characters developing

I’ve been doing more skills development. This time to show the same characters in different situations. It’s not the first of these and will not be the last.

I’m loving the way I’ve developed my own shorthand for doing eyes and noses. In general, I love learning new ways to express all of the things, shapes and tones. It’s wonderful to draw an illustration that can tell a whole story and I think I nail that.Each one of these on their own could stand alone with a story. Together, they could build a narrative…

The colour palette is, again, my own. I like how the muted tones give a softness while remaining gender neutral.

I think these are a huge leap in developing the expression I want to be able to convey… getting there anyway, more drawing (yay!) , because it’s called a practice for a reason, and I’d do it for fun regardless.

Cheers,

more drawing!

I really like how the drawings I do, tell a story, showing emotion and a sense place. I’ve really enjoyed developing consistency and simplifying my finish while not losing any of the information. Or at least, that’s what I’m aiming for.

In working towards getting better and building on what I talked about in an earlier post, Portfolio Development, what I’ve found out about myself is that I really, really, REALLY, like drawing old people. Their faces can have such sense of fun and although they have bigger ears, their face structure is quite similar to a child.

To play with this idea I’ve started drawing these oldies in the same situations as the kids and I think they've worked out amazingly well.

Love swings (2021)

Still love swings (2021)

I have a couple more and I’ll put them in my portfolio so you can go to my Work page and see them in amongst all my other pictures. I’ll also be putting them on Instagram.

Continuing to get better and challenging myself is ongoing so keep an eye out for more!

Cheers,

x marks the spot

A little while ago, I was commissioned for one of the best projects. As you all know I’m a bit skeptical of committing to self-published work. Not as a value judgement of the work to be illustrated, it’s that the role of author, editor, book designer, art director, marketer, distributor and seller are usually one person - then me. And the weight of the responsibility and the financial implications are enormous. I’ve written about it here.

So when I was approached by this client I was a bit hmmm?!?!

The request was simple. A surprise gift for their partner who had written a picture book, didn’t want the whole book, but a mock front cover. How could I refuse. It was such a truly thoughtful gift. 

...and a dream client to boot. Every interaction was professional, payment and conditions were met, and the result was so good. 

The brief was to take the title, develop the character with some more form and surround it with images of the things related. The style they wanted was similar to my little birdies and they’d let me have at it.

So I sent through some pencil roughs. 

 Then some colour schemes.

Then finessed for the finished result.

The smaller people in the household liked it so much fan art was made! (I can tick that off the bucket list 😊)

Such a great and fun project, done with no-fuss in a professional and timely way. Perfect!

So if you’re a publisher, this is a cute concept and I’d love to illustrate the whole book. I can put you in touch with the author, contact me 😉 and we can get this done!

Don’t forget you can follow me on Twitter, Instagram and sign up to my mailing list for not-really-regular but rather ad-hoc missives.

Cheers,