Illustration Friday - VILLAGE

     This is the fountain in my wonderful home town of Greenville, Ohio. I've taken a few liberties. For instance, the fountain sits in our traffic circle and isn't usually populated with people. 

      I'm still working on this piece in my studio as a rather large pastel, but time was running out for me to get it posted to IF, so I took a photo, scanned it into the computer, and added the people and some other details. Now when I return to the pastel I'll have some extra reference material.

Dylan and Louisa

     I need more black and white images in my portfolio and I also need more illustrations that contain more than one child, so I'm practicing. I've pulled out some old snapshots and I'm getting down to business. This is done with a ballpoint pen and some ink wash. No touch-ups here. I did it on the back piece of cardboard from my watercolor pad. I had no idea how the surface would be to work on, but it was a nice smooth, sturdy piece of board so I thought "hey, why not?"  The surface was not great for blending, lifting color, or any of the watercolor techniques that I have experience with, so I really had to think about each brushstroke before I laid it down. Turns out I like the looser look of this piece, and how could I go wrong with these adorable kids anyway? My babies when they were babies.

Illustration Friday - SHELTER

Colored pencil with a little bit of marker on gray paper.

Awwwww.

Gypsy in pen and ink, watercolor, and digital

 Some versions from the same basic drawing:

 pen and ink

same pen and ink drawing with an ink wash added.

watercolor

   Digital 

SCBWI - DANCE

     The prompt word for the SCBWI online newsletter this month - DANCE. I've been working with a gypsy theme for myself, so this month's word worked right into my practice. I wanted light and movement in this one. This is mostly watercolor. I admit that I went in and tweaked it a little digitally. I'm currently working on another watercolor of the seated gypsy that I did for my postcard. I've already completed a couple black and white versions of her and I'm hoping to share as early as tomorrow.

     

Gypsy - self promo

    I've spent the last couple of weeks working on a self-promo package for myself. I went with a gypsy theme for a couple reasons. First, I've always been fascinated with gypsies. Though a homebody myself, I find the idea of wandering the world with little or no geographical ties extremely romantic.  I would love a handsome gypsy man with long dark hair and a golden earring to fall in love with me, but I would be unable to live the life. (And my husband wouldn't like it.) The second reason is that being a freelance illustrator gives a person a rather nomadic profession, peddling services from one client to another in a sort of gypsy-like fashion.

     I posed for the reference photos, so the girl is kind of. . .  (sort of) me, many years ago, with bigger eyes and longer hair. I'm not portraying myself dishonestly, just taking advantage of the perk of being an artist. 

     Here is the letterhead I designed:

And, last but not least, a postcard:

Now, please wish me luck as I send my gypsy caravan out into cyberspace and through the good old-fashioned American mail system in search of my future.