Illustration Friday: FEROCIOUS

This is an illustration from a picture book that I wrote and illustrated, Pickles & the Poof. Poof is the "ferocious monster" that terrifies everyone .... and makes a hero out of Pickles. What no one realizes until the end is that the "monster" is not so ferocious, after all.

"Peering out through the trees was a monstrous thing,
slowly starting to fly without one single wing!"

A Little Glitter to Make the Wall Art POP!

It's not easy to see the glitter on this small photo, 

but hopefully you get the picture.

 Click on the image to zoom in more.

Once I finished my grandbaby Laney's painting, Say, Say My Playmate, I strategically added glitter here and there to it. WOW!! What a difference it made! To avoid it looking tacky, I was careful not to overdue it, so I just filled in a few select apples, part of the buggy wheels, and a spot on some of the characters' shoes or hair decor. It doesn't show up in this photo nearly as dramatically as it looks in person, but take my word for it it's eye-catching, and sparkles even with just a tidbit of light on in the room.

Illustration Friday: MESMERIZING

This was done originally as a chapter illustration for a book called The Wicked Truth About Love.... the Tangles of Desire. The art direction was to show the dinner guest mesmerized over the chef's girlfriend as the chef delights in the attention his trophy girl is getting. In this case, it's all about the desire to have what other's want. Lots of fun to illustrate!

Illustration Friday: BOUNDARIES

What's more confidential than your innermost private thoughts? When I saw the word BOUNDARIES the first image I had was of a diary. 

I've kept journals since I was 10 years old. I don't want to give away my age, but if I stacked them they'd probably go through the ceiling. They've been my venting outlet, my problem solver, my goal setter, and most of all, my place to reminisce. One day when I was a teenager I saw an entry - not in MY handwriting! Someone .... you know who you are... stepped out of their boundaries.... BIG time! 

A Toad, a Teddy, and a Turtle - Wall Art for Baby's Nursery

Teddy + Toad + Turtle = Tenderness. This was the feeling I was going for a while back when I originally created these characters for an infant bedding company. Scanning actual fabrics into my computer program for the colors was my medium of choice at that time, instead of my usual tools of paints or markers w/colored pencils. This was great for a quilt, but not enough pop for a wall print. So, after my recent decision to focus on creating children's wall art I decided to include these --- but they needed to be recreated. Last week it was back to the drawing table where I went back to using my standard markers & colored pencils and finishing them off with digitally created backgrounds. They're now ready for reproduction... each one to be printed on a 12"x12" canvas, or all three printed side by side on one wide narrow canvas. 

Now, it's back to the easel where my farm animal scene has been put on hold :o).

A New Beginning on a Blank Canvas

I'm on a roll of producing wall art for babies' rooms and loving it! I've been invited by an online gallery to submit some of my work for them to sell, but I originally created and scanned the artwork at too small a resolution for frameable prints, so I need to recreate some of them. This time I'm going from using my usual medium of pen & ink, markers and colored pencils to painting with acrylics. This will be only my second attempt at working with acrylics on canvas (see blog The Writings on the Wall Art to see the first), so I was a bit nervous to start. Once I began it felt great, and, like getting back on a bicycle that hasn't been ridden in awhile, the ride so far has been going very smoothly :o). 

As before, I first traced the large colored printout seen above (which is very pixelated) onto the canvas using graphite paper. The printout is taped onto my art table light for my referral as I paint.

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY - MYSTERY

This weeks' word on ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY is MYSTERY. 

I figure what's more curious than a cat?! - and since they have 9 lives one would make a perfect main character for a mystery scene. Nine chances to solve the mystery until BANG!!.... it's over.