This is my journey in creating concepts, writing, illustrating, finding a literary agent, and becoming a published children's book author and illustrator for the picture book genre.

Monday, March 10, 2014

creating my style and a new illustration

I do have an artistic style. I think it is important to have a brand or style that your art sings to. Mine is whimsical with a kiss of nostalgic vintage. I love to keep the colors vibrant and the characters sweet with innocent humanistic qualities without making them "too humanistic". The characters that resonate most with  my style are my nature friends. Every piece of water color paper offers an opportunity to bring my friends to life. I want to share stories of fantastical places that could actually  be in your backyard.
In order to find inspiration, I take my sweet dog on a walk through the forest areas along the boarding school where we live. It is a fairy kingdom back there with woven branches, moss covered tree stumps, butterflies, and singing birds. Krumpy, the tree sprite, would do so well in these forested areas. I wonder what his message would be? Well, i am sure he would discourage littering and encourage the magic of forest growth and knowledge about earth. There are so many stories here just waiting to be told, drawn, and illustrated. I like to imagine that a fantastical kingdom lays just beyond the woven branches cleverly hiding this magical place. Just beyond there lies a tree of bluebirds and sprites singing the songs of the trees.  Together with the other forest animals and insect life, they find a way to inspire those who refuse to see what we could do together to save the trees. Without the trees, would sprites be here? Would the bluebirds continue to sing?

My latest illustration in the works is below. Within this illustration, I am demonstrating, depth, emotion of curiousity and trepidation, and a story of what is just beyond those woven branches. There is continuity of illustrating the same character in different illustrations, too. The painting takes the longest. I have two kids home sick and I am, too. It may take me a bit linger than I would like, but I want this for a portfolio piece. It will be worth the wait!