Practice Illustration for Book Character....and a fairy

I've been working on illustrations for a children's book character I have in mind. The styles and faces are vastly different as I audition different things to see what I like best.















I colored in some with watercolors to see how they would look finished.

I drew the Violet character from Steve Breen's book, "Violet, the Pilot", to get a feel for a different style. I love Steve's book and illustrations and discovered that he's an award winning political cartoonist. His charactures of politicians and events are wonderful and hilarious! What an amazing artist! His caracter, Violet, is the one on the top half of the page.

I needed to practice drawing noses and am working on profiles...something I've not done and badly need practice with...

My character eats cereal in the morning...I'm not sure if this is the image I'll use...I just wanted to practice making her look a little dishevelled with "morning hair".

These were actually inspired by photos of my little girl when she was younger...

...and a fairy. I'm not really a fairy person, but got a book for my daughter and couldn't help trying one of the illustrations in it.

Artwork Over the Past Few Months

Left: A drawing I did from photo (right) from the WetCanvas site. He has such an interesting face, it was fun to do!

Trying to fit in art time in my studio has been a tough thing this year. I bought a coffee shop the first of the year after a stressful legal battle with the previous owner/partner and a mismanaged franchise. The result has been a fresh new atmosphere, both physically (new decor) and emotionally (a fun and relaxed atmosphere for me and my employees).

The downside has been the vast number of hours required to start and run a small business, made even more challenging by the current economy. I do find times to do some art, they are just not always in my studio. I often take my journal to the shop and find a little time over the slower periods of the day to draw.

(Above)This is a face I drew out of my head.

I used watercolor pencils and watercolor brush pen.

This piece was inspired by the story of "The Princess and the Pea" when I took part in the '08 Summer production of "Once Upon a
Mattress". The princess arrived from the swamp and climbed the castle wall in her haste to meet the Prince! She turned out a little sexy here... don't know that that was what I was going for.... lol!

This is a little sketch I did of a local boy, James, who lost his battle with cancer. I got the photo from the blog his mother keeps.

I was waiting for my daughter, Peggy, at a theatre rehearsal one day with nothing but my journal and an ink pen. No one around and no photo references, so I began this little folk-art piece out of my head, using cross-hatching pen strokes for shading...something I've not done before.

Tiny Canvas piece

"Mother & Daughter" 5x7 canvas board (Mixed Media: collage, acrylic paint, old text)

I painted this one day when I began to wonder when my daughter would stop wanting to hold my hand, sit on my lap or cuddle with me... it was sad to contemplate and some of that meloncholy came out in the mother's expression here, I think.

Art Journal work of "Bannister"

This is a drawing that I did of a band named Bannister that played at my coffee shop recently. I later added watercolor and some pastels.

If I didn't work in my journal every day or two, I wouldn't be doing much "art" lately... it keeps me trying new things and keeping my feet wet at a time where my business is commanding so much of my time and attention. But meeting and listening to performers like these neat young men is one of the perks of my job, for sure!

Quick Nose Sketches

It's been a busy week, so while in bed about to crash, I got out my sketch pad and all I had was an ink pen, so I did a couple of quick sketches... I'll just use the excuse of being very tired and ready for bed.... Still good practice for me, even though sloppy and quick....

A Little Break from Noses

I took a little break from noses to do some quick sketches. Anita Davies turned me onto these through her blog (see links to artists' blogs) at the posemaniacs site. They give you a figure to draw and it's only there for 30 seconds. No time to stress about details. It's an exercise to engage the right side of the brain to tune out details and draw shapes....or something like that. Anyway, it's a great exercise that I'll continue (just won't post them here...too many in too short a time).

Day 6 The Noses of "Scrubs"

Scrubs is the funniest show on TV for me and I love the characters. And feeling this way, the logical next step for a true fan is...

...you guessed it! DRAWING THEIR NOSES! I'm sure they'll get ahold of this blog and be offering me commissions to draw more of their noses.

While I'm sure noses have "personality", it's not the defining trademark of most people, and for women in television, since they all have to be traditionally "pretty", there aren't a lot a variations on theirs... one looks far too much like the next.

John McGinleys is the most interesting nose, and I had a hard time stopping at the nose (as you can see) as I wanted to keep going. His is just an interesting face with lots of lines and shadows.

All of these were drawn with the Pilot Razor pen.

30 Days of Noses - Day 5

Day 5

I wanted to try a water-soluable ink pen,
so I pulled out a Pilot Razor Point (felt tip?) and
the first nose at top was me trying to figure out
how this pen works and how it would react to water.

The second nose is from a picture of my dad as a teen,
and then I tried a couple of celebrities like Tom Selleck
and Jimmy Durante (one is known for his nose and
the other is...well... I just love lookin' at him! Yep,
that Jimmy was the stuff that sweet dreams are made of...)

30 Days of Noses - Day 4

Day 4


Softer, pencil drawings like these don't render well when scanning, but these will at least be evidence to Sherie (http://papermoon-phthalo.blogspot.com/ )that I'm not falling down on the challenge (she'll harrass me mercilessly otherwise! lol)

The pencil sketch on the right is actually my nose... I was looking up into a mirror, so more nostril-action that I think is attractive... The other is from a picture of my daughter when she was little...the width was too wide, but the colored pencils I used (that I found in an old, old stash at my mom's) just would not erase. Maybe I'll go ahead and use pen for one and see how that goes.

Speaking of pen, you have to see what this guy does with just a bic pen a white art pencil: http://youtube.com/watch?v=9qJ8gKk6V8c

30 Days of Noses - #3

Day 3

Today I used drawing pencil and watercolor pencils (used dry) to create the shadows. Maybe tomorrow I'll tackle a self-nose-portrait (now THAT'LL takes guts!)

30 Days of Noses - Day 1 - 2

"Thirty Days of Noses"

My good friend and fab artist, Sherie Griffith, (http://papermoon-phthalo.blogspot.com/ ) we spending an art day together and were talking about a fellow artist's blog (Anita Davies) whom we know from the Everyday Matters (yahoo) group. Her artwork is incredible and she has spent 30 days drawing different parts of the body to get proficient and it has paid off for her.

Sherie and I decided we would do this together to help each other stay accountable to creating art every day in some fashion. Sherie wanted to start with noses, so here are my first 2 days of noses. The hardest part of this 30-challenge will be scanning and updating my blog... (my weakest area, I'm afaid)...

Art Journaling

This is my new love/learning method/therapy. I'm using a wire bound journal with cardstock weight pages. Sometime I scribble some thoughts first, then Gesso or paint over them to begin forming a collage, not so much to go with the words as just to go with my mood of the day... Sometime I focus on certain colors, or collage a bunch of pieces of paper that have been left on my table from other collage projects. It's fun to give myself a little challenge to use certain things.

I like to try out different styles and mediums of art, and it's fun to just play and give myself permission to make a mess and call it "art" if I want. This has been some of my best-spent time in my studio lately, freeing up my creative "muse" and I love the feel of the book as it gets filled up. This journal started out with glueing pictures and words on pages to convey feelings and thought, but now it's more collage and paint and I've entered a folk art/whimsical period that I'm really enjoying. (These two pages face each other in my journal).

I loved this little red-haired gal. This page (actually 2-page spread) started with a huge, painted mouth on a red background with the words "lips" stencilled at the bottom. I began collaging papers and paint over it, leaving some exposed areas and then worked on this little figure over top of everything else. She's a favorite.

The page on left began as a collage on "fashion" and ended up with a perplexed looking figure and I think that's my view toward being "fashionable". I'd rather buy art supplies!




Right: I collaged a scene on a painted background, added some stamping, printed tissue, sticker butterfly wings and a pic of myself when I was cute... I mean "young".

This one started out as a travel theme as I was really wanting to get away from it all. When I was finished, I was reminded of Anne of Green Gables. It has collaged papers and some painted Gesso over top and I've made swirls and loops through the Gesso while wet for added "texture" and interest.

I'll post more later and show you a page in progress and how it looks at different stages. This one at right is a page I Gessoed over and began again and got to this point. Since this photo was taken, I've painted in the figure a bit. I'll post an update later.

That's what is fun about art journaling...there are no rules. You can go back and change anything you don't like or just re-work something because you feel like it. On this one I added a dress, some color to the figure and an angel standing behind and over her with her arms wrapped around here, bringing peace... Come back later to see the updated version.

Now, go create in your own journal... use whatever book you have and cheap craft store paints. Doesn't have to be fancy, just a little paint or other medium of choice, some glue and pens... go have fun and please write and share a link to your journal if you have one...