Green Shoe

One of my new ACEOs, or as I like to call them, my "tinies".  The shoe is from my imagination.  I wish it were real!  Ink and watercolor.

Illustration Friday: "Glow"

For this illustration my idea was to show a little something...without really showing anything!  It's done in pen and ink and is small, ACEO size 2.5" x 3.5".  I've been thinking a lot about ACEOs lately and I'm very interested in doing a collection of them to sell.  This is the first time I've drawn directly on a trimmed card-sized paper.  Usually I've drawn on a larger size and cut it down.  This worked just as well I think but I might feel differently when I try one right to the edges with color!

Illustration Friday: "Snow"

Illustration Friday: "Explore"

There's no need to rough it in order to explore!

I love Valentino's haute couture.  Click here to see the dress I chose to draw.  I used Pentel brush pen and watercolor on Arches watercolor paper.

Another 1920s girl sketch

Actually it could be argued that the title of this post is wrong since there are two girls in the sketch.  But the one on the right was the first attempt and didn't look right so....she doesn't count in the title.  I could have Photoshopped her out but I think she's kind of interesting lurking there! 

Heart to Heart

I used to draw angels all the time when I was young because drawing the wings was so much fun.  I don't know why I stopped....I guess perhaps I've been drawing wings on birds instead.  But I also love drawing

fairies!  So these little angelfairies are a bit of both.  Plus they have great hair!  I call this illustration "Heart to Heart".  It's ink and watercolor.

"Heart to Heart" is available as a print and more in my shop here.

1920s Girl, WIP

Lately I've been sketching lots of girls from the 1920s.  I think maybe
it's because of the dramatic eyes and lips, and the cute, wavy hairstyles!
This is from my sketchbook.

"Sometimes" is today!

The title of this illustration is "Sometimes", but this morning was so frustrating that I should rename it "Today"!  I was online trying to set up a new place to show my work.  Needless to say, it wasn't working.  So I scrapped the whole idea.  AARGH!

"Sometimes" is available as a print, pillow, t-shirt and more here.

Illustration Friday: "Whiskers"

I've been working on this just for fun over the last few days and was excited to see it would work for Illustration Friday's prompt this week!  It's dedicated to all those, including me, who are trying to get a little exercise over the holiday season.  Good luck to us all!! 

Available as an art print, cards, t-shirts and more here.

First Business Card!

I finally have a business card!  It came out well, I think.  It was printed fast, I like the quality and the price was very good!  I used GotPrint.

Illustration Friday: "Water"

"Kisses from Fannie Finn"

I should have been designing business cards today, but instead I was working on this!  I hope you like it.  It's ink and watercolor.

"Fannie Finn" is available as a print, iPhone case, pillow and more at my
Society6 shop here.

Illustration Friday: "Book"

Bunny's back, and this time all he wanted to do was relax with a good book.  Poor Bunny!

Illustration Friday: "Crooked"

Just in time with a last-minute post.  I drew this with graphite, scanned it, and then had fun with  textures and Photoshop filters.  The graphite I like best these days is cheap #2 pencils!  They're great and come with their own erasers!

This illustration is available as a print, an iPhone case and notecards here.

Bottled Romance

I was looking through some folders, posts and printouts and found a colored sketch that I had hurriedly posted for Illustration Friday and then never went back to.  So I did a finished version and here it is!  The old post is here. 

This illustration is available as a print, notecards and an iPhone case here.

Illustration Friday: "Identical"

I'm calling this week "vector week" and making myself do any personal work in Adobe Illustrator.  I think vector skills will be good for me in the long run and, hey, I might fall in love with it!  This illustration is 100% vector art, created in Illustrator.  It took what felt like a long time to do but I think speed in the program will definitely come with time.  But I had fun!

ADDED 9/5/2012:

I got a request in a comment to post a more detailed view of one of the faces.  It's great idea!  I'm posting all three.  There's nothing too fancy here;  just simple shapes on several layers!

Illustration Friday: "Tall"

"Sweet on Red"

The height of platform pumps has gotten ridiculous, to the point where they almost look like a joke.  But when I see pictures of women wearing them, they actually look pretty good!  This shoe is made up for this illustration, which is a pen and ink drawing colored with Prismacolor colored pencils.

A little mantra

This is a little mantra I say to myself when I'm stalled.  Or overwhelmed with my to-do list.  I figured it might be helpful to have it pinned to the wall so I can see it, so I illustrated it.  And it really works!  Yesterday my husband saw my sketchbook opened to the sketch for this and decided not to blow off his workout! 

It's a crow-quill pen and ink drawing that was colored and finished in Photoshop.

Available as a print here!

Illustration Friday: "Teacher"

I had some teachers who were amazing and I remember them fondly now and always will.  My kids were lucky to have some great teachers too. Teachers work really hard and I salute them.  Thanks, teachers!

This piece is 100% digital, created in Adobe Photoshop.

Illustration Friday: "Bounce"

I picked a bad summer to get back in shape.  It's been WAY TOO HOT!!

Romeo and Juliet (and process)

Hi everyone!  I wanted to share a new illustration.  And I'm happy to say I can actually post my process for this piece since I remembered to save the steps as I worked! 

I was dying to do some sort of interpretation of Romeo and Juliet.  You all know I'm hooked on romance!  So I grabbed my sketchbook to do some thumbnails and idea sketches.  One of the ideas kind of "stuck" with me so I scanned it, adjusted it and started working with and revising it.  I included a border design because I've been enjoying using decorative and graphic elements in my art lately.

Scan from my sketchbook

Rough redrawing

Final sketch

The final sketch doesn't have all the details drawn into it because I always get impatient doing too much with a final sketch.  I like deciding what the details will be and then just going for it in the final drawing!

I used a light table to trace the final sketch onto a piece of paper from my sketchbook.  I like the feel of the paper and the graphite drawing wasn't going to be final art anyway, so it didn't matter to me if the paper wasn't of great quality.

Graphite drawing

Then I scanned the graphite drawing into Photoshop, adjusted the lines for lightness/darkness and cleaned up the result.  But I didn't clean it up completely!  I wanted some of the qualities of sketchiness and graphite to remain.  I also transformed the angles and sizes of the heads and faces.

Digitally adjusted pencil drawing

From there I researched colorizing black and white photos in Photoshop.  I've never digitally colored a pencil drawing before and I figured the instructions for colorizing photos would translate as well as anything!  I played around with colors, which I think is the absolute best part of coloring digitally.  You can try whatever you want and not ruin your base art.

Color trials in Photoshop

One thing I tried that worked well for this piece was duplicating the line art layer in Photoshop and pasting it on top of the original one, set to "multiply" and at an opacity of 100%.  It really punched up the line art, which I thought was good since the colored graphite lines didn't look strong enough to me with only one line art layer.  The punched-up line drawing supported the color well too without losing any of the details I liked about the drawing. 

Final colors and details were worked out and rosy cheeks were added.  I also created and added a signature, something I hadn't bothered with earlier.

Final art

I'm really happy with how my "Romeo and Juliet" turned out.  It's about time I did a process post, eh?  I hope you enjoyed it.  As always, thanks for visiting!

Added June 6, 2013:  "Romeo and Juliet" is now available as an art print in my Society6 shop here.

Illustration Friday: "Lonely"

Illustration Friday: "Lost"

Illustration Friday: "Suspend"

This illustration was done on some drawing paper I found that's as old as the inks I found last week!  I like the yellowed quality of it.  I used ballpoint pen and graphite for this.  They go well together I think!

Colored inks!

My husband was cleaning out our daughter's craft cabinet last weekend and he found 5 bottles of Winsor & Newton colored ink that I'd given her years ago.  The boxes have price stickers on them: $1.85 each at the university bookstore (where I bought them in the early 80's)!  I decided to see if they were still viable in any way and was so surprised to find out that they are still good!

Illustration Friday: "Refresh"

I hope everyone is having a good summer and staying refreshed any way you can!

Available as a print, notecards and an iPhone case/skin here.

Illustration Friday: "Space"

Illustration Friday: "Secret"

For this week I did a quick, loose ballpoint pen drawing in my sketchbook, scanned it and tinted it in Photoshop.  It was time for a little romance!

Illustration Friday: "Shiny"

This piece was created digitally in Adobe Photoshop.  I think it took longer to draw it digitally than it would have if I'd used a traditional pen and ink but I did like being able to use color, instantly correct mistakes and experiment without ruining anything.  And there was no risk of spilling or blooping ink!

Illustration Friday: "Hurry!"

Illustration Friday: "Sight"

"W-A-T-E-R"

One day in the spring of 1887 Helen Keller, then almost 7 years old, learned that there were names and words for everything.  Her teacher, Anne Sullivan, spelled the word "w-a-t-e-r" over and over into the palm of one of Helen's hands while running water over her other hand at the family pump.  Helen's world opened up and her life was changed forever.

I enjoyed reading about Helen this week while working on this illustration. Here are links to some of the sites I especially liked:

Helen Keller Kids Museum - Ask Keller
The Story of My Life.
Helen Keller - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Helen Keller Foundation for Research & Education

Morning warm-up

I wanted to toss out something fun before going on to the very regimented, perfect-edges-oriented work of the day.  Happy Tuesday!

Illustration Friday: "Jump"

For this illustration the foals were drawn with pen and ink.  The background and colors were done in Adobe Photoshop.

Illustration Friday: "Heights"

"Rapunzel, let down your golden hair!"

My idea for this week's prompt was to illustrate Rapunzel looking down at the prince from the heights of her tower.  Unfortunately I didn't get time to go any farther than this sketch!  I'll finish it though, and add it to the blog when it's done.  The weird circle at the top of the drawing was on the sketchbook page in ink so I couldn't get rid of it.  I figured nobody would ever see this sketch so it wouldn't matter! Anyway, please imagine that circle isn't there and I hope you like the drawing so far.  

First sketch of the prince

Illustration Friday: "Return"

The Return of Persephone

In Greek mythology, Demeter was the goddess of earth and agriculture as well as sister to the gods Zeus, Poseidon and Hades.  She had a beloved and beautiful daughter, Persephone.  Unbeknownst to Demeter, Zeus, king of the gods and Persephone's father, had agreed to let his brother Hades take Persephone as his bride.

One day, as Persephone was gathering flowers, the ground opened up and she was abducted by Hades, who was god of the underworld.  Demeter searched for her daughter and in her anger and grief refused to let anything grow upon the earth.  Zeus realized that the earth would soon perish and decided to arrange for Persephone's return.

As the story goes, if one ate anything while visiting the underworld they had to remain there forever.  When Hades learned that Persephone was to leave him, he offered her the seeds of a pomegranate to eat, and she ate a few.  Some versions of the myth suggest that Persephone had fallen in love with her husband and wanted to make sure she could go back to the underworld to be with him.

Zeus sent the messenger god Hermes to bring Persephone out of the underworld and return her to Demeter.  It was a joyous reunion!  Spring returned to the earth and once again there were lush plants, crops and grain.  But since Persephone had eaten the seeds, Demeter agreed that her daughter would spend three months a year with her husband in the underworld.

Winter comes every year during the time that Persephone is with Hades in the underworld, and when she returns to her mother Spring arrives again.

Medieval in ballpoint

I love medieval images.  And nice, non-blobby ballpoint pens.  Right now I'm using Bic Round Stic Grip in black fine point.  Nice!  This was scanned out of my sketchbook from this evening.

Illustration Friday: "Swamp"

I looked up swamp trees this week and thought they look just like they are wearing gowns that reflect in the water like they're on a marble ballroom floor!  This is a crow quill pen drawing on bristol board.

Illustration Friday: "Fluid"

This one's for everyone who spends any time with little children and is constantly on "nose watch" at the first sign of a cold.  Kids' cold germs are the worst, aren't they?

Illustration Friday: "Suspense"

I was thinking about this idea all week but never had time to do an inked version!  This is my sketchbook rough, scanned and worked up in Photoshop.

Darn naggy art pencil.