On the Drawing Board-WIP

So, what's on my drawing table, other than some freelance work? (Which I should have wrapped up by the end of this weekend.) The W.I.P's (Work in Progress) are as follows, the image above is a second image from the Singing Chef John story. Since I need to show some character continuity, I thought this image made sense to move towards completing. The other Chef John image is here on my website. I've laid in some very base colors, but I still need to go back in and correct all the perspectives and whatnot and make the character a bit shorter. He is too tall to match the other image, in my opinion. And his ears should be a lot bigger!

Below is another sketch. Something with animals and children. The scene is from a story about a little girl named Bernice(on the left) and her magic red boots. When she dances magical things tend to happen. This sketch isn't done. I'm going to finish it in Photoshop and finalize the girl on the right, have her(Bernice) throwing her hat in the air and add another mouse on the left that will be dancing with her. Anything else you folks see needs fixin' let me know!!!

To my left is where I currently am with the redo of the Lion and the Mouse image. The original is in this post. It's taking a lot to try and maintain the watercolor feel of things and figure out how to get the look. But surprisingly, going back to an old piece and reworking it is quite eye opening. There's so many decisions I made in this as far as design and composition that I wouldn't do today. SO many things that I uncover and wonder, "What was I thinking?" So many things make no sense whatsoever. It's comforting to know that I have learned and grown in the past ten plus years. LOL! 

This is my work piece. The image I work on while I'm on my lunch at my daytime job. And it is proving fun. I'm very curious to see how it evolves. I plan on maintaining the watercolor look in the background but going more with my current style in the foreground characters. But we'll see!! I also can't wait to redo the little mousey! Should be fun!!! Let me know what you guys think!!

-Wilson

Next Sketches

Here is a sketch for the next piece I'm working on.



And here it is with me adding a base of color. I'm thinking that I may do the primary figure to the right and the finish line in full color, while leaving the other racers rendered monochromatic. It would put a great deal of emphasis on the kid to the right and set a very specific tone to the piece. I'm still pondering that though. This is also a double page spread and you can see where the middle is by the vertical line I've drawn in the middle.




In the meanwhile I will be working on making some changes to older pieces of mine. I will probably post those too once I'm done. I don't know about anybody else, but I have the hardest time going back to pieces once I have decided in my head they are complete. The problem is you get some wise person who comes along and points something out in your piece that's wrong, so glaringly wrong that it knocks you on your backside! Those are the changes that I'll be working on next. And some of them are doozies!! If I can I'll post the originals and the draw overs that were done by this wise person or people.

PENGUIN FAMILY ICE SKATING REVISED

I have been taking notes from a new critique group that I have joined. The West Coast Critters Critique Group. It's a critique group of Illustrators interested in breaking in to the Children's Book Publishing arena. We help each other improve our artwork and portfolios. Most of us live on the Western Coast of Florida, and that's where the name comes from.There were a number of suggestions and I used those to revisit my image and make some changes.

1. No longer is the little girl's hat going outside of the border. I extended the left side of the image to make room for her. I also added more definition to her face and pose. She is silently giggling at her brother for having fallen down. A more detailed close up of that is below.

2. The fathers' fins are more upward and not pointing at the children. There was a concern that it looked like he should be holding their fins since his were in such close proximity to theirs. That's not the idea I wanted so I changed the position.

Let me know what you guys think of the changes! I look forward to hearing any input!! :)

sketches

The next piece is what I am starting on next. I intend to take this one kinda step by step through the process of creating it. Uploading images of it as I go. For now the piece is titled, Penguin Family Ice Skating. I know, such an imaginative title. If anyone has other suggestions let me know!

Thanks again!!

4-7 Youth Sport Graphics

Here are a bunch of new images that I have done for a freelance client. They will be used for t-shirts. I've been asked to do two images from various sports aimed at a 4-7 age range. The style is consistant with how I render my children's work, but it is a bit more vibrant and bright. My normal color palette is more sedated. Hopefully I can find a place within my children's book portfolio for some of these. Maybe as spot examples, I'm not sure. But we'll see!!