Inspiration

Just a little fun fact... the piece that I am working on (shown in my last post) was inspired by the photo above, which I took on a hike in Colorado. Sometimes I look at my landscape photos and imagine things that are not there (or not possible). And out of it comes a painting! 

New work

I've made some progress on the piece I showed the above sketch for in a previous post. It now has some characters. I have a feeling this will be a lot of fun to paint.

Below is a--scribbley--comp of the Billy Goats gruff illustration that is next in line. The sketch is only a couple of inches wide, really just meant to give me a feel of where I want each element to go. My next step will be to cut a proportional piece of watercolor paper and begin drawing it out in more detail and with more accuracy. 

Taking a Photo Break

I don't consider myself a fantastic photographer. These are just some photos I've taken of lovely places I've visited over the years. Some of them are within walking distance of my house; others are on the other side of the country. These things always inspire me. Enjoy!

It's my last post on this one, really.

I take a lot of pictures when I'm outside, in hopes of being able to use them for reference at some time or another. This is a good example of how I work up to an idea for a piece I suppose, because the forest swamp painting I've been working on the last couple of months began with the photo above.

Then it became this sketch.

And then it became what it is now.  Done with this for now,  on to other things!

In Which There Are Ogres

I decided the other day that the story of Three Billy Goats Gruff would be fun to illustrate. So of course I immediately started drawing ogres. I don't usually draw scary things. But I think I've pulled it off okay. I'm partial to the second guy.

And since I much prefer drawing happy things, here are some other recent sketches.

I don't really draw people like this, but sometimes it's fun to be more stylized that I normally would.

Back to the Forest

I can't decide whether I'm done with this yet. S'pose this is what happens to me when I don't have a deadline. Thoughts?

Painting all of the things

I've had the drawing for this painting sitting on my workspace for months. I needed to step back from my swamp piece for a while so I decided to start on this one. It's pretty far along, but I have a bit of work to do yet.

                                                                          New

This was originally a piece I did my freshman year in college, (see the original version below). I used pastels, but since I don't use them anymore --too messy-- I decided to rework it in acrylics. It was a good concept and I figured I'd make use of it.

Old version

Painting Progress

I've been painting the sketch of the swamp from my previous post. Below are a couple of versions along the way so far. I'm far from being done, but I'm having a great time with it.

And a little further along:

Here is the next scenery piece I'll be doing when the swamp is finished:

I may use the above as my postcard mailer if I am pleased with the outcome. 

Plans, Goals and Works in Progress

A fun personal project I've been working on

My goal is to be working as a full time freelance illustrator by the end of 2013. I have become spontaneously ambitious in the last few months; suddenly at the beginning of this year I felt the push to get serious about this, so here we go! 

Steps I've taken so far:

1. I have a continually growing mailing list of over 100 companies so far that I would like to do freelance work for. It is divided into 4 categories: Books, Magazines, Greeting Cards, and Organizations. 

2. I have a website that I'm happy with, finally.


Things I need to accomplish:

1. My current portfolio has a lot of gaps. As of now it is comprised of mostly zoological and editorial illustrations- I'm happy with the quality of the work, but I am capable of a broader range. My end goal is to be doing children's books, so there are some big holes needing to be filled. I am going to be adding:
                  - character sheets
                  - scenery illustrations (beginnings of one painting below)
                  - more narrative work

   Super excited to paint this!

2. Remake a promo mailer. The one I did in college is not so great. When this is done, I will send them out to magazine publishers to begin with.


3. Design my business materials--contracts, timesheets, invoices, etc. If you are looking for wonderful tips on starting up as an illustrator, I highly recommend Heather Castles' blog, especially her "Tips for Illustrators" page. She is a wealth of knowledge!


There are many more things I need to do and I will be documenting my journey on a monthly basis!

New Blog

I'm starting a fresh blog! To visit my old posts, click here