Sketches

Yup. I'm working on sketches again.  This time I'm working on some for a dummy I'm starting to put together.  These are in the very early stages, so you'll notice loads of erasure marks, and stray pencil marks. I will clean them up, but at this stage I'm just trying to get the characters right.  This is my favorite part of the process.  I love sketching characters!

Smells Like... Avocado?

I have an opportunity to submit work for a great show, with a food theme. I might not really get to creating the art in time, but I was inspired to sketch and think outside my usual materials. I pictured painting gouache on a wood panel, something I've always wanted to try. I'd like to keep exploring avocados, and that aspect where you cut them in half and one side has the seed/nut, and the other is empty.

Speaking of great shows, I'm excited to head down to Ipswich, MA for a Children's Illustration show at Wavepaint Gallery. Wow - look at this lineup: Mary Jane Begin, Pat Lowery Collins, Ed Emberley, Jamie Harper, Jarrett Krosoczka, Julia Purinton, and Andy J. Smith How could you not go check this out if you're in the area?

How many sketches?

These are some sketches I did for a group postcard sent out in 2008. I think it's fun to share all the discarded ideas, and to ponder if you made the right choice for concepts. I actually wish I chose a few others before the one I ended up painting, seen below. Particularly the hug off the school bus. There's something about that one that gets me every time. I think I'm just a sucker for hugs!I've also changed my style so my kids have eyeballs rather than just dots. So many people do 'just dots' successfully but I don't think I was getting the most emotion out of my characters that way. I also used to 'paint' blush with photoshop, now that I'm better at painting, I just use gouache and it looks much more natural.