Illustration Friday "Steam"

Illustration Friday "Stripes"

Illustration Friday " Weapon"

Whoah Nelly! I haven't been here in ages. I recently participated in this year's Inktober and I found it so therapeutic to draw every day I decided to take on Illustration Fridays again. This week's topic is "weapon".

I hope to see you here again next  week. : )

"Weapon"

Illustration Friday: Wheel

So what do you think of my goofy little sketch for this week's Illustration Friday:Wheel?

This one was done on my iPad very quickly. This time I was able to use a stylus that I had gotten instead of my finger which was much more comfortable. I got the cheapest stylus out there so the nib is too thick for my liking but it will have to do for now.

Run, Hamy, run! 

Illustration Friday: Edge

Here's my quick sketch for this week's Illustration Friday: Edge.

This is a digital drawing but it's a bit different in that I started it on my new iPad with the Procreate program. It's pretty cool that I can create a drawing just about anywhere and then instantly send it to my computer's Photoshop program. Ahh technology.

It will take some getting used to though because now I will have to learn how to draw really well with just my finger instead of a stylus. The bird drawing below is my very first iPad sketch. I'm pretty excited at all the possibilities with my new toy but I've been feeling the urge to reconnect with some old-fashioned paint and paper. Stay tuned.

Illustration Friday: Snow

Why hello there! Christmas is almost here and there is still so much to do! Here's much submission for today's Illustration Friday subject: Snow. I created this little guy as a Christmas card and as a silkscreened ornament. He's cute don't you think?

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and I will see online soon. : )

Illustration Friday: Haunted

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one.

Illustration Friday: Sky

Here's my submission for this week's Illustration Friday: Sky
It's a reductive monotype with chalk pastel. I haven't done a reductive print in a while......
I think I'll have to dig out that plate soon. : )

Illustration Friday: Water

Here's today's submission for Illustration Friday's: Water. This little drypoint with watercolor seems to get a lot of love on Etsy. It's a cloud shape that I've worked on several times before and it must hit a chord with me because I'm on the wet west coast. 

This is one of the drypoints I did on plastic and it's made me think that I might not buy another zinc plate again. I did a previous post that explains the process here.

Illustration Friday: Burst

"She couldn't hold it in anymore and burst into sorrowful tears"

A quick sketch for this week's Illustration Friday: Burst

Illustration Friday: Secret

"Michael wondered why he never noticed the secret little door in the old tree before."


Here's another digital painting I tried for this week's Illustration Friday: Secret. Any thoughts?
I use Photoshop Elements and it doesn't have the pen tool and a bunch of other functions I would like to use. Have you ever used it?

Illustration Friday: Shiny

I have this older monotype which I think fits this week's theme of "Shiny" pretty well.

Illustration Friday: Hurry!

This week's submission to Illustration Friday's: Hurry!

I think doing these weekly posts have been just great for experimenting and learning how to illustrate on the computer. I'm still trying to find that style to call my own though as there are so many techniques I would like to try. I think my watercolor and my reductive work is the strongest but I would love to hear your thoughts. 

Illustration Friday: Faded

"Erica ran and played in the tall grasses until the day faded into night".

This painting is a watercolor on rag paper.

Illustration Friday: Sight

Here's my submission for Illustration Friday: Sight. Maybe I should save it for when the topic Teeth comes up.

The weekend got away from me and I didn't get a chance to color this one. I did this drawing in my sketchbook and scanned it into Photoshop. I want to try and colorize the sketch and add layers to it. I didn't understand before why illustrators seem to draw and then scan their images versus drawing right into a program with a tablet. I figured you would be very restricted to the scanner size but now I know....it's faster and much more comfortable. I find drawing with the tablet has a lot of advantages but it's still very different and I tend to get cramping in my hand and arm. I've tried holding the pen in various ways but it's still not as natural as a real pencil on paper.

Check back and see what I end up doing for the color.

*After post of color version*

Illustration Friday: Kernel

Here's my submission for today's Illustration Friday: Kernel

"Charlie realized that he might have put too many corn kernels in his cheeks and thought they might burst from his mouth."

The goal for this digital painting was to see how fast I could do it. I'm still practicing with Photoshop and I'm trying my hardest to find a way to use the program so it works for me. I did this little guy in an hour. I think I'm getting better, slowly but surely.

Any thoughts?

Illustration Friday: Jump

Here's my submission for this week's Illustration Friday: Jump.
I still trying my hand at working with Photoshop and this time I tried some watercolor functions which seemed to work a bit better for me than airbrush or paint functions. You can see I didn't get a chance to finish the puppy. Maybe I'll give this another try.  Any thoughts?

Taking myself to school.... Photoshop that is

 I've been pretty proud of myself lately for finally submitting to the Illustration Friday weekly topics. I had put it off for so long because I didn't think a week was going to be long enough to come up with an idea and execute a finished piece. I finally convinced myself that each  piece didn't have to be publish worthy and that I could even just submit a sketch. After I eased up the pressure I've been able to create some images faster than I thought I could. You can find my Illustration Friday collection started on my Flickr here.

Besides actually just attempting the weekly topics, I've been trying to keep my submissions as digital pieces so that I can finally learn Photoshop. I'm a bit too old to have learned the program in school so everything I know on it is self taught with the help of a few online tutorials. I really want to paint in watercolor and oils digitally but the program is really too huge for me to have figured out how to do that. It's been pretty frustrating and for last weeks topic: vocal, I decided to try the image in digital watercolor and in traditional watercolor to see how each one translates. What do you think? What are the differences? Which one looks more fresh?

I'm going to keep trying to figure digital painting out with the help of Lynda.com courses but so far it still doesn't give the same level of satisfaction that a brush to paper does.

Illustration Friday: Return

Return to sender

Trace monotype for return

The top image is my submission for the week's Illustration Friday topic: return. The second image is the trace monotype I did that took me all of five minutes to do. The digital illustration took way longer and I was much more hesitant with it. Can you tell? I don't know if it was because I was dealing with layers and colors or what but I think I might like the monotype better. What do you think?

Illustration Friday: Capable

  I've finally done it! For ages I said I was going to do an illustration for Illustration Friday and I finally came through. What do you think?