Mermay - The Dance

     Though we are knee-deep in this glorious month, many of you may not know that it has been renamed Mermay by tons of people in the illustration community. My Instagram feed is full of scary, imaginative, adorable, and beautiful beings from the mer-world. Most of them, though, are female. Well how do you get so many of these fascinating creatures if there are no mer-dads? And where do mer-dads come from? It all starts with . . . the Dance.

    If you're interested in seeing the piece I did last year click here. That post includes part of a children's story in rhyme that I wrote a while back.

Treehugger and proud of it

Illustration Friday - TRANSFORMATION into summer

I have this friend who lives in my backyard. I have no idea how old she is, but I've lived in my home for over 24 years so I know she's no teenager. As I sat outside last Friday enjoying the beautiful sunshine and pleasantly warm temperature my attention turned to her, across the yard, her leaves beginning to bud as she wakened after a long winter. Half of one of her major limbs has died and when she flowers she doesn't bloom as abundantly as she used to. She may be fading but my affection for her is growing. Each year I promise myself that I will spend more time sitting under her canopy and this year is no different. In the past I've talked to her, but never when anyone can hear and I've always been afraid to hug her and get myself carted away to wherever they cart people who have trees for friends. But no more. I am going to talk to her (out loud because how else can she hear me?) and I am going to hug the crap out of my little crabapple this year. Because getting carted off to a place where I would be with other people who talk to trees cannot be a bad thing.

Many years ago I sat my Raggedy Ann doll under her and did the above watercolor.

 

And this piece has always been a favorite of mine. 

And who wouldn't absolutely love a friend who helped make these photos happen? (Yes, those are my babies!)

I didn't realize until later, that Friday was also Arbor Day. I took a few moments to remember special trees of my childhood. There were several that I could think of right off the bat, some that I climbed, some that I played beneath, and some that were the bane of my existence when I was a kid (yes, I'm talking to you, Black Walnut Tree).

One of my favorite children's books is - The Giving Tree by Shel Siverstein (clicking on the link will actually get the book read to you! You may want to have some tissues handy). And as I was working last Saturday at the library, I came across this book (another tear jerker):

It's illustrated by one of my illustration heroes - David Catrow, (click on his name to check out his website) who I will be meeting in person next Thursday!!!!! Serendipity is happening all around me!

So, I'm thinking there's a lot of treehuggers out there that are just in the closet. To be clear - I'm out.

Serenity #6

Woohoo!!! Sixth time is a charm. A couple of posts ago I shared a few previous versions of this same pose. I really liked number four but it was looking a little too realistic and also looked way too much like my red-headed step-child. Really. Not that she wasn't adorable at that age, but she's become a beautiful, grown woman and can no longer pose for me as Serenity. Plus, if I do a children's book with her as the star, I will stress about creating at least 3 more books starring the other kids. 

On Monday I came up with the version below. While you look at it I'm going to look away and wince. I think it's really bad. (Her hair looks like a perm from the late 70s.)

I'm sharing because I believe in the golden rule. I like to see the flubs of illustrators I admire. It makes me feel like anything is possible if you just keep at it, so I'm treating you the way I like to be treated. 

Instead of getting upset that I had lost about three hours of my life, I laid out all five versions and noted what I liked and didn't like about each of them. I then returned to the drawing board and did the sketch for the one that you see on top. 

I did the sketch on drawing paper because when I move to bristol paper or canvas I can get a little tense and it shows in the drawing. I went over the pencil lines with a micron pen and then applied a thin layer of gesso to the back and front of the drawing. I could still see the image through the gesso, thank goodness! phew! I painted her Tuesday in acrylics and though it's a painting on drawing paper and may not last for a thousand years. I'm okay with it. I'm okay with it until I decide to do #7.

Illustration Friday - PINK

I did this sweet girl (my step-daughter named her Luna) this week as a practice exercise on my ipad in the Procreate App. When I started her the Illustration Friday word of the week was CROWN. I tried putting a crown on her and making her a princess but it just wasn't looking right and my original sketch showed a flower in her hair. I'm glad I stuck to the original and WOW! how serendipitous that this week the IF word was PINK! 

A few more Brynhilds and a few Serenitys

I'm getting a little more consistency with Serenity's mom, and I've begun to sketch Serenity again. She is not as stylized as I would like, so my goal next week is to work on that. I would have gotten further this week but once again my basement studio has puddles of rainwater. (When will this end?!?!?!?!) Before the floods came I was able to spend a day with my acrylics. Below is a close-up of one of many Serenity faces.

I just love the energy of the paint! I really think I'm onto something with these acrylics! Who knew?!

The bottom image is a few different tries over the last few years of the idea I have for the cover image, including the acrylic on the right, my current work in progress. I still have to decide what I want her frog to look like and ya know what? He doesn't have a name yet. Like Brynhild, his name will probably not be used in the book but it would be nice to be better acquainted. I'm open to suggestions.

Character practice - Brynhild

As promised, (to myself mostly) I have worked on a character from my current picture book. This is Serenity's mom (I named her Brynhild today). I still have a lot of practicing to do. There are certainly inconsistencies but not too bad for my first efforts, and I feel like I've jumped over a hurdle. I'm excited to push a few of these a bit further and maybe even get out the acrylics.

     Below are the first two sketches I did:

I did the top one and knew I wanted a character that was a little more unique and whimsical. 

I pulled out a copy I had done of an illustration by one of my favorite children's illustrators - 

Chris Van Dusen.  Please click on his name and check him out. He's amazing! Again, this is a copy of his work that I did a few years ago for educational purposes. Once I had a look at these characters, I returned to Serenity's mom and did the more stylized second version.

The next thing I did was get out my clay and doing a little sculpting. Sometimes doing a three dimensional version of something helps me understand how to draw it.

Creepy, yeah? 

I was home by myself as I worked on her and my imagination started to run away with me. 

I was a little freaked out thinking she was going to open her eyes! 

What the heck is wrong with me?!

I pulled her out again the next day to refine her and I changed her expression. 

I was alone again and thought that if she did open her eyes she would at least be smiling at me.

Until next Wednesday! Have a lovely week!