Illustration Friday: Theory

Nutritionists are always telling us their latest theories---eggs are bad...no wait, eggs are good. Real sugar is evil, but now they say most sugar substitutes are even worse. My theory is that we already know what's good for us. A meal of home cooking with fresh garden vegetables is about as good as it gets. Mmm mmm!! :)

I did a rough sketch of this last week, but didn't have time to take it any farther. It's one of those images that popped in my head. I just bought 2 of Rébecca Dautremer's children's books, Princesses, and Cyrano. I've been wanting them for awhile, but my US Amazon wasn't carrying them. I happened upon Amazon France, and decided to give my password a try, and I was surprised that it worked. It never occured to me that all the Amazons worldwide use the same information bank. I decided to order from Amazon Canada since it is closer. Shipping only took a week longer, and there were no customs fees, so I was super pleased. I find her work very inspiring. In this sketch I focused on the big sweeping shapes, and then refined a few areas. I really want to try a traditional painting of this, but this digital photoshop painting helped me work out the colors.

You Make My Day! :)

I didn't mean to be away from the blog for so long. I had some other projects that I needed to focus on. I wanted to say a big thank you to Linda over at Sketched Out for passing me the "You Make My Day" a few weeks ago. Her wonderful sketches and brilliant sense of humor always make my day as well, so right back at ya' girl!! :)

Here is how it works:

1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make me think and/or make my day.
2. Acknowledge the post of the award giver.
3. Display the “You Make my Day Award” logo with a link to the post that I wrote. (Optional)
4. Tell the award winners that they have won by commenting on their blogs with the news.

I know this has already made the rounds to all the great artists out there, but I still want to pass this along to some awesome friends who are always making my days sunny! :)

- Eric Smith (glimbit)

- Eric Orchard

- David Sones (pickeldog)

- Andi Butler (gee, that's swell)

- And everyone who has stopped by to comment. Your input, support, and critiques are much appreciated as I continue on my artistic journey.

Illustration Friday: Tales and Legends

Oh, the princess had already kissed so many frogs, toads, and various other small amphibians, so how could she know if this one would be the true prince?
Was this tale created in the days of old to convince young girls to marry toothless ugly men? Just wondering.

I was so excited by this topic, and it's many possibilities, but the ideas didn't flow as expected. I've been collecting all sorts of references of people poses, etc. for quite some time, and pulled out my stash, and 2 images seemed like they would make a wonderful illustration. I tried to sketch it all week, but it didn't want to work, so I abandoned the idea, and started anew. I decide to work on the left side on my sketchbook, since I've been skipping over all the left sides, and I thought taking advantage of these blank pages would give me a new outlook. I worked with the overall broad shapes of the illustration first, and then gradually added a few details, and the process felt very comfortable.
I was reading my horoscope for next month over at Astrology Zone, and Susan included this interesting tidbit, "Social scientists say that creative breakthroughs occur in 90-minute cycles. When you first sit down to begin working on your idea, you won't know exactly where in the cycle you are entering, so it is important that you keep concentrating for at least 90 minutes."
They say this is the way our sleep cycles work, and also our daily energy cycles, so perhaps there's some truth to it. So when things aren't working next time I'll have to keep at it consistently for 90 minutes. I guess it's worth a try.