Saturday, May 23, 2015

Jumprope


Friday, May 22, 2015

Directions?


Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Babies

What can I say? Kids are too fun to draw! Here are some more I sketched last week and painted today.


Friday, May 15, 2015

From Start to Finish


SCBWI members now have the option to participate in a monthly illustration word prompt. June's prompt is Bounce. Here's a step-by-step through my thought process:

1. Brainstorm. I asked myself what things bounce? Balls, checks, trampolines, kids on a bed, etc. I felt that bouncing on beds would be fun and have lots of motion to work with, but I wanted to stretch myself more than just kids bouncing on a bed and asked what animal would be comical in that setting - and 5 little elephants came to mind . . .

2. Research. Since I'm not proficient in elephant anatomy and movement enough to create five fun characters from my imagination, I looked through google images for fun baby elephant pictures. I looked for photos that captured them in the act of play. Below are the photos I chose to sketch. 


3. Cut and paste. Since elephants really can't bounce or jump, I had to use the info I learned from sketching (along with some healthy imagination) to "cut and paste" what was helpful into five characters. My almost-11-year-old son was who suggested that the face-planting elephant above would be perfect in a pile of pillows. I also found a bed that fit the situation and sketched it:


4. Composition. With the help of Painter, I scaled and assembled all the pieces until it worked to my liking. You'll notice I made the bed wider to accommodate all these crazy antics:


5. Lightbox. I don't always use a lightbox, but since I wanted to heighten the drama of what was happening to the bed, and since a lot of things looked too rough in what I had above, I redrew the composition with the lightbox. My son added more fun with his addition of the springs popping out.


6. Color studies. I looked through my book, Color Inspirations, and found two palates I thought could match the mood. I did a few quick studies in Painter and ultimately chose the third.





7. Paint. Using my chosen palate, I painted everything in Painter. I still feel like it's missing something, so if anyone has suggestions I'm open to them. I'm afraid that making it too heavy would rob the light-hearted feeling I'm trying to preserve, but more contrast would definitely give it more depth, and perhaps I'll work with that some other time.  


Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Black and white stuff

I rarely post anymore, but that doesn't mean I haven't been drawing! Here are a few recent black and white pieces.