Fairy Sketch

One of my many goals is to finish up some projects that have been gathering dust around the studio. Most of these older projects are intimidating me for one reason or another (can anyone relate??). Either I'm unsure how to proceed with the medium or I'm not happy with the initial concept. Though I like the look of this one (top drawing), I'm uncertain what I want to convey. Yesterday, I spent some time reworking the fairy in this bottom sketch, trying to make her look less coy and more sad and dejected because she's been caught in a snare. Um....decisions, decisions.

Cat Sketches

I have my first children's book commission. The author is a wonderful 72 year old lifetime educator. She's self-publishing which is an avenue many authors are taking these days. The title is A Grand Cat and it's based on the true story of Fred the cat.

Right now I'm developing the storyboard and book dummy. I'm also playing around with the style and look of the illustrations. The author has given me a free rein in both. Right now, I'm simply studying cats and their expressions and anatomy. Next, I tried drawing them without the photo references and attempted to draw a cat based on memory and characterization. Have much work to do before this feels more fluid and free.

Fanart and Sketches

Finished sketch of Emmett from Twilight (non-movie version). No snickers please.
From sketchbook, scanned and toned in ps. Playing around with different proportions...slightly exaggerating head for fairy possibilities.

sketch work ups

Work ups for some commissions.

Painting on Vellum ala Sergio Martinez

I've been a fan of Sergio's every since I discovered his illustrations for Max Lucado's "You Are Special". His composition and line work are wonderful and strong. He creates his luminous colors by drawing on both sides of vellum. I've been a fan of drawing on vellum for years now so I was very interested in his technique. In one of his blog posts he mentioned that his whole process was explained in an out-of-print edition of Step by Step Graphics. Fortunately, someone on ConceptArt who owned that edition scanned and posted the whole article. UNfortunately, the link is now down. If anyone would like to have a copy, let me know and I can email it to you. This is my experimental sketch & value study. Next I will cover the sketch with a sheet of heavy, 90gm vellum and redraw with a carbon charcoal pencil. Hopefully, I will be ready to post the next step tomorrow.

Edit: So I'm not hogging Mistress Sketchbook blog space, you can follow the rest of this experimental process on my art blog.