Cowgirl

Another piece to update my portfolio:

" Git along lil' kitties, git along."

Tomie de Paola Award Entry

Here was my entry for the Tomie de Paola award:

which I did not win, but it was fun and I learned somethings  through the process of making it. The winner is Yvette Piette Herrera.
 Congrats to her!

 The exerpt we were supposed to illustrate was from Chicken Little:

So they went along and went along until they met Turkey Lurkey
“Good morning, Goosey Loosey, Ducky Daddles, Cocky Locky, Henny Penny,
and Chicken Licken,” said Turkey Lurkey, “where are you going?”
“Oh, Turkey Lurkey, the sky is falling and we are going to tell the King!”
“How do you know the sky is falling?” asked Turkey Lurkey.
“Ducky Daddles told me,” said Goosey Loosey.
“Cocky Locky told me,” said Ducky Daddles.
“Henny Penny told me,” said Cocky Locky.
“Chicken Licken told me,” said Henny Penny 
“I saw it with my own eyes, I heard it with my own ears,
and a piece of it fell on my tail!” said Chicken Licken.
“Then I will go with you,” said Turkey Lurkey, “and we will tell the King!”

 I was trying for a different approach doing caricatures of the characters going to the "king" (Elvis). I think I'm starting to notice reoccurring themes in my work.

You can see an unofficial gallery of other award entries here: http://scbwicontest.blogspot.com/#!/

Preparing for Slumber (IF: Prepare)

A sketch I made today.

Yes, That is a Chicken I'm Holding (IF: Grounded)

I've been working on a series featuring women in aviation. Soon to be exhibited in the office of Fremont Midwifery. Here is a tiny illustration from this series.

She is holding a chicken. Sometimes I just like to make a picture of somebody casually holding an animal. Once it was an iguana. Another time I painted a girl holding a pig. This time a pilot holds a chicken. It could happen.

 I have finally given in to working smaller. It has been a long drawn out resistance, as I would love to always work very BIG, but- practically- especially in illustration it isn't the best. For one, I have to fit items on my scanner (only 8.5" x 11"!), and if not I'll take stuff to the printer's. Still, their biggest option is a mere 11"x 17".  I realized I must think small when illustrating, no way around it.

How do any of you illustrators out there feel on this matter?

This one's 5"x5". The ink splattered on it a few times, but I think it adds character.

The Big Trike

I am gradually working out the kinks with "Billy". I had been thinking that in the color versions the feel had been too bright. I had thought of maybe using yellow paper. Then I remembered a blog post by the talented John Deininger about washing the paper with burnt sienna. I had done this with oils, but I had never thought of doing it with watercolors, so for this illustration I tried it out. I feel that it solved the problem.

This illustration with burnt sienna wash, has an effect that is warmer and perhaps more "vintage" along with Billy's aesthetic sensibilities.

Billy's Back

I took a little break from developing my "Billy" dummy book, sometimes breaks are needed. I wanted to feel I had a fresh perspective because working on it was starting to feel too routine. I dove into some  painting projects and jotted down new picture book ideas (vowing to finish Billy before I started anything else). I am glad I took the break, because I do feel refreshed and came back to the project with more ideas and enthusiasm.

First thing, I wanted to work on Billy's look some more. I did a few sketches of his head. I decided to make the fine tooth comb lines more visible, because you know, the kid works hard on that 'do.

More Billy to come. I have a few illustrations to do over with the SCBWI Great Critique coming up!

This has been an awesome time to start back up with Billy, because as you may not know, Billy is in love with his wheels. Similarly, my 4 yr old daughter got a new set of wheels for Christmas- graduating from a tricycle (which was long over due) and on to a big bike with some training wheels for now. She is super stoked, and this new bike is her two favorite colors: black and green.

This new bike goes faster!