Color revision time.

At this weeks Illustration class we showed our work for the emergent reader.

The comments on my work were mixed.

The main one that I need to focus on to improve my art is that the backgrounds are interfering with the ability to see the characters. 

It was recommended that I change the colors, remove some color and show "the white of the page", and or make the background colors flat/solid and not so washy.

With that in mind I have played around in Photoshop a bit to do some quick revisions...

This is the original painting...

This is with a solid lavender for the upper part and a solid brown for the bottom part without touching the middle red and white bit.

This one has a solid blue top part, solid red and white stripe, and a solid brown bottom part.
This one has a solid white upper part without touching anything else.

Let me know your opinion on the best way to proceed. 

These are the "finished" pieces I showed in class...

Tighter Line art

These are the the line drawings that I print out onto watercolor paper.
I will reduce the opacity to about 10 or 15% so that I can see the lines to do the watercolor painting .
After the painting is done I will go over it with either pen or a combination of pen and colored pencil.
After the paintings are finished I will scan them and add the type using Adobe Illustrator.

















I should say that I don't usually revise my art this many times.
Usually the process is roughs, tight pencils, transfer to the painting surface, and then paint.

Tight line art

Here are the tightened up pencil drawings for "Can I Have Pet?"
I finished them up last night.
















Now I just have to redraw them again to get the final line quality that I want.
I haven't decided if I'll be using pen or pencil for the final line art yet.
I beleive I'll go with pencil and scan that into my computer so that I can print it out onto watercolor paper for painting.

Illustration class roughs

For this class we were to have our roughs for the emergent reader manuscript ready to go over.
These are the roughs I had to show. I decided on a circus theme, so I made the boy look like a ring master.
Can I have a pet?

Can I have a pet?

Can I have a monkey?

Can I have a snake?

Can I have a zebra?

Can I have a bear?

Can I have a lion?

Can I have a fish? Yes!


I'm working on revising/tightening the roughs now so that I can do the tight line art and experiment with how the final art will be done.
I'm thinking of doing a simple inked line drawing and watercolor with some colored pencil for color.

October Mailer

I just created and sent out this newsletter to my list of contacts.
If you see it or know of anyone who might like to see it, please feel free to send them a link to this site, or copy the file to your desktop and send it to them.
I would greatly appreciate it.

Cinderellastien art finished!

Over the weekend I was able to finish inking the 3 samples from the Cinderellastein story.
Here they are...
The Evil Step Mummy and the Evil Step Monsters let Cinderellastein know who's boss by presenting her with the list of chores she has to do.


The Evil Step Mummy makes sure Cinderellastein knows she won't be going to the Monster Mash.


The Fairey God Monster transforms Cinderellastien's clothes and mop so she can go to the Monster Mash. It's not a pleasant experience.


I drew the final art on Graphics 360 100% rag Translucent Marker Paper using Prismacolor Premier markers. Sizes 01, 03, and the brush tip.

The art was then scanned into Photshop and the Brightness/Contrast was adjusted to make the blacks solid.

Girly Bird!

Let me introduce you to Girly Bird. She's a cute little bird with a little girls soul.



She was born from the sketches for my Color board book of birds.
She's a fun, frilly, feathered friend who will stick by you until the very end.
As you can see this is the cover art for her first book. "Let's Pretend"
Now all I have to do is write the story.