Once again, I have been honored to contribute over at The Sketchables while the very sweet and talented Joy Steuerwald is busy snuggling her new baby! Congratulations, Joy!!!
Hello, There! It is time to have a fun book giveaway! If you would like to win a signed copy of Cedric and the Dragon, leave a comment on this post (along with your email address). I'll pull names out of a hat next Friday morning (November 12th) and announce the winner! *YAY*
My Sketchbook Project is coming along... Here are two new spreads. It isn't RAINING Dogs & Cats, it is REIGNING Dogs & Cats! Hahahaaaa
What About Bob? is one of my all-time favorite movies. Ever. It is so classic. I have probably watched it too many times to admit, and even have a picture of myself by Lake Winnipesaukee. To celebrate my very first book, these photos seem only fitting. I like to imagine Dr. Leo Marvin referring to it as "a groundbreaking new book" and Bob "baby-stepping" to it. There are two kinds of people in this world: those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don't...
Also pretty sure I would freeze up in an interview like Dr. Marvin did. Oh, here is a link to purchase your very own "Don't Hassle Me, I'm Local" t-shirt (I still need to order one)! Hope you are having a nice summer, even if you have to be tethered to the mast of the boat to go sailing! Ahoy!
These are the barnyard friends that I happened upon one day while sketching. What is it with me and cats lately? So, I think to myself that it might be fun to finish it.
My five-year-old was happy to color it, too! SO CUTE!!!
So, I inked it and painted it and hated it. Nothing looked right from the get-go. I was going to try something new and paint with brown, orange, and blue. Yuk. Someone else would have done this brilliantly. You can kind of tell that I gave up on it early and didn't care how it was looking and wrote all over it. Back to the drawing board...
Howdy! Thought it might be fun to do a work-in-progress-type-post. The story is something I wrote and I'm working on putting a dummy together and then working up the nerve to submit it sometime this year (a New Year's Resolution). We begin with a thumbnail (2x3, something like that).
This was another sketch from a different thumbnail. There were a few. Very "ruff" :)
After moving things around a little, I made the sketches less-sketchy. Knew there would be a wiener dog, but didn't know the big dog would be a great dane until I started re-working it.
I used transfer paper to transfer my drawing onto my nice watercolor paper (I used to work for the Department of Redundancy Department). I inked it all with my trusty Micron pens and began painting with watercolors the following day. The springer leaping for the frisbee is our old dog, Larry!
Action Photo: The paint is still wet. Oooooh....
The finished painting! This is a photo, I haven't scanned it yet, so hope it reads well (click on it to get a better view)! It ended up taking more time to paint that I thought it would, but I am happy with how it turned out. The blue ribbon was fun to paint (actually blue, turquoise, and violet), the silver tabby is our old cat, Lila, and the photo of the dog with the bone in his mouth was taken directly from a thumbnail sketch. The dog has that classic, goofy, young labrador look and I think it might be my favorite thing in this painting. I have no idea how long this took from beginning to end, but it spanned a few naptimes and a whole lot of iTunes! In other news, I am twittering now. It has been a really fun way to meet other illustrators and authors and see what folks are up to. Hope you had a nice weekend!
