Happy Valentine's Day

Part of a promo with my fellow Girllustrators. A bit of Valentine's silliness.

Round Robin, Week 2

So, it's my week to kick off our round robin collaboration.
Check in with Marsha Riti and Diandra Mae over the next couple of days to see what else develops in this scene. Happy drawing!

Round Robin, Week 1

Conducting a little art experiment with illustrators extraordinaire Diandra Mae and Marsha Riti where we collaborate on a piece every week round robin style. Diandra handed me the most adorable, forlorn fox, and here's what I added.

Marsha, over to you for the last leg of storytelling/artmaking!

Happy Halloween!

Costume idea for the manatee with a sense of humor

Animal Experiments

Applying the landscape style from last week (outline in indigo watercolor) to animals.

Process: Lake Como in Watercolor

Let's start with my photo reference, a shot of Lake Como in Northern Italy from several years ago. Side note: this is one of the most beautiful, dreamy places I've ever been. I start off with a minimal sketch in HB pencil and a light pink wash for this one (I don't recommend having cat hair on your paper, as I have done, but when you've got a kitty in the studio during shedding season, it's tough to avoid) Three layers of color here More layers, lots of viridian green and prussian blue in the mix And voila. Finished sketch with watercolor and some graphite detailing on the boat and houses.

Landscapes Three Ways

Just playing around with watercolor approaches. I posted some progress shots of these last week, but here they are "finished" and scanned.

Watercolor, charcoal & graphite
Outlines in thick indigo watercolor, filled in with transparent watercolor layers
And landscape detail outlined in softer watercolor of different colors My photo reference (the amazing Butchart Gardens in Victoria, BC) and a postcard of Toshi Yoshida's woodcut "Linnoji Garden", my jumping off point for experimenting with technique.

Lion, squirrels and conferences, oh my!

The Austin SCBWI conference kicks off tonight, with an exciting event at the Children's Museum honoring Patrice Barton, Crystal Kite winner, and full of readings by E.B. Lewis, Liz Garton Scanlon, Cynthia Leitich Smith and more. Conference also means this week has been chock full of illustration and printer wrangling. Lots of new pieces in the portfolio this time! The above sketch is a work/possible story in progress...

From the sketchbook: dino & flamingos

I feel like this guy has a story, but I'm not sure what it is yet...
My nephew stopped by while I had out the bright fuschia liquid watercolor and wanted to try it out. His snake (he's 2 and everything he draws is a snake) looked like a flamingo, so I embellished and then did one of my own. I'm partial to the energy of his! Might have to use it as inspiration to stray a little from my own comfort zone.
Do you ever feel like you hold the year in the palm of your hand? You might be right
...or maybe you just ordered a mini-calendar online thinking it would not be quite so mini.

Ursa Major & Minor

Just thought I'd share a peek at my studio table in the last week before heading to the SCBWI conference in LA. This is an image based on a dream that I'm using for a postcard promo. Back to painting...and I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Bird snacks

Saw a green heron catch a minnow and a kingbird catch a caterpillar this morning at Shoal Creek. And yesterday an oriole was eating ants from inside the trumpet vine in the backyard (photos here).

Drawing Day: Hamilton Pool

A day full of sketching, swimming and enjoying nature at Hamilton Pool. What made it even better: got to hang out with various Armadil- and Girl-lustrators and a couple more fine folks. Seriously, if you have not been to Hamilton Pool and you are in the Austin area, you must go! Floating on your back while looking up towards a waterfall and a cliff wall covered in ferns and the daub-y nests of cliff swallows...amazing.

Mac Crack of Dawn & the Eggmobile

Inspired by all the crazy kustomized hot rods in town over the weekend (my favorite had a Chewbacca head on the top of the gear shift), and people who drive them. The eggmobile is what happened when I tried to draw this car without looking at the photo for reference.

Please don't feed the dinosaurs

This is what you don't want to find when you walk back to your lunch! Dedicated to Harper and her dinos.

One fish, sketch fish

Some fish that didn't end up getting used on a recent project.

Bunny hop

It's just that sort of day. A couple more in this series here.

More poppies

Still painting wildflowers, this time for a garden blog banner update.

April Flowers

I keep forgetting to take my phone when I walk the dog and miss capturing photos of the wildflowers along the trail (poppies backlit by the morning sun and shady masses of dayflowers). So, the past couple of days I've tried to fix in my mind, Frederick style, how I would paint them in watercolor.

Rain Cloud, part 2

Using my ink accident as a starting point for an illustration.

Getting along with Gouache

Sketching some of my usual tools with my new favorite medium.