Feeling Inspired!

I did this speed paint in about 2 hours.  That may not seem very speedy, but for me to get something "finished" that quick, even a little study of an apple, is pretty sweet!  I got inspired after watching a video Hollie Hibbert put up on her blog of a study she did.  I still have some questions about specific parts of her process, but it was a great exercise for me.  I even made an ABC's list of subjects that Brandon helped me choose for further speed paint exercises.  

PS: if you haven't seen Hollie Hibbert's work, you can check it out at her blog here.  She graduated a few semesters before I did and her work has always been very inspirational to me.  Thanks Hollie!

A is for Apple

Speed Paint ~2hrs

Photoshop CS5

Crazy Bunny Story - Line Illustration

This is my most recent commission.  It's of an experience a friend of mine that wanted to remember the story visually to share with another friend, but he didn't have a picture to go with it.  Thus the illustration commission was born!  It was a great story and I had a great time illustrating it.

Share and Enjoy!

Final 12"x12" Line Illustration

Closer....

I love this little guy!

Hooray for illustrating 

and hooray for fun stories to illustrate!

Sketches

Just a few sketches that I liked.  The circus horse was inspired by my dear friend, Emily Davis, who recently did a circus horse of her own.  Circus subject mater is so fun!  There is no over the top in the big top. :)  The girl in the corner is the drawing on watercolor paper that I'm going to paint.  It was meant for last week's Illustration Friday topic, lonely.  It's an interesting feeling to reflect on, because it seems like most of the time, even though we can't tell, we're the one holding the trowel.  I've recently been trying to learn about myself and make changes so I can be a happier person.  Loneliness hasn't really been my main struggle, but it's the same basic story.  You develop bad habits or attitudes, which lead to actions and feelings that build a wall.  Taking it down and keeping it down takes time and effort. Then the tricky part is not picking up the trowel again and falling back into old patterns.  A bit of a personal work in progress story to go with some work in progress illustration.  Fitting.

What do you think about the sketches?  My hubby, Jamin, got a kick out of the house pet circus sketch.    Any comments on the lonely drawing before I get into watercolor would be great!  I'm planning to put wooded boards over her brick box and have some light sneaking in through the cracks, despite her best efforts.  I just haven't decided what direction the boards should run along the roof, and what direction the light should be coming in at to get just the right mood.

IF: Refresh

This is my take on the Illustration Friday topic of Refresh.  It's about time I posted something new.  It feels great to get something ready for IF.  I did it in about three hours, so I don't feel like it's something I'd call finished.  But I do feel like it was a good exercise and practice.  It feels so good to sneak in some illustrating!!  Even though it's not truely finished, and there are still things that I would refine, how do you think it could be better?  Even if it seems obvious?

I also tried a saturation adjustment to see if I liked it better.  I think I like the contrast of saturation in the first one that emphasizes the heat.  Then the contrast of temperature in the cools bring you to the glass of water.  What do you think?

Thanks for looking and hopefully there will be more to come!

Announcements!

I helped make the High School graduation announcements for the two beautiful exchange students that live with us.  They were so fun to do.  Very refreshing and fulfilling.  It's nice working creatively with photos every so often.  Most of the work is already done for you; color, value, lighting, proportion, likeness, etc.  It's all just fun finishing and composition work.  I also liked flexing my meager graphic design muscles working with the text.  I like how they turned out.

With Caty's announcement I had complete creative freedom because I made it while she was at school as a surprise.  She loves it, and so do I.

 With Sharon's announcement, she first wanted me to just do the back of the announcement because it was just text and she saw what all I did with Caty's.  She had a version of the front similar to what you see.  She wanted the back to match up with her original front.  But after she saw the finished back we decided to let me re-do the front in the same basic design so it matched up with the back.  She's very happy with it too.  I learned some things about photo editing and practiced some photoshop techniques. Those decorative scalloped edges are just a brush I made.  I felt cool. :)

So... really fun and refreshing!  How much could one charge for making announcements for wedding, high school, college announcements?  :D