Here's an elephant

I rather like this little elephant.

Illustration Friday - Tree

This is a little outside the range of my usual style; just being inspired by some other illustrators I admire.

Shy

I decided to do something for Illustration Friday this week.  The prompt was "shy."

Sleeping Beauty sketch

Got a bit carried away with the hair and the dress, as usual.  Also, I have no clue how to draw a spinning wheel. Thirdly, I learned that Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on the spindle, not the distaff, as it appears from this sketch.

A Peek at My Picture Book Dummy

Here's another snippet from my picture book dummy.  The benefit of working on a Chinese-themed book is that I was able to sneak my last name into this image.

Promotional Postcards

Just got my new promo postcards in the mail!

A Dapper Fox in a Suit

Here's something to round out my black and white portfolio.  I prefer animals who are snappy dressers.

This one is pencil on bristol board.

A little bit of what I'm working on

This is a little snippet from the picture book dummy I'm working on... done in watercolor, pencil, and colored pencil on Arches watercolor paper.

Blocks - the colored piece

This is another portfolio piece for my children's illustration portfolio.  I'm not sure if this is done or not, but I do know I need to stop fussing with it for a while.  That's the problem with coloring digitally - I can tweak it infinitely to barely noticeable effect.

I did achieve a few things I wanted to include in my portfolio - unusual point of view, lots of negative space, and a strong lighting source.

Edit: I think I'm finally done tweaking this one, and here's the finished illustration.

Princess character studies

Finished off these princess character studies in watercolor and pencil.

Princess painting experiment

This is a color experiment that I'm not quite sure about.  I like a lot of the elements separately, just not sure they are working well together.

Cat spot illustration

I rather like how this little cat spot illustration came out.

Bad Governess

This is a sketch for a potential portfolio piece.  Yes, that is a cat dragging off a baby.  What of it?

Self assignment: POV and negative space

Gave myself an assignment to draw something from an unusual point of view, with lots of white space.

Fox and grass

I wanted to see if my love of drawing hair would translate into drawing other things that are similar in texture, specifically, grass and fur.  Turns out, yep.  I may be slightly crazy, but this actually was a lot of fun to draw.  Plus, foxes!  Cute!

Hand studies

I think it's pretty obvious what this post is about.

Character sketches - Joy and Sadness

Some character sketches for a sketch challenge - depicting "joy" and "sadness."  It was a good exercise in character consistency.

Drawing curly hair

I decided to draw some curly hair.  For no reason, really, other than wanting to see how to draw curly hair.  My only insights into the process are: draw a bunch of squiggly shapes.  Then, draw a lot of little short curvy lines going one way and then the other.  Make some parts darker and leave some lighter.  After doing this for a long time, you will have a nice drawing of curly hair.

Princess Character Studies

Some character studies for a sketch challenge.  I really like drawing this little princess.  Sadness, Fear, Anger, Surprise, Joy and Disgust were the emotions I had to express.  You can probably figure out which is which for yourself. 

Some miniature portrait paintings

I did these two little portraits recently for a friend's birthday.  They are in little metal frames that I purchased years ago somewhere in the American Southwest; they have a glass door that is open for the purposes of photographing them.