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Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving, from Ewe and Aye, and me

It's Thanksgiving week. Did you know that there's a parade on Thursday? At this parade, they have HUGE balloons of characters from books, TV, and movies, as well as some old favorites, like pumpkins and elves!

It's always been my secret wish to have a character of mine as a balloon in the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Not so secret now that I've shared it on my blog, but still a big wish!

My first picture book came out last December, EWE AND AYE, written by Candace Ryan, and illustrated by Stephanie Ruble. *

Since nobody asked me to create balloons for the official Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, I decided to draw Ewe and Aye balloons for my own Thanksgiving Day Parade. BTW, Ewe and Aye would be great as balloons because Ewe and Aye want to fly!

The Illustration Friday prompt this week is city, so it seemed like a good way to incorporate the city theme for this week too.

I love process posts from other artists, so I decided to post several images of the art at different stages. Here's the final image of Ewe and Aye soaring high in the parade:


I'm glad that I did finished color, but I liked the black and white line art, and almost stopped at this point:


The first part of the picture I added color to was the balloons. Almost stopped at that point too. There's something really fun about Ewe and Aye floating in color with everything else black and white:


I also thought about using a black and white and grey version of the image (gives it a certain old time photo appeal):


So hard to choose a favorite! But if I had to, it would probably be the one with Ewe and Aye in color and everything else in black and white. Which one is your favorite?

Did you notice that there are little Ewes and little Ayes pulling their balloons? It might be too small to see above. Here's a close up:


The image seems large, but the whole thing is about 5.5 x 7.25. Some of the animals got really, really tiny.

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

*Info about EWE AND AYE, written by Candace Ryan, illustrated by Stephanie Ruble: EWE was a sheep with a feel for wheels. AYE was a lemur with a thing for wings. BUT it wasn’t until Ewe and Aye found one another that things really got off the ground.

Whimsical word play and heartfelt humor work hand-in-hand in this irresistibly vibrant celebration of the unlimited possibilities of togetherness.

Want to know more about EWE AND AYE? Click here.

Update: EWE AND AYE is now available as an ebook! Click here.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

a cow, a bear, and a teddy bear for illustration friday

The Illustration Friday prompt this week is: animal. I had a couple of ideas that I played around with, then I remembered this image that I sketched and inked in September for a project. I ended up not using it then, so it was just black and white. Dug it out and added color today for the IF prompt.

It's the story of the beginning of a friendship between the bear and the cow, and the other animals in the bear's new neighborhood. It was a lot of fun to sketch back in September, and I'm happy to be able to finish this piece and share it today!


Friday, November 13, 2015

carpe and crabbe diem: whimsical for illustration friday

The Illustration Friday prompt this week is: whimsical. I was itching to get out my paints this week and had the idea to revisit the saying, carpe diem, or seize the day. Many years ago, I drew an image that incorporated the saying, along with a picture of a fish and a crab and a saying I made up: crabbe diem. That idea as a set of two new paintings seemed like a good expression of whimsical.


These paintings were lots of fun to do, and I actually did the crab first, and then the fish.

I like to think of my little crab as the Oscar The Grouch of the ocean.
(Oscar is one of my favorite Sesame Street characters. Who are your favorites?)

Thursday, November 5, 2015

farewell to inktober aliens and three bouquets for illustration friday

I had fun with inktober, a month long challenge to draw with ink every day. The last three days of the month, I decided to draw aliens experiencing Halloween for the first time. Since there were three days of aliens, I brought back the themes for my first three weeks of inktober: ghosts, witch cats, and pumpkins.

Note: I still didn't have access to a scanner, so these are all cell pics (thus the shiny glare on the pictures).

Aliens and ghost adventure:


 Aliens going for a broom ride with a witch cat:


 Aliens encountering a pumpkin for the first time:



I also did a drawing today for the Illustration Friday prompt this week (bouquet). Today is a foggy day outside, so I decided to draw a bouquet of sunshine. It's also National Doughnut Day, so a bouquet of doughnuts sounded like a good idea. Couldn't resist drawing a bouquet of birthday cupcakes too!


Here's a close up of the sunshine bouquet.


They're all smiling, even the cloud! Except for the not so sunshiny one on the left. There's always one in every crowd! But that's okay. You can't be happy all the time, and maybe that one will be sunshiny tomorrow (hoping our weather will be sunny tomorrow too ... though I do enjoy a foggy day like today once in a while).

If inktober and Illustration Friday have taught me anything, it's that doodling and making art just for fun are really important (at least for me). It may not all be portfolio ready art, but it's fun and it allows me to experiment with new techniques and mediums. I don't do that when I'm making art for a project or my portfolio, but sometimes the doodles and experiments lead to new projects or portfolio pieces. No matter what, it stretches my creativity and makes me smile (although sometimes it also makes me cringe, if it doesn't turn out).

Hope you had a great October everyone!

Happy November!

How is it November already???