Watercolor Wednesdays -Sketch of Gift of Friends

Here is my long overdue Watercolor Wednesday assignment:

Two best friends celebrate the holidays in very different and unique ways. Post a single page sketch of a scene of one friend figuring out a gift for the other.

In this illo, we see Bear receive his most wanted Christmas wish from his parents: a pot of honey. We see Rabbit receive her most wanted Christmas wish from her parents: a big, juicy carrot. We see Rabbit giving her best friend the most wonderful present she can think to give. We see Bear giving his best friend the most wonderful present he can think to give.

Illustration Friday - Voices

Urgh. Do you ever have one of those days when you know somewhere deep inside of you, you're capable of doing great things, but you just can't seem to get it together? That's how I feel about my watercolor. I know I'm capable of so much more, but alas, I just can't seem to get it together lately. I really need to sign up for a watercolor class! Urgh. And double urgh. And even triple urgh! Don't you just love the beautiful mustard green hue?!

Anyway, this was my depiction of Illustration Friday's Voices. Little Violet is sick and tired of hearing the voices coming from her brother's radio, but she's even more sick and tired of hearing her brother's attempts at singing!

So hows the weather where you're at?
We're being pounded by snow. Last week, an ice storm that left 400,000 without power - some for a week or more, then a snow storm on Friday that left 8.5", followed by yet another snow storm today that has dropped 8" or more so far. NH does winter right!!

Sledding

Illustration Friday - Rambunctious

Thankfully, our eldest daughter is asking Santa for a piccolo this year and not a bass drum!! Whew!!

Mean Snowman

This is an illustration I did for my room parent letters. Not too elaborate, but I'm pretty satisfied with it.

Illustration Friday - Similar

These two paintings seem so similar to little Ash, yet so different....

Feedback please - Civics Postcard

I am working on my next postcard mailing. This is the sketch, what do you think? How can I improve it? Is the composition OK? Are the characters varied enough (George Washington is going to be African American, the Statue of Liberty Asian American), are they expressive enough?

Stories for Children illo

Here is the illustration I did for the December issue of Stories for Children . There are some things I'd like to improve on - specifically the color. I've been having issues with color lately. I guess that's a good thing. It means I'm ready to go to the next level in my artwork. Ever evolving!

Illustration Friday - Balloon

I immediately thought of a red balloon let loose... I'm not sure why. Seems like a symbol for something.... hmmmm. Anyway, I'm still experimenting with my watercolors.... thoughts? Good, bad, ugly?

Kisses from Great Aunt Bertha

I hope none of you are on the receiving end of cheek pinches and kisses from Great Aunt Bertha this Thanksgiving! Shudder.... shudder!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Frog Sock Hop

My 6 year old brought home spelling words last week that included frog, sock, and hop. She thought these in particular were very funny, and wanted a me to draw a picture of a frog at a sock hop. So, this is what I came up with. I've also started experimenting with my watercolors. I'm quite a novice, neophyte, amateur, well you get the picture, when it comes to color mixing. Thanks to my Southern NH Illustrator critique group, I was inspired to create a color chart of all the paints I have right now. (Thanks guys). I know I have a long way to go, but we all have to start somewhere!

Thanks, but no thanks!

I decided to use this illustration for the SCBWI "Thanks, but no thanks" contest. I'm pretty happy with the turkeys, and I like the bugs, but the colors turned out a little warmer than I had imagined. Ah well, live and learn.

Illustration Friday - Opinion

Older sisters always seem to have an opinion about something... I should know, because I am an older sister too. Can we help it if we know better? :-)

Bedtime Book

Little B&W spot illo. I love reading a good book!

Hansel and Gretel - super rough sketch

This is what I've been working on today. A sketch I've done for Hansel and Gretel. I know, I know, I should be working on other spreads for Snow White for Watercolor Wednesdays, but I'm awaiting the arrival of my new super thin, way cool, light box. I figure once I have that, I can work on my SW spreads. So, for today, it's Hansel and Gretel.

I'm hoping to get a few illustrations for my portfolio to show story sequencing. So, please critique away. Is it dynamic enough, how's the composition, should I have the ax fall off the page, etc., etc.?

Happy News

I'm so excited. I just received notice from Stories for Children magazine, that I have been accepted as a contributing illustrator!! YAY!! I get my first assignment in December for the January issue. I'm really looking forward to working with them!

And, I also got word that I'll be one of the illustrators whose work will be on the New England SCBWI site. The website is being revamped, but once they go live, my piece "Saturday Morning Soccer" will be there along with the other amazing New England illustrators! Double YAY!!

They say things happen in threes ... so here's to hoping for some more good news!! :-)

Illustration Friday - Pretend

Peter wanted to pretend that he didn't pull the head off Polly's doll, and he wanted to pretend that Polly didn't send her dog Pip after him to even the score...

Snow White - Sketch

Here's what I'm working on for Watercolor Wednesdays. Our assignment is to create page spreads from Snow White. This one is the scene where the dwarves find Snow White asleep after having eaten the apple. Still in sketch stage.

Saturday Morning Soccer

My daughter's soccer is over for the season. (Although, we've had some warm days here in NH, usually this time of the year we're getting ready for the snow to move on in). So in honor of her, and her teammates, I did this little piece. Great job sweetpea!!

Thanksgiving dinner - Sketch

I'm thinking of turning this into this month's mailing. Is it exciting enough, does it feel stagnant, are the expressions on the characters varied enough, etc., etc. I wanted to get some feedback at this stage before I ink it. Thanks!

Illustration Friday - Wise

When I saw this week's prompt, I thought of my Oma. She was an amazing woman, and I miss her.

Thanksgiving illos

I needed to do some illos for my daughter's school Cranberry Day party, so here they are...

Character Sketch

I'm working on a character sketch - for practice, and ultimately to add to my portfolio. How does this look? Is it consistent? Any comments/suggestions are welcome!

Illustration Friday - Repair

Rita loves to repair robots, if by repair you mean destroy.  At least she's giving it a try!

Storybook Celebration illos

My daughter's class is having a Storybook Celebration on Halloween.  As one of the Room Parents, I needed to send out a food donation reminder note to the parents.  I thought it would be nice to add a few illustrations to dress them up a bit.  I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

Illustration Friday - Late

Kind of gross, I know, but it's what came to mind when I saw the prompt.

Character Sketch

Our wonderful group "Watercolor Wednesdays" is working toward improving our portfolios, so instead of a typical prompt, this time 'round we were to submit some character sketches. One of the important things an Art Director is looking for when looking at a portfolio, is to see consistency of character, and range of emotion. So, here's some character sketches I've done. 

Illustration Friday - Strings

My kids and I love to play a game called "I've got no strings to hold me down," of course inspired by Pinocchio himself. When I saw that IF's prompt this week was "strings," I felt compelled to do something with a marrionette. And since my eldest daughter has a talent show coming up soon, I thought I'd tie that in as well.

Another go at it

OK, here is another attempt at this snail illo. I'm still not really thrilled with it. I think it's a little easier on the eye, but something is still not working with this one.

Watercolor Wednesdays - Snail

The prompt for WW this week was snail. I was feeling in an autumnal mood, so I thought I'd give it a Halloween setting. I'm not happy with how it turned out though: the colors are muddy, and the little bunnies are hard to see in all the muck. Very frustrating. Urgh. The picture in my mind's eye was much cuter.

Watercolor Wednesdays - Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My...

Or Slugs, Snails, and Puppy dog tails ... oh yeah, and frogs too.

Illustration Friday - Island

Illustration Friday's theme this week is "island" so, I went with the little birdy hitching a ride on her floating island. It's good to have friends, especially those with big sharp teeth.

Watercolor Wednesdays - Dancing

I know it's a pretty cliche - yet, having my youngest loving her ballet class so much makes me unable to resist going with a ballet image.

Postcard Mailing for September

I finally got my September postcard finalized. It always feels good to get the postcards done, because I feel like I'm doing what needs to be done, you know?

Sailing

Flying squirrels have all the fun!

Watercolor Wednesdays - Umbrella

Hi all! I'm finally back. My husband worked his magic and got us a temporary fix until we buy our new Mac. Whew! It's nice to be back. Soooo, the prompt for Watercolor Wednesdays this week is Umbrella, and since I've been gone so long, I couldn't resist contributing two illos!!

Vacation

We're off for vacation, so I'll be incommunicado for a few weeks. As soon as we're back, I'll start posting again! Have fun, and talk to you all soon!

Thanks

I just wanted to give a shout out to Alicia Padron, Vanessa, and Nancy Lefko...

Alicia, thanks so much for your very candid comments! I'm going to take your advice, and make that change to the site. I really appreciate your taking the time to look and write!! (I love your work by the way - you have such beautiful linework, and the colors are lovely!)

Vanessa and Nancy, thanks so much for the pep talk. It's a wonderful feeling to know that there are others out there, going through the same thing!!

Watercolor Wednesdays - Thumbelina

This week's prompt for Watercolor Wednesday is from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale Thumbelina: "Perhaps this was the one who sang to me so sweetly in the summer," [Thumbelina] said; "and how much pleasure it gave me, you dear, pretty bird."

This is such a sad, sweet part of the story - where Thumbelina finds a dead little bird and she cares for it in it's death. Mouse and Mole are too busy carrying on with business to even bat an eye at the misfortune of the bird.

A member of the club

Yesterday, I received my first rejection letter (email):

"It is obvious you have invested a considerable amount of time and energy into your artwork. However, we look carefully at issues such as quality, marketability, and originality which force us to be selective in our publishing decisions. I am sorry to inform you that we are not able to accept you as an illustrator at this time."

I have confused feelings about it. Obviously, I'm bummed. I'm not sure what to make of it - do I just pick myself up, dust myself off, and carry on, or have I been deluding myself in thinking that anyone would want to publish my art. I realize rejection comes with the territory, and that not all rejections are saying that your art bad, sometimes it's just not the right fit, but how do you know? Are the pieces you've worked so hard on, and are proud of, being seen by everyone else as amateur schlock? What I do know, is that I enjoy drawing.

I draw inspiration from a quote by Henry Van Dyke: Use what talents you possess. The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang the best.

I hope there is a place for me somewhere out there.

Illustration Friday - Enough

There is never enough of me to do all the things I'd like to do...

Watercolor Wednesdays - this little piggy

Santa brought the girls finger puppets for Christmas a few years ago. My favorites were the Fairy Tale puppets - Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and The Three Little Pigs. The girls never get sick of hearing the stories, and I never tire of seeing their performances!

Illustration Friday - Foggy

I'm not very happy with the fog in this one, so I think I will submit another one next week, when I have time to work on this a little more.

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Here is the quickie I did of Illustration Friday's "Foggy." I'm not going to have time to work on this other than tonight, so I wanted to get something up. When I was little, I always loved the "fog" after taking a shower, and then wiping a zig zag across the mirror.

Watercolor Wednesdays - It was a dark and stormy night

"It was a dark and stormy night" is the theme for the new Watercolor Wednesdays group. This is a great opportunity for me to work with other children's illustrators in drawing to a theme.

I've been wanting to add pieces with anthropomorphic characters, as well as show story sequences so I'm going to work on some classic fairytales pieces.

Since the theme is "a dark and stormy night" I thought I'd place Little Red Riding Hood in a dark and stormy woods. I found the stormy part a little hard to do. Any suggestions for how to achieve the look of "stormy"?

I also wanted to make Red a little hispanic girl. I'm not sure it really looks like that.... Thoughts?

Illustration Friday - Sour

I love lemonade, but tend to like the sour variety... with fresh squeezed lemons. Mmmmm. Although, not everyone agrees with me.

Illustration Friday - Fierce

There is nothing fiercer than an angry mom looming overhead (except maybe an angry dad too). Eeeks.