12WC: week 5, part ONE

Finished this page, hurrah!  I'm fairly pleased with it.  I'm still considering changing either the leaves or the grass to a darker, brighter green- they are too close in colour.  However,  I really like the contrast of the yellowish green against the blue sky; more likely that the grass will change.  For the moment, though, I'm leaving it alone and have started work on something else.  That 'something else' is the next two pieces, which will be illustrations for an Arab fairy tale.  I'll post the first (first presentable!) drawings for that within the next couple of days (who knows, I may even post some of the 'unpresentable' sketches- we'll see).

12WC, week 4

Oh..... this past week was hectic and I did not have a lot of time to work... the task was to complete 2 pieces.  I work so slowly as it is, what with the fussing and all... but I did manage to get a good amount of work done on one piece, and a sketch for another.  The first piece was another version of the page that I posted last (goldfinches flying over little girl).  Here are my drawings for the new version, first:

I used different (more interesting, I thought) poses for the birds, added berries to the leaves, and, at the suggestion of Justin on the 12WC forum, added some foliage to 'encircle' the girl... I took another piece of Justin's advice (thanks muchly, Justin!), and adjusted the position of the lead bird's head, thusly:

(now, it appears that he is looking at the berries, which are undoubtedly tasty and not poisonous!)

I've painted the birds and the leaves; that just leaves me the girl and a wash for the lawn:

(the girl is not visible here; she is still in pencil.  Just a reminder, she looks like this):

I am much, much happier with the birds in this version.  I love gouache!  I'm able to get such great detail with it, and the colours are extremely vibrant and I can mix any colour or variation thereof that I require.  Paint!  Coloured pencils are great, but I love paint...

...the next step once the girl & grass are finished (which won't take long) is the pattern.  The pattern must be transferred onto rice paper, painted, and then pasted on to the page.  Luckily, it seems as though it won't be a huge space that I will be covering...also, I'm considering the possibility of using the pattern itself as a 'cloud' motif- that is, leaving a certain amount of space as a solid 'sky'.  Work reduction, hurrah!  Once again, this is the pattern- remember that I will be painting it in colours; it will not be b &w as it is here:

I did change my mind after all about the second piece- I decided to nix the Hans Christian Andersen and go with an Arab fairy tale.  I'll post the pencil drawings of that soon, very very soon, along with a description on all the gruesome details of the story.  (Sorry, my sketches right now are not only very rough, I also cut a couple of them into pieces to try the different elements together- not very suitable for scanning!)
                     ...back soon!

further progress on that most recent page...

So...as you may recall, this was the page in pencil:

(I heightened the contrast when I scanned it; I DON'T actually draw in black pencil!)

Then, I painted it:

(from now on this is new- promise!)
Next I drew a background pattern:

(heightened contrast again, of course...)

I painted the pattern:

...and finally:

I'm still not finished with the 'crib'- it needs some shading, and I'm still not sure about the background.  I do like the combination of colours, I'm just not sure that they're in the right places.  My predilection for green makes me want to put the light green as the main background colour, but I'm also trying to include a variety of colours and not use the same colours too many times on too many pages... Still, might do the background again... We'll see.... Oh, and must add the strings to make sure that it's clear that this is a mobile...

new version of another page (first couple of stages)

I'll post more over the next several days... I may remove the blue bird as his angle is a little off (he doesn't look like he's seen from below like the others).  Also 'crib' may go. We'll see. Next I'll do the background pattern....

I've been working away at online promotional stuff.  Not only am I working my way (slowly, arrggghh) (I am so impatient with myself!  But I deserve it, dammit!  Get to work!) through Alex Mathers' ' 10 steps to powerful online promotion...' , I am also participating in zero2illo's '12 week challenge',  which will be a series of activities/exercises intended to turn fledgling freelancers into veritable self-promotion machines!  Cyborgs, perhaps!  Should be good.  More about that later.  So that gives me another reason to park myself in front of the computer.  Amongst the things that I have done as suggested by Mr. Mathers is create another blog!  To which I will provide a link after I do another post, a better one.  That first one was just an introduction.  The next will be much more interesting!  I have also finally set up my facebook 'fan page'.  Still, so much to do... I have the feeling that somehow,  there is an ever-increasing number of things that I must accomplish before I am 'ready' to do the next thing that I must do.  These preliminary things just appear, rise up, like dust bunnies.  The next thing that I'll do is install a 'sign-up' box on my blogs so as to accumulate an email list for 'news updates' and the like.  It's not currently possible for me to install html code on my actual website (something of a problem, but which can be worked around right at this very moment), so I'm looking around to change hosts.  (You see? Dust bunny right there!)  Anyhow.  I think that that's all for now, y'all.....

yes, I'm re-doing some pages...

Work, work, work on the book project. Working right now on finishing a few pages that I started a while ago; I have also gone back and started new versions of pages that I was not satisfied with. It took me a little while to get the style right, and now some of the pages that I finished earlier are less than satisfactory. To be honest, some of them were never satisfactory- I knew even as I was finishing a couple of them that I would be back sooner or later to do it again. This is the first of these most recent overhauls that I have completed- I am much happier with it. I increased the scale of the girl/window and also made the 'sky' pattern larger. I also put a pattern behind the girl that looks fine even if the pattern doesn't line up in square with the window frames. Many more to come! I have been urged just to move on and start more pages, but I just wasn't happy knowing that these existed in such an unsatisfactory state. I want all of the pages to be good, dammit! No, just good isn't good enough!

I recently received a request for a quote for a series of illustrations for a children's cookbook- which would have been a fun project, I think- but I had to write back asking for further information before I could give a quote (they had given me no indication of size, colour or not, time frame, etc.). They never responded. It might well be for the best; I may have been wrong, but I had a strange feeling about the correspondence. Alas nonetheless!

I'm working on many things- besides the book, I'm also making a new postcard for my next series of mailings and writing emails to potential client after potential client. SOON I will also, finally, begin my 'Montreal' card series! Cookbook or no cookbook, I am always busy...

People I've never met and conversations I've never had...

Another contest entry, selected candidates to be (possibly?) collected into an upcoming book. It's been a couple of weeks since my last post... what else has been going on? Well, I wrote a review of Holly DeWolf's book Breaking into freelance illustration that you can read on the Escape from Illustration Island website here (it's at the bottom of the page, scroll down!)
Now, back to my book! I'm going to begin a series of architectural drawings to sell as cards and prints.

'mail me art' entry

So, here is my entry for the 'mail me art' contest in the u.k. I'm reasonably pleased with it, although I had to put packing tape on the edges to hold it closed. I made my own envelope out of bristol (because I wanted to paint on it and wanted to be sure that it would hold up), and did all of the painting/pasting etc. BEFORE gluing the envelope closed. It wouldn't stay closed, due to the thickness, multiple layers of thick paper and slight warping (BECAUSE of painting)...alas. Next time I'll know better! It looked even better after the guy at the post office put the postage sticker on and postmarked it. Perhaps I'll get to see what it looks like after its travels?!?! I hope...!

CRUNCHY .... (illustration friday)

Yes, this is something that I posted a little while ago... but I thought that it fit the IF theme for this week, 'crunchy'. 'Crunchy' seems like one of those words that simply MUST be used to describe breakfast cereal. Although I would imagine that this bowl of larvae is mostly soft, I imagine that the legs are fairly 'crunchy' (as is certainly the case with those huge tiger shrimp!) Bon appetit!

new thing, promotional piece perhaps?

(added 7 december)...It occurs to me that this also fits the Illustration Friday theme for this week- (4 December) (that snowflake is going to be a little crunchier than she was expecting, perhaps!?!?), so I'm adding a link to this one, too.

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So, here's another piece that I did over this past week- I was thinking of using it as a Christmas card, perhaps of making a series of cards for next year. We shall see.

I've been working on several pages of my book, although I took a bit of a break this week and worked on a few other things. I was getting a little too 'close' and hypercritical. Some of the criticism deserved, of course, some just a result of lack of perspective... Some of the pages I will almost undoubtedly wind up re-doing. By the time I am finished, I will probably want to redo all of what I first did! I've been working on, rejecting, and re-starting background patterns.

I listened this a.m. to one of Escape from Illustration Island's earlier podcasts that I had not already heard, the interview with Penelope Dullaghan. It was good; I appreciated her honesty. It's helpful to me to hear 'how others did it' and also, of course, it is always good to hear that those successful others didn't start out having all of the answers (as I think a part of me always worries is the case!). I wouldn't call it Schadenfreude, as I'm not delighting in their past lack of know-how; it's more the idea that well, they didn't know it all and look at them now, so perhaps there is hope for me also...

Ok, back to work. I WILL write the Ernie Zelinsky Adoration post later today (did I say today? I mean...soon!)... very very soon.