Thursday, February 24, 2011

At the Movies.....by Sheralyn Barnes

I've been sketching with the pencils a lot lately. I think that you can tell a lot about a person’s personality by their pencil lead of choice. Me? I am a 2H. On some days even a 4H. I inch my way up to a 2B max. Anyone who knows their pencil lead scales will deduce from this that I’m also not much of a dancer and prefer to hang out in the kitchen at parties. Anyway...all that said, I like movies. So do sheep. And mice (I think). A nice winter-time activity for all....
Thanks for stopping by!

You can check out more work at:

www.sheralynbarnes.com

or follow me on facebook at
Sheralyn Barnes Illustration

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Messin' around by Fred Koehler

So my good friends at Pixel Shavings have persuaded me it's time for a portfolio website. And I know, I know - a flikr account does the trick and so does the online portfolio provided by the wonderful folks at the SCBWI. But I can't help looking at any creative opportunity as a chance to try something new. So here's an interesting approach to "framing" some storyboard illustrations within another, low-contrast illustration. I'm not sure it's the most effective way of presenting a portfolio, but sometimes we're allowed to be a little bit experimental, right?

Follow me at facebook.com/AlmostGiant till the site goes live. Cheers!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Faraway Friends by Russ Cox


© 2011 Russ Cox | Smiling Otis Studio

This was a very busy week so I really did not have anything prepared for today. I did not want to post something old so I sat down last night with the white of the paper glaring at me, daring me to make a mark on it. Without thinking, I scribbled out this drawing. When I finished the sketch, I was quite happy with the little doodle and may do a gouache painting of it. Maybe it is a subconscious "hello" to my friends faraway.


Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Too Many Fairies by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

I find that doing daily drawings is important for me for a number of reasons including: (1) It helps keep me from tightening up in my work-related illustration, (2) It's fun, and a good way to start off a day.

 "Too Many Fairies"

I work entirely digitally in Corel Painter XI with a Wacom Artpad, with some crossover to Photoshop now and then. For my Daily Doodles (which can range from a few b&w scribbled lines to what some  might consider finished art), I very rarely have a particular subject in mind but just put stylus to tablet and see what happens. This morning's Doodle was inspired by an old New Yorker cartoon by William Steig (one of my illustration heroes!) in which a man is wandering around a room, killing flies.

To see more of my Daily Doodles and other work, please visit DebbieOhi.com.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Rocko and the Tiger from Hazel Mitchell

I was going to find a valentine image ... but here is a little dog with a big heart! Here's a little pen and ink drawing from a story 'Rocko the Hero' about a brave dog and a tiger. I love to work loose sometimes, in pen and ink.

 

Thanks for visiting Pixel Shavings ... you can see more of my work at

Thanks
Hazel

Thursday, February 10, 2011

More Sheep....by Sheralyn Barnes

I have been working on a revision to a picture book I've had brewing in my head for quite some time. I'm feeling like I'm finally on to it and having some "Eureka!" moments lately. A big yay there. Thought I'd include the previous dummy mock up page along with this finished piece to try to communicate what's happened.

 
Five sheep, six sheep, seven, eight......

My bed collapsed from all the weight.


Thanks again for checking in! You can see more of my work at
©2011 Sheralyn Barnes

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Drinking the River Dry by Fred

Okay, so it's back to giants for me. I attended a wonderful SCBWI conference in Miami several weeks ago and received some great feedback from an editor at Roaring Brooke Press, with encouragement to consider some revision to the "Almost Giant" text, and to build a new dummy based on the revisions. Here's a concept illustration from the updated text.

















If you're out there on FB, follow the progress at facebook.com/AlmostGiant. Cheers!

Friday, February 4, 2011

Coloring Book Cover by Russ Cox

©2011 Russ Cox | Smiling Otis Studio

This is a sketch I did a few years ago for a coloring book cover. The theme was springtime and they wanted the characters to be all animals. I later changed it to include a gardener when I did the final art.