illustration friday: midsummer night

Here's my submission for Illustration Friday's theme of "midsummer night"

This is a piece that I created for the Wide Awake Press comic book anthology Fall/Horror issue quite some time ago but I thought it was a fun little twist on the midsummer night theme :)

Have a great weekend everyone!!

illustration friday: soaked

Here's my Illustration Friday entry for the theme of "soaked"

With her umbrella turned inside out, she's going to get soaked in the rain!

have a great weekend everyone!

illustration friday: journey

Here's my submission for this weeks illustration friday theme of "journey"

This piece was an illustration that I created as one of four illustrations to go with this article in the The Saturday Evening Post. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

illustration friday: toy

Here's my entry for this weeks illustration friday theme of "toy"

When I saw the word for this week was toy, right away I thought of my dollhouse project. While most think of dollhouses as toys I am using one as a vehicle for my illustrations. And now I am addicted! I get to play with dollhouses and create illustrations. It's my fantasy combo!

It all started with a simple little dollhouse... here's our late Stanley cat checking out the dollhouse when I first got it put together. I could always count on little Stan to be my helper with any project! (RIP Stanley - we miss you!)

 
First,  I create a little figure out of paint, paper etc and add a little line drawing on top....

Then I stage the shot and take the final photo, touch up in Photoshop (here I added the pattern to the bag in PS)

I have been so busy lately working on assignments that I haven't gotten to play with the dollhouse project as much as I would like. But I am itching to get back to it soon!

Have a great weekend everyone!

illustration friday: stir

Here's a piece from my portfolio that fits well for this weeks  illustration friday theme of  "stir"

My favorite part pf baking cupcakes. stirring and then licking the leftover batter from the bowl!

Have a great weekend everyone!

illustration friday: dusty

I've posted this before but these dollhouse artworks fit so well for this weeks  illustration friday theme of  "dusty" I had to post again!

For this piece Betty is vacuuming and of course the kitty runs beneath the "dusty" bed as soon as the vacuum comes out! Our Mabel cat was the model for this kitty.

I can't wait to get back and play with more dollhouse project artworks. The past few weeks have been so busy I haven't had much play time!

have a great weekend everyone!

wishing you a merry christmas!

It's down to last minute Christmas preparations at Betty's. Here she's putting the finishing touches on her retro-fabulous tree!

I think this piece also works well as my entry for this weeks illustration friday theme of "winter."  Nothing makes you feel more cozy about the cold days of winter than a brightly light Christmas tree and presents!!


I had fun making the tree for this dollhouse project piece and I even figured out how to light it with teeny weeny battery operated cake lights! (patting myself on the back)


Wishing everyone who celebrates a Merry Christmas! See you next week!

illustration friday: prehistoric

Here is my entry for this week's illustration friday prompt of "prehistoric".

"Alice noticed that Bob's eyes kept drifting away from her face."

I took a little artistic liberty with the prompt .... maybe not exactly "prehistoric" but this could fit under "cave man" behavior! Be careful of those wandering eyes at the holiday parties ;)

Happy Friday everyone!

illustration friday: sneaky

Happy Friday! Here's my illustration friday entry for this week! I used this weeks' theme of "sneaky" as a chance to experiment with another piece for my dollhouse project!

For this illustration I wanted to illustrate "sneaky" but also do it in a sequence of images. This is another step as I practice my way to working up the nerve and stamina to do a whole graphic novel (or more like graphic "booklet") about my character. I haven't worked with squencing images since I was a sophomore in college in illustration class so it was fun to play around with thinking of images in this way.


The last few of my dollhouse illustrations I have used my own face (with retro hair added!). I decided that if I want Betty to have a range of expressions I am going to need to take my own photos and my face happens to be handy and with me all the time. It seems to be working out.

have a great weekend everyone!! 

illustration friday: burning

Happy Friday! Here's my illustration friday entry for this week! I used this weeks' theme of "burning" as a chance to experiment with another piece for my dollhouse project!

Have a great weekend everyone!

illustration friday: racing

I'm working with my dollhouse project again for this week's  illustration friday theme of  "racing"  

I don't know about you but when I go to the grocery store I am always racing around like a mad woman trying to get out of there and home as fast as possible. Groceries flying everywhere as soon as I am in the door. Grocery shopping is my least favorite thing to do!

So for this theme of "racing" I have my dollhouse character racing home from the store just like I do! 

What's really fun experimenting with this 3-d way of working, is that I get to play with perspective in a way that isn't as immediate with my 2-d collages. 

for #1 the camera angle is from below the figure

for #2 the camera angle above the figure. 

My photography wasn't perfect on these because I was "racing" to finish, but still had a great time playing with different perspectives.  

Paul already weighed in and he says #2 with camera up high .....which angle do you like best?

have a great weekend!

illustration friday: spooky

I'm working with my dollhouse project again for this week's  illustration friday theme of  "spooky" 

then I created this version with my main character at a window....

and because everything looks spookier in black and white...

Have a great weekend everyone!

illustration friday: transportation

Here's my piece for this weeks illustration friday theme of "transportation"

have a great weekend everyone!

illustration friday: beneath

I'm working with my dollhouse project again for this week's  illustration friday theme of  "beneath"

Still playing with my character, next challenge is to give her different expressions. I have to figure out how I am going to go about that.  Photoshop with definitely be involved!
 

For this piece Betty is vacuuming and of course the kitty runs beneath the bed as soon as the vacuum comes out! Our Mabel cat was the model for this kitty.

Here I am playing with a closeup and testing out the macro function on my camera. Not sure which one is my favorite the close up or the full photo image. I like them both!

have a great weekend everyone!

illustration friday: atmosphere

I wanted to work on my dollhouse project idea and blend that with Illustration Friday so here's my submission for this weeks illustration friday theme of "atmosphere"

I created two versions, first in color.....

Then in black and white...

the "atmosphere" of a piece really changes when you convert it to black and white :)

This is my first test of photographing my drawings in the Dollhouse along with 3-d elements. I am excited about it for a first try. I managed to light the fridge up using these lights. They are battery operated and you just twist the end and they light up. Twist the other way and they turn off. I want to try making a little lamp base + shade around this light. In any case it worked great for this picture and the cool lighting it gives off feels very much like fridge light.

I do need to get a better camera. this one is a Kodak 12 megapixel, I notice it's grainy when I zoom in on the image. Any suggestions for a camera? For my purposes a point and shoot would be preferred but with an image I could enlarge up to 11x14 or 16x20 if possible.

Happy Friday!

illustration friday: breakfast

This is my submission for this weeks illustration friday theme of "breakfast"

I just finished up this custom artwork, while it's a tad of stretch for the theme but it fits a little! This cute little family loves to have BREAKFAST and hangout in their treehouse!

When they ordered the piece they let me know that they are moving and wanted to have a tribute to their treehouse that the whole family loves and will miss. I had so much fun working on this piece!

illustration friday: satellite

Here's my submission for this weeks illustration friday theme of "satellite".

This was a custom artwork that I created of a little boy who loves outer space and he's on an adventure with his cats! More custom artwork here!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Saturday Evening Post

A couple months ago I created an illustration for the Saturday Evening Post. It arrived today! Here's my illustration of Charles Osgood's poem about Father's Day. The poem is about how he was honored as The Father of the Year while his wife is really doing all the work. I am sure many mothers can relate and I had a good laugh reading it!

This piece was created with his photo and photos of his wife and their children. I thought since it was such a personal piece that I would send the original artwork to him so he could have it.

I wrapped the artwork up in polka dotted paper and wrote a gushy note to Charles Osgood (and I am a HUGE fan and LOVE The Sunday Morning Show) then shipped the artwork to my art director at The Saturday Evening Post. Then they forwarded it onto him.

Hopefully he got it and fingers crossed he liked how it turned out! It was such a fun piece to create and a career goal to be in The Saturday Evening Post!

illustration friday: linked

Here's my submission to this weeks' Illustration Friday theme of "Linked"!

Have a great weekend everyone!

illustration friday: dip again!

This is another submission for illustration friday's theme of "Dip"

I wanted to create something today just for Illustration Friday in addition to custom artwork piece that I submitted to earlier.

The past few weeks have been lots of travel and prep work for classes and I haven't gotten to make as much art as I would like. My hands are getting itchy to make something just for fun!

In this piece I am experimenting with incorporating more line work and minimal color. Something I've been wanting to play with a little bit more! We'll have to see how it develops.

So here's my "Ode to Dip" with the most delicious Nutella!

Perhaps more civilized Nutella connoisseurs wouldn't treat it as a lowly dip and use it as intended as a "spread"

But I believe when eating Nutella it should be a dip!! Dip those strawberries right in the jar!! mmmm mmmm YUMMY!!!