Ms. Cow

A fun caricature that I did today of a cow that I drew in my sketchbook yesterday.

Just because I like cows.

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.