Illustration Friday: "Hoard"

I'm delighted that I finally had a chance to do an Illustration Friday illo.

This was really fun to do once I got going. I had doodled a couple different ideas, but this one won out in the end. I was able to explore the the ink and colored pencil combo which I really like.

Toooooo Hot!!!

Summer is definitely here and it's been over 100 degrees for the past couple days - a rare thing for our particular location. Since my studio is in the garage (therefore - no climate control), daytime drawing hasn't really happened.

Instead, this has been the priority...cooling off!

Umber is my friend...

Added color to "A Dinner Invitation" using watercolor. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it.

Before I painted it, I played around with some color mixing using my (VERY limited) assortment of watercolors. If there was one thing I remember from my college art instruction, it was the emphasis on getting darks by mixing complementary colors and avoiding black. I never really paid much attention to the siennas and umbers at all (remember - I tended toward the vibrant expressionist color palette back then).

I did have one instructor that required paintings done each week with limited color palettes (as dictated by him). I think it was a great exercise, HOWEVER there just wasn't time enough for me to really get into it and learn from it. I just always felt more focused on getting it done and moving on to the next thing.

Anyway, I have found that I LOVE umber - my new color friend. I love the earthiness it brings to colors - darkens them but keeps them warm (where black darkens but cools). I used both light and dark umber A LOT in the chicken drawing with colored pencil, and I used dark umber in many of the colors in today's painting.

More studio fun...

While the house is still a bit cluttered with leftover school year stuff, I'm enjoying FINALLY having studio time! I can't quite bring myself to face the stacks of papers and books...I'll do it tomorrow (famous last words).

Anyway, I went through the last few months of sketchbook doodles to see if anything spoke up. A little bird did - and I'm back to ink (watercolor will follow). It's changed only slightly. I call it "A Dinner Invitation."

The inspiration for this was a small doodle (shown below) tucked away on a page full of "random musings" done in ink and posted several weeks back. It was hard to notice it among all of the other stuff on the page, but I liked it and it's been calling me.

Call it a truce...

Since I didn't have any pressing projects in the studio at the moment, I did the old random drawing game that I do to warm-up once in a while. The subject I pulled out of the bowl was: cat. The media: (Yep! You guessed it) chalk pastel.

I don't know what it is - I don't do this very often, yet chalk pastel has been the randomly selected media most of the time. And, as you may already know, chalk pastel and I don't really "click."


Luckily, this encounter with chalk pastel was much more pleasant than the previous ones. Where those drawings will remaine forever buried on the drawing pad, I actually kind of like this one . I don't know what it is with blue, though (if you recall the sickly blue pig of a couple months back - shudder). I guess I'm drawn more to greens, blues, and purples more than I am to the pinks, oranges, and yellows.

I think the many hours spent with the colored pencil on the last project actually helped with this one - I think I learned a lot about color and being able to actually achieve some of the colors I'm after. I'm thrilled to have a better understanding in that area that I'm sure will carry over into other aspects of my work.

Who knows! Maybe now I'll feel a bit less threatened by chalk pastels. I'd love to try working on colored paper sometime soon.

The End

I just have a little tweaking left to do (as usual), but I finished the redraw of the "Why did the chicken cross the road?" drawing. Can you tell what's different from the old one? This is like one of those "spot the differences" game. The new drawing is above; the original is below.



Of course, there's some rendering differences since I did it all by hand (no computer). I didn't notice how "pointy" the foreground plant is until I uploaded it here (note to self: fix that).

Anyway, the most obvious differences:
- string lights throughout all of the bushes
- neon sign has more of a glow














Less than obvious differences this time around:

- added tuscan red linework to the feathers (instead of just brown)
- bolder, richer color on the coop itself



And now, it is time to move on to something else. What? I'll have to get back to you on that...

FIRE! FIRE!

June for our family is similar to Christmas time because of all of the birthdays and celebrations - seems like we're constantly present-shopping for friends and family during this month. My own birthday was last weekend, and this weekend was my son's (Saturday) and my father-in-law's (Sunday). It was a very nice weekend - lots of family time. As you can see, my son needed a fire extinguisher to put out the candles on his cake (13! A teenager!!).

I did manage to squeeze in an hour or two at the drawing table tonight. I'm still plugging away at the redo of the chicken drawing - hopefully I can finish in the next day or two and share the results. I'm really glad I redid it! There aren't a lot of changes, but what I did change adds quite a bit. I've been observing signs around town as I drive home from work - got honked at the other day because I failed to notice that the light had turned green. Too busy noticing a neon bar sign. As a result, the neon sign in the picture is MUCH improved - a real sense of glow. Can't wait to share.

Trip down "sketchbook" memory lane...

I was glancing back through an old scketchbook from about 4 years ago and stumbled across some drawings that I liked. I let my kids and my husband doodle a line, and then I made something out of it. Before I started my part of it, however, I traced their doodles on tracing paper and taped it into my sketchbook as an overlay (just to remind us how it started).

Here's a couple of the finished drawings next to their original line doodles.

I kind of like these more than some of the more recent stuff I've been doing - not quite sure why. But, this was back before I was seriously considering illustration as a career. This was strictly for drawing fun.

My present...

My birthday present to myself this year was a book I've been wanting to get for a little while. I'm sure that many of you in the illustration world have already seen it, but I was happy to finally be able to pick up a copy. It's "Play Pen" by Martin Salisbury.

I really enjoyed his earlier book on the craft and business of illustration. This one profiles the work of several contemporary illustrators. Most of the artists are from various countries in Europe with a few from Asian countries, the Americas, Australia, and Iran.

I haven't read all the profiles yet, but I've flipped through all of the illustrations (I'm a visual person after all). I'm particularly interested in the fact that much of the work shown is influenced by the different places and cultural histories that the artist was raised in and, therefore, are different from what I'm used to.

That said, while browsing it did appear that many of the artists shown had styles and/or color palettes that were quite similar to each other. You'd think in a world full of creative people, a little more variety might be represented. A couple even had me scratching my head, wondering how they made the cut. Perhaps I will better understand their selection once I've read about them.

But, of course, art is subjective. And, if I ever write a book like this, then I'm sure my choices would show my own personal bias. Still, I'm delighted - and inspired - by the majority of the work shown in this book.

Birthday Dragon...

Busy weekend. My birthday was yesterday - there was a soccer game (no it's not over yet) and I had to work. Spent my break sketching a little dragon plush toy that we sell.

But, I was able to get off early enough to go out to dinner with my husband. We went to Olive Garden (yum-o). I don't think I've ever been there before - it's a bit more $$$ than we can usually spend when going out to dinner, but we left the kids at home and I had a gift card.

Today, I made quite a bit of progress on the redraw of the chicken. I've noticed that I'm a lot less tentative this time around. Some of the lighter sections of the first drawing are coming out darker or bolder right off the bat. Last time, I spent a lot longer building up different parts. I think it's a combination of being more confident (having drawn this once before) and being a bit impatient by nature - I tend to like to do NEW things rather than redo something I already spent A LOT of time on. That said, I like some of the changes I've made, so it might be worth it in the end. If not, I still have the original...

Must...keep...drawing...

I haven't been working on very much this week - kind of feeling the need to breathe a bit. However, I did start a redraw of the chicken and I've "thought" about doing some other stuff (it's the thought that counts, right?).

OK, maybe not.

A little while ago, I took one of my favorite pencil doodles, xeroxed it (that's about as high-tech as I get), and added some watercolor washes over it. This was the result.

I don't think I shared it before - at least not the color version. It was one of my boss's favorites, so I framed it and gave it to her for her birthday (she's been very encouraging of my pursuits in illustration).

The Audition...

It's the eve of the final "major" event regarding education for us this year. It's sign-ups for next fall's multi-family, multi-subject co-op that several of us launched this past year. Then, I can put the "big stuff" aside and slide peacefully into summer break (which consists of home improvement, a teesy bit of schooling - math never ends, and planning for next year).

Well be offering some really neat parent-led classes (we are homeschoolers afterall) - public speaking, art history (taught by "yours truly"), a girls "tween" club/devotion group, volleyball, money management for teens, and some literature-based activities for the younger set (stemming from classic children's picture books).

It's hard to get homeschooling families motivated to think about the fall in the spring, so it was a little hard getting commitment (everyone wants to take the classes - no one wants to lead). But, I've had several moms tell me that they'd like to teach in the spring (something in astronomy, inventors, and a literature discussion group - YEAH).

In the end, it's all worth the headache and stress that goes along with planning such things. Of course, there's always one person who complains about what's offered (all volunteer, by the way) or when it's offered. And, for some reason it's their ONE voice that seems to stick in your mind.



Anyway, enough of that. I'm sure you'd rather meet this talented fellow that appeared in my sketchbook the other day. Yep - you guessed it - one of my random doodles. However, it's one of those doodles that won't ever go anywhere. I can't imagine using it for anything. Don't tell him, though. He's really singing his heart out - I'd hate to burst his bubble.

Hitting the reset button...

Wow! Time flies!

I've been enjoying a little down-time after so many busy months. However, after cramming sooooo much into my days during the school year, the pendulum has sort of swung the other way. I finally have time to do some things, yet I feel like doing absolutely nothing. I think I just needed a little time to reset.

So, no new illustration projects to speak of - just a few doodles here and there. Here are some drawings of my daughters sitting in a tree at the park (the racoon was not present - that's something I did on break at work).

Back to the Drawing Board...

My free time was recently consumed by the chicken project, so I ended up just stepping away from drawing for a couple days. Well, OK - I doodled in the sketchbook during break at work. I was trying to think of what I wanted to do next. There are several juicy little tidbits in the sketchbook that I was thinking I'd like to make into something. And, I'd still like to pick a passage from something we've read this year to illustrate.

In the meantime, this is a drawing from several months ago done in pencil (obviously) - something a little different.


HOWEVER...the more I tried to put the chicken drawing aside, the more and more I've been thinking of redoing it. Darn - I thought it might be done! It had taken a lot of time, but I know what I would do differently - fix the sign, add some of those string lights to all of the bushes, go for a little more gradation in the sky, and I saw a photo of some neon lights that inspired me to improve on that. I had observed neon signs around town, but something about the photograph made certain elements more obvious. There's A LOT that I would do the same - it's just a matter of spending the time to do it. But, if it's gonna go in the portfolio...

So, I guess the chicken drawing was just an elaborate study after all. But then, this is how it would be if this had been a paid job (not just practice) - gotta put your best work out there.

"Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?"

OK - I'm ready to dig out the old scanner. I've spent all morning trying to photograph this drawing, battling the breeze and inconsistant sun. Trying to get an image that shows the colors accurately has been a challenge.


The original goal of this drawing was to carry out my own complete illustration inspired by the book "Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?" (which includes the work of many popular illustrators).

Besides just coming up with the concept, composition, and media, I met another unexpected challenge when I realized that this was going to be an evening/night scene. Now, I had to figure out how to show various lights - not sure I was completely successful, but I learned something new (and that's really the point here).

I think the drawing is done (mostly). I always go in and tinker with little details for several days, but it probably won't change much from this. I'm happy with a lot of things about it, although there's always something that stands out as "YUCK." I don't know if that's the result of being to close to the drawing for too long, or if certain things are really as bad as I think they are.

One thing I can't stand is how the "Pecking" sign came out - very muddy. If I can change that, I think I'll sure try, but it's not easy to change colored pencil! But, I really learned a lot about working with colored pencils and the result of layering different colors.

I really like the diagonals that zig-zag throughout the composition. I'd like to say that I planned ALL of them, but some I noticed after laying it all out. I like how the diagonal of the roof takes the eye down to the (ugly) "Pecking" sign that turns the diagonal back the other direction. This takes you to the blue tables and bush that turn the diagonal back to the chicken in the foreground. That's what I see, anyway.

I consider this still an unfinished work and would love any feedback or suggestions that any of you might have.