Done and done.

Ahhhhh. Now that feels better! :)

Roll For Save...

Disembodied Maquette

I've been working on those black and whites and I was spending a zillion hours on trying to figure out what my gypsy girl was from a 3/4 angle, so I decided to make a model, two in fact. I have some changes to do, but all for the greater good right? :)

The Broken Caravan

Where have I been? Plotting the earth's ultimate demise, but I must say that my plans have gone awry and since viewing 'Wreck it Ralph" and finally deciding to embrace the real me. The mildly evil, but somewhat idle ne'er-do-well.



Anyhow, I am prepping for a conference in Indiana this upcoming May (yippee) with Art Director Laurant Linn and illustrator/writer rock star Peter Brown  among many other Book Publishing celebrities. So here is a taste of some of the things I am working on.

The Messy Bed

I just finished the cover for my 'The Messy Bed' story. Hooray! And there was much rejoicing.

 If you are interested in the steps I took to complete this illustration check out the post below. :)

From A to Z

Wondering where do I get my ideas and how do I go about creating my illustrations? I invite you to journey through my nose to see the squishy insides of my fully functioning brain as I go from the genesis of an idea to a finished illustration.

Step #1. The thumbnail sketch.

So after I get an idea to create something I like to draw a lot of squiggly lines, gestures, so that I can loosely come up with an idea for the layout. Since this illustration is a cover for my story about a girl with a messy bed I thought, "This needs to have a girl sitting on a messy bed." Brilliant huh? ;)

Step #2. Character Study

I'm a firm believer in drawing from life. If you sketch from your surroundings you will get a better idea of how anatomy works and what people and things actually look like opposed to what you think they look like. Soapbox aside, I like to draw a lot of drawings (some very ugly drawings) trying to figure out what I want my character to look like. My character Matilda McBean is very stubborn and a sort of Veruca Salt character. You are suppose to not like her. And usually kids are pretty darn cute, so that's a pretty tall order I think.

Step #2. Rough Sketch.

Here's me figuring out the details and making sure the gobbeldy gook in my head makes sense on paper. As you can see here gravity does not exist in this world, so this sketch was thrown out. No Matilda in space for me, thank you very much. 

Ah, this is much better. Yay for gravity, and more rotten or broken things.

Step #4 and 5. Value Study & Color Study.

So being that this is a monochromatic illustration, I don't really need to do a value study. This is, however, normally a super necessary step for me because making the values right does not really come naturally for me. So after the value study, I do a color study to make sure that illustration looks good enough to eat. This color study reminds me of a custard filled donut. Yum. 

Step #6. Watercolor

Then I paint in watercolor and india ink, which truthfully can be super unforgiving. No mistakes please, and no pressure.

Step #7. Finish in Corel Painter

Then, after I've scanned my piece, I take it into Painter and fix any mistakes I've made, pump up the color with some additional layers in painter, and then I'm done. Yay.

"Washington. Washington. Twelve stories high. Made of radiation."

(Head study for a project. )

(And a quote from a hilariously irreverent video "about" 

George Washington. 

Not at all for kids.)

Hallelujah! My website is updated!!!

Can you tell that I'm really really excited. It feels so good to have a professional looking website. (And extremely cheap host and server I might add.) I am on cloud nine. Now I can worry about all the other projects I'm juggling without this nagging me. Yay.

Alrighty. Later friends.

Contrary to popular belief...

I always found it odd that mermaids live in the deep ocean, but could breath air. Yeah, I know, why am I even talking about this? Mostly because I'm a nerd. But it's a fun vocation :)

...and friends that are interested, my website is under construction and who knows when it will rise from the ashes. Patience. (I know I need it ;)

Why women of the 1880's didn't wear normal bathing suits...

So I have a few illustration projects that are based in the 1880s and I've been having fun looking at old Sears catalogues and the like and I was thinking that this really is a pretty odd sillouette.The idea of a women fitting this shape kinda cracked me up.

Another gem I found while doing research:

So corsets are important for your hygiene and all ages of women should have the benefits wearing them. Weird world. But then again, we have stilettos...