiration".


















Black and gray swirls became thunderclouds in "Storm Clouds".


"Green Man" emerged from a green layered gelli print and "The Painter"'s canvas (below) was a gelli print.

I think I'm going to have to stick to simpler patterns and textures to keep the prints from becoming the most important thing in the illustrations.

The Painter

The Pioneers

In "The Pioneers" I made an effort to use some of my patterned files. It was very time consuming and I'm not thrilled with the result.

Three Long Haired Sheep

Dancing

"Three Long Haired Sheep" was created with a gelli print as their fleece. "I used a gelli print for the background in "Dancing". I like the style of dancing.  In the final two images I'm focusing on digital painting an area that I know I need to work on.

RED

 

Drawing

I saw the work of an illustrator who interprets photos of children in an illustrated style. I think I'm going to try a few next month. This was actually based on the following photo. My intent was not to COPY but to reinterpret in my own style.