Picture Book Wedding with a Splash of Color

Yeah, still my favorite. . .

Welcome Color

All this illustration makes me want to do is dump the computer and grab some sidewalk chalk.

A Picture Book Wedding

This is easily my favorite page so far. Anna is a little girl who wants to grow up to be beautiful like her sister, who everything always works out perfectly for. She tends to feel left out. My favorite line of the book is about this page, "It was a picture-book wedding." How fun is it to create a picture book illustration showing off a picture book wedding? I'm planning on adding a rainbow. What's a picture book wedding without a rainbow?

Welcome Home!

This was fun pulling together. I've been working on it for the last few days. It was all supposed to happen on one page, but there was just too much to show. On the first half, the kid's dad comes home after being away for years. On the second half of the page the kids tell everyone that they'll be going to America and that they're going to live in a big golden house. Later in his life the boy the story is about is offered a choice of two scholarships, either to an art program or to an engineering school. I thought it would be good to start to showcase his artistic nature in his youth. When I color this I want the drawing of the golden house to look like a chalk drawing. The house is modeled after the home they live in now.

Let's Hear it for the ZOO!

Today we rocked the Zoo, Bronx style!!

I fell in love with the monkeys today. This baboon was one of my favorites. The rainforest exhibit was crawling with all types of crazy monkeys. We spotted two babies which was where I focused my attention. I am such a girl. The best part of the zoo today was the new exhibit. The baboons there are amazing. They actually looked like cartoons, which made my job very easy. The king baboon, I dubbed him that because of his demanding personality, decided to bawl out one of his kids in front of me. Luckily his lecture lasted long enough for me to take a stab at it. Something about the whole thing reminded me of my childhood. Haha.
I was surprised when I got home and looked at my sketchbook. It might as well have been a day at the aquarium. Here are some of my favorite fish (and pig nosed turtles) in the rainforest exhibit.
By the end of the day we were so tired. . .

Color Makes it all Better

I'm amazed at how long color is taking. It's still so much fun to see everything once it's been played up. So i guess it's worth the time it's taking.

Spotted!! Yay for Spots!

"Spotted" was the theme for this Friday's Illustration.

This is my first stab ever at Illustration Friday! I had fun doing it.

The best part of the drawing for me is the baby coloring

with the green crayon. He made the whole illustration worth it.

A Little Italian Cookie

I've been working on this one for a few days. She's a little Italian girl. At this age she wanted to run away and join the circus. The the backbend in the drawing was her signature trick. Yes, she's picking up a handkerchief with her teeth! I decided to add some Italian movie posters on the wall. The text for the entire book stresses how much she has always loved movies.

Servant's Quarters can be Fun

We finally settled on digital color for the book. I'm going to try to incorporate a few textures without going overboard. On this page I really love the patterns on the Chinese dresses. This page is about how he grew up in China dreaming of living in a golden house. He had a pet monkey who made eating in the servant's quarters fun. The client was pretty set on dream bubbles, but I hate them. I'm going to try to make the book based in reality. I love imagination books but the text for this one is very biographical. I thought it would be cooler to have the boy and his monkey building a little house out of chopsticks. Luckily they were happy with the result.

Hopping into Blogging

I've recently been handed this great contract. I'm working on a book about the life of a CEO. The book showcases both his life and his wife's life. I started with character designs following photo reference and ended up here. Now I'm just running with it. I am hoping this brand, spanking new blog will give me a kick in the pants. As master of my domain I plan on having some fun kicking around the old pencils.