This troublesome little monster was inspired my ferocious and furry fiendish feline friend…my cat Fiero.

For fun, I thought I’d spend a little time and color my drawing in Photoshop. 

This is really easy to do.  Simply scan in your drawing, open it in Photoshop and set your drawing layer to “multiply.”  Then create a new layer beneath your drawing layer and start painting!  If you want paint on top of the pencil lines for a smoother, more realistic look you can create another layer on top of your drawing layer I did this over the eyes since my drawing was pretty scribbly in that area.

This is much more satisfying than a traditional coloring book and gives you a good base if you ever want to take your drawing further by getting rid of the pencil lines and make it look realistic.  I might finish this picture off sometime but for now I hope you enjoyed this little monster from my Photoshop coloring book

I have a great and top secret idea for a witchy illustration which I will hopefully paint some time… In the mean time here are a few witchy sketches you might enjoy. 

Also, my mom decided to make a website to showcase and sell her costumes (thecostumewitch.com coming soon).  It seemed apparent that she would need a witch illustration to act as her website persona.  Here’s the character we came up with, she likes to sew…

Daniel decided to set up an easel for his mommy so he could get some art work done during the day.  He also lets her use his large waffle blocks as make shift studio tables.  What a sweet boy.

Eric’s also really sweet.  He bought me that easel for our anniversary. I love it!  And I love him too.

There a few steps you should generally follow when creating an illustration: 

• 1) form a concept
• 2) Brainstorm with at least 20 thumbnail sketches
• 3) do a grayscale study to determine value patterns
• 4) do a quick color study/create a color pallet
• 5) gather the reference you need (photos, models, objects etc.)
• 6) do a detailed drawing
• 7) proceed to the finished piece!

Following all or even most of these steps makes art faster, easier and better in the end.  I however, have the terrible habit of skipping from step one straight to to the last two steps.  I just can’t wait to get to the delicious details!

True to character, when I thought my portrait of Sala was turning out pretty well I decided to turn it into a finished piece without knowing what sort of picture I wanted it to be. I skipped planning and started playing.

I finished painted Sala’s dress then added a quick shield and stuck in some photo reference of lilies. I didn’t care for the shield so I didn’t bother finishing it but I loved the lilies so I painting some of my own…and then didn’t include them in the final piece because I eventually cropped off the whole bottom of the picture and changed my concept entirely.

Instead I decided to paint Sala with a little pet dragon. I tried several different styles of dragon. Then I thought it’d be nice to have a lantern, and then I thought the picture would look better with a background, and the background needed a landscape in it’s background and finally, after a lot of muddling, I came up with a finished piece.  It probably took five times as long as it would have if I had drawn it out by hand to begin with, but I had a lot of fun creating it and learned a lot about art and Photoshop in the process.

I owe a special thanks to my wonderful husband Eric for offering helpful suggestions whenever I was at a loss.  Here is some advice he gave me for the background.  I especially liked the penguin, but unfortunately it didn’t make it into the final piece.

I’ve been working on this picture of my lovely little sister off and on for about a year and I finally decided to just sit down and finish it up for her birthday.  After several late nights it’s finally done!!! (for now…I’ll probably refine it someday) It’s the first digital portrait I’ve attempted and I learned so much in the process.  Hopefully my next piece won’t take nearly as long.  I’ll do a post about the evolution of this picture later, but for now I just want to post it and say HURRAH!

My husband’s cousin’s wife’s cousin (whew!) Tamara Kelly is a writer. She asked me to do a cover for the first book in a series she is currently writing. 

Her book “ReGeneration” is a Romantic Young Adult Sci-fi novel set in a future where human clones are legal but not entirely accepted by society.  The story centers around a teenage girl named Riley and her reluctant interactions with a clone named Liam Kingsley.

I thought the story sounded fun and since her idea for the cover included an apple (a subject I’ve always loved to include in my art) I accepted the commission and here’s the result!

Eric pointed out to me that I never blogged about the poster I did for my mom’s play last year.  So here it is!  My poster for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”  I had a lot of fun with the details on this one. I carved the names of the lovers in the story onto the trunk crossing them out and adding arrows as the ever changing plot demanded.  Also notice the script on the ground from which Bottom (the donkey) was reading before he was transformed. Tacked to the tree is parchment announcing the play to be preformed at Theseus and Hippolyta’s wedding.  I also hid hearts in the tree trunk and in the roots. Enjoy!

Every summer my mom directs a Shakespeare play with the local community theater.  This year she’s putting on Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors,” a story about twin brothers with twin servants both separated just after birth and the confusion that results when they are in the same city.  Here’s the poster I created for the play.  If any schools, community theaters or other nonprofit organizations happen to stumble across this poster, you’re welcome to use it, I’ll even change the text for you if you send me a nice e-mail!

Dorbran Fa is the leader (Father or “Fa”) of a wandering band of gypsies.  I created this character one night for my sister but quit working on him when a couple of people pointed out that he bore an unintended resemblance to the 16th president of the United States.  A better title for this sketch might be “Abraham Lincoln as a Roving Gypsy…”

gob·lin (gbln) n.

1. a mischievous elfin creature with several teeth and a tendency to bite knees toes and the occasional nose

gob·let (gblt) n.

1. a baby goblin

A few weeks ago I discovered a goblet in my house in the form of little Daniel.  While teething, he decided that biting his parents was a funny game.  He would bite our ankles and toes if we ignored him; and while we played with him he would go after our fingers and noses with a laugh and a playful growl.  Eric and I both thought this was hilariously adorable and began calling Daniel “our little goblet.”  Unfortunately, our new apartment complex doesn’t allow baby goblins so we had to put a stop to the biting, but I drew these pictures to remember him by.

First sketch of a sweet young goblet.  I liked the idea so much I decided to do a portrait of Daniel as a baby goblet.

First drawings of Daniel’s portrait. I thought the drinking goblet made my little goblin look tipsy so I replaced it with a pet mouse.

The mice were fun, but they just didn’t seem like quite the right thing for my goblet.  I drew a different pet for him an Orcan pig-dog named Muhgg but I kept him on a separate piece of paper because I had another idea for Daniel’s portrait.

In the actual picture I wanted Daniel to be playing with a chewed up book.  What better object for an illiterate, book-despising goblin parent to give their child as a chew toy?  And so without further ado, the final product!