Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Cards: Hearts

Halloo all!

Last week, most of my masterpieces happened in the kitchen rather than on the drawing table. I did, however, have some time to get the third suit done for N's deck of cards. Hearts!

As with the diamond number cards, I already had a series of easy templates, so I quickly subbed the hearts for diamonds.




Again, I moved onto the Ace next, using both the Spade and Diamond motifs...

Next I tackled my Jack, who I imagined as rather proud, like Sparrow Jack, though a bit more mischievous.



I imagined the Queen to be a rather self-satisfied royal lady, and I modeled her with a series of decorative elements, like the Foxy Queen.



And finally the King, who like his Lady Hare would also be rather self-satisfied.


And last but not least, packaging and printing cards -


Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Thought Bubbles

Hey there blog readers,

As part of my recent letter-project to N, this week I sent a normal sort of letter, but on thoughtful sorts of paper.

I had a silly idea, playing on the idea of "thought bubbles".

I packaged all of my Thought Bubbles in a little square envelope:
I wrote the letter itself on the backs of seven different bubbles... and I added a bunch of fishes for good measure.

Here are a few of the individual bubbles -





Thursday, November 24, 2011

Sketchbook Thursday

Halloo dear blog-readers!

I've been working on a project recently that has necessitated sketching all kinds of fowl. Chickens and turkeys and geese oh my! Considering the season, it seems rather timely, so I'll share a bunch of my sketches. Stay posted for the finished illustration in the next few weeks.

Fowl prep work -

Turkeys!



Chickens, chicks, hens, and roosters







Gooses



Ducks




A wee thumbnail -


And the final sketch -


Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Culinary masterpieces

Today was a rather busy work day. However, most of what I created was made in the kitchen. - chickpea and artichoke salad, heaps of pumpkin muffins, and salted caramel apple pie.

My kitchen smells incredible right now.






Thursday, November 17, 2011

Sketchbook Thursday

Hey there all!

Another Thursday, another sketchbook drop. Here's a bunch of this week's pickins.

A Coco-ish gal and a couple more chickens...


Henny (an old lady character from a new story) and oh yeah, another chicken...


Goofing around with text and such...


Emilou and Papa Fox - a couple of characters I've been playing with...


Penguins!



Monday, November 14, 2011

Cards: Diamonds

Halloo all!

I've been hard at work on the other suits for my deck of cards. First, I spent a while just brainstorming for the additional three suits. I hadn't really thought about the others when I settled on sparrows for the spade cards. So I did some doodling and a handful of sketches and finally decided that I didn't want to draw birds for every suit. Instead I settled on two sets of birds and two sets of mammals. I've been doodling foxes in my sketchbook for a while now, so I thought, why not a foxy royal family?

This time around, I did all of the number cards first. I already had quick templates, so it was easy to sub in diamonds and flip around the colors.

Once I was done with the number cards, I moved on to the Ace, using the design for the Ace of Spades as a jumping off point.


Followed quickly by my Jack, who I imagined to be a wily, mischievous sort of character.


The Queen was a wistful, almost sad, lady fox.


And finally, the King, a concerned and regal sort of royal.


This time I also took a handful of photos of the actual printed cards -


I packaged them in a handy little case.




And finally, the full suit.