Illustration

Making Time, Making Cookies

/ still a dreamer

It’s President’s Day, a national holiday. It snowed just a bit this morning, and it’s amazingly quiet. So quiet, in fact, that if I weren’t at the computer, I’d think the power had gone out. So I made my trip to the vet this morning, and am now ready to begin work, but first, a small post.

I photographed the cookies I made yesterday for two reasons .. one, I do love to bake, and two, I love to take photographs. But more important, is that I made the time to bake them for myself. My schedule seems always packed, and more often than not, if I bake, it’s for someone else, an event, etc. But I’ve started on a new path. It’s not actually about making cookies for myself, but for making the time for what I want to do and figuring out what I don’t need to spend time on at this moment, and making the change.

This is all in the interest of moving forward with my writing and illustrating children’s books. We all have issues in our lives, and we all have things we need to change. Right now, I am taking a really hard look at, well … my life, and how I go about it. I am happy with my work, and grateful that I am engaged daily in creative work, but children’s books take additional time .. where will I find it? I won’t. I have to make it. And this means dealing with many more issues in my own life, my own heart, and how badly I want to reach my dream.

So after I made the cookies, I worked on a manuscript, then a storyboard, back to the manuscript and back to the storyboard. This is who I am, and who I have to make time for. The cookies are just a bonus.

November is PiBoIdMo!

/ still a dreamer / 2 Comments

Created and hosted by Tara Lazar, PiBoIdMo – Picture Book Idea Month – is a 30 day challenge during the month of November to come up with a new idea for a picture book every day of the month. This is Tara’s 3rd year hosting PiBoIdMo, and my first year of participating. I’m excited! I find I am already buzzing with ideas in my morning shower or while making coffee.

To participate, you are asked to take the PiBoIdMo pledge to record a new idea daily, (you’re on the honor system), and when you sign up at the beginning of November and end the month with a note of completion, you’re even eligible to win prizes, such as critiques with literary agents. Go, Tara! And …. when you are signed up to participate, you can also put this cool PiBoIdMo Pledge button on your blog.

PiBoIdMo, was inspired, by the way,  by NaNoWriMo, the November writing challenge for novelists, but this one is just for us picture book folks.

So go visit Tara’s site, read all about it, and if inspired you’ll find a link to sign up. But hurry – Nov. 7th is the last day to comment/sign up and you’ll have a bit of catching up to do.

Drawing Horses

/ still a dreamer / 6 Comments

What to do when you’ve been too long away from one’s children’s book illustrations? Get back in! And sometimes how I get back in is to wade in – so to speak – with a totally different subject matter than that of my current children’s book.

I’ve just been thinking of horses for a number of reasons, so started to look through some reference material, deciding on a color photo of 2 mares and their foals. Simple pen and ink, something that I always enjoy working in and is a very relaxing medium for me.

The result – tada!

Illustration Saturday – Featuring … Me!

/ still a dreamer / 4 Comments

I am honored to be featured this Saturday on Kathy Temean’s blog – Writing and  Illustrating – her wonderful blog all about the children’s book industry. Kathy is the Regional Advisor of the New Jersey Society for Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, (NJ SCBWI), and blogs daily about every aspect of the field, writing in general, etc..  (And yes, I realize this is one day late, but sometimes this is how life just goes!)

Not too long ago, Kathy introduced a new feature on her blog called Illustrator Saturday in which she showcases children’s book illustrators, information about them, examples of their work, and a peek into their drawing process and where they create their masterpieces. I was honored that Kathy asked me to please be this Saturday’s illustrator feature!

And it’s quite exciting to see my artwork shown off on someplace other than my own web site, too. If you are involved in or a fan of children’s books illustrations – or just children’s books, (or maybe just a fan of my own work), please take a look at Kathy’s blog about children’s books and check out what I’ve been up to. Hope you like it!

Illustration – by Hand? or Digital?

/ still a dreamer / 4 Comments

Let me say I’ve always been a draw-it-over-at-that-desk and scan-it-over-at-this-desk kind of gal. I know the use of digital illustration has soared over the last oh-so-many years. But what I still don’t know is how do I feel about it for children’s books? I realize this is a complex question and a pretty big subject. Especially in terms of degree.

This week my drawings were due for Just Frenchies magazine, a quarterly publication that features my artwork/illustration. Although this is generally not detailed illustration work, being more of a spot art nature, I decided I would draw, (at that desk), and then play with it in Photoshop, (at this desk.) As I work in Photoshop daily for my business, I am of the opinion that you could work in it for the rest of your life and still not have scratched the surface.

Anyway, here are 2 samples of very simple illustration play in Photoshop. In each case, I created the sketches in simple pen and ink. I scanned and brought them into Photoshop where I used several tools. First, the paintbrush at a reduced opacity in several colors, then darker shades to create some very simple shadowing. Then I used the burn tool to enrich some of the lines where the painting had washed them out to return the depth, and finally a little brightening and/or contrast.

Then I ventured into the filters and played around with a variety that appealed to me, adjusting them further within each filter. Again, this is pretty basic stuff. I liked 2 different filters for the 2 different drawings and settled on the Fresco filter for the Frenchie profile and the Watercolor filter for the pup sitting.

So what do you think? Like the results? Or do you prefer the original loose, pen and ink sketch?

What do you think about digital art in children’s book illustration? Like it? Prefer hand-drawn?

p.s. Since I wrote this post, I realized the illustrations in one of my favorite picture books are all digital and totally amazing – Pete & Pickles by Berkeley Breathed.