When I am not doing illustrations, I paint like this.
Finished a painting today
Back to the daily
#unexpectedvalentines
weekend news
I was honored to be asked to create event artwork for the Oregon SCBWI Spring conference — registration is now open at https://oregon.scbwi.org/events/between-the-pages-2016-annual-spring-conference/
I did work on my daily sketches over the weekend, but I have decided that from here on out I will accumulate a week of daily drawings and then choose a few to post every Monday. I am finding that while daily posting is good for motivation, it is also a short hop from “a quick post on my blog” over into the crazy time-sucking vortex of social media. Hopefully I can strike a better balance by posting only once a week.
Daily sketch No. 3
I was working at a coffee shop this morning, so I didn’t have ink and brushes with me, but I made my drawing anyway.
Daily sketch No. 2
Daily sketch challenge
I’ve decided to give myself a daily sketch challenge. I’d like to create a morning routine that kicks me right into creative work mode (instead of loafing around in social media land), so the plan is to make a sketch first thing when I enter my studio, before I even turn on my computer or check my phone. I’m tempted to post on instagram, but I think I’ll limit myself on that too. I might choose my favorites from the previous week on Mondays and post a couple as part of my new and improved ‘internet presence’ routine. But I will post them here, at least a few times a week — fair enough since more frequent blog posting is one of my goals this year.
The challenge paramaters (for now):
• materials: dip pen and ink, plus one additional color if I want it
• theme: kids and pets
• bonus: a hand lettered word or phrase relating to the image
Here is day 1:
Note: noodlers ink BLEEDS on watercolor paper.
Sneak peek
Here’s a glimpse of a project I’ve been working on for the past few weeks. These are a bunch of drafts of the color wash layer. Once I was happy with the color layer, I laid a sheet of translucent paper over the top and quickly made a graphite line drawing that roughly correlated to the wash below. After about a million drafts of both layers, I scanned and combined the color wash with the line art in Photoshop.
Done now — I’ll post final art when I get the go-ahead!
Coming soon to an indie bookstore near you…
Two for Joy by Gigi Amateau (Candlewick, June 2015) is on its way to the printer! I was hired to illustrate the book last spring, and am very excited to see it in print at last. My work included a full color cover and black and white interiors. Here’s a sneak peek.
Derby Dynasty
A gift I made for a friend who is expecting a baby…it’ll be a few years before they can skate together, though.
