October to November

| terriaw

Recap:

In October I had fun participating in weekly character prompts, including a Rainy day walk, A girl and her rooster, Gal pals, and Halloween cat in a hat using photo prompts from @housecatillustrations

For the month of October, I challenged myself to fill a sketchbook page with scary/scared faces with just a dark wash graphite pencil, which was quite fun. I love how this turned out!

I also managed to fill a few more sketchbook pages with my constant practicing of faces and critters.

New Tips and Techniques:

I learned from Greenleaf Blueberry to mix phthalo blue with brown ochre paints to make a variety of robin’s egg-themed colors. It’s always fun to mix colors and I adore these new combinations so I need to find the right character or story to use these.

For fun:

We went on a couple local hiking adventures.

We had a autumn soiree, a backyard party with hot apple cider, stew and pie in a cup around a cozy bonfire.

Plans for November:

#Folktale2022 Week Challenge:

I didn’t read folktales or fairy tales as a kid – my mom thought they were too scary. I won’t be ready or have enough time to participate in this year’s #Folktale2022 challenge to illustrate a story with the word prompts: 11/14 Fool, 11/15 Tree, 11/16 Star, 11/17 Rebel, 11/18. Instead, I’m going to make time to learn more about folktales and figure out how to approach the challenge with a few story ideas I have brewing for my illustration style.

To Do: 

I want to continue to do the weekly character illustrations but I want to improve my compositions and start putting them in a scene.

I also want to finally try live figure drawing.

We will be hosting a small dinner party with family on Thanksgiving and we’re planning to go hiking once or twice. We will also be celebrating my birthday later this month.

Cheers to a productive and creative October and here’s to a happy and grateful November!

Drawing Faces

| terriaw

As part of my efforts of drawing people and illustrating characters, I’ve been practicing drawing faces in a few different ways. I’m not going for portraits or realistic renderings, just fun characters.

I adore how this page turned out! I used a photo reference of faces from Ukraine and gave each person a little frame.

This page started out as watercolor blobs and I added facial features with colored pencils. It feels silly which is fun because some of the faces are based on photos of people in my day-job office. Shhh! I also started a page of color swatches for skin, hair, highlights and accents for reference.

You know my motto, practice, practice, practice! Keep checking back for more progress and experimentation.

Characters with Pets

| terriaw

I’m having fun continuing to practice, practice, practice drawing people and illustrating characters. Lately, I’ve been adding a little buddy to each of my characters, which just adds that little extra sparkle to a character’s personality and the sketchbook page.

I am also really loving working with colored pencils these days. Most of my illustrations over the years have been graphite, ink and watercolor, so it feels like trying this medium is really expanding my illustration skills.

Character Development

| terriaw

I came up with a new illustration project that it would be fun to draw ancestors on my family tree so I’ve been practicing drawing people using the weekly photo prompt provided by @housecatillustration.

I’ve also been practicing using colored pencils which has been a nice break from my usual watercolor illustrations.

When I first noticed the character drawing prompt photos on Instagram, I was intimidated and apprehensive to try. Now I have become obsessed with drawing people and characters!

The Prompt was Celestial

| terriaw

The latest art prompt I worked on was celestial. This prompt really resonated with me because I go outside every night the skies are clear to look at the moon and stars. I’ve been on a mission lately to learn more constellations.

I had a lot of fun dreaming up illustrations with a celestial theme, from the sweet stargazing animals above to the steampunk-framed vignettes below.

I had to experiment with some hand-lettering and a “wreath” of planets, stars and celestial icons floating around the sayings.

Of course, I always adore painting the beautiful planet Earth, dreamy planets and moon phases, which are a fun way to play with watercolors and lots of water to see the cool blooms emerge.

I am working on a new prompt for my next series of illustrations, but I plan to continue with the celestial illustrations since the ideas keep flowing.

2021 Recap

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I went through my photo library from 2021 to find the good moments, and there were a lot considering it was another tough year.

My first illustrated children’s picture book was published! It was a lot of fun work, drawing and painting the scenes, designing the layout, ordering the books, designing stickers and fun marketing materials and promoting it. I’m already halfway through illustrating our second book.

I filled up a lot of sketchbooks and made a lot of art. If I had to pick just a few of my favorite illustrations from this past year, I would choose these top nine:

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Looking back through my sketchbook art, I always wish I made more art!

I am so grateful I got to travel to Naples, Florida before the world shutdown. I also got to spend time at my parents’ lake house on Lake Michigan in Door County and go on a few adventures close to home. If I had to pick some of my favorite adventures from this past year, I would choose these top nine:

The year 2021 was another tough year so I’m happy to have found so many good moments that made me happy. Cheers to 2022!

Christmas Preparations

| terriaw

For our Christmas celebration, I created a lovely set of place cards to help decorate and personalize our tablescape, similar to the set I made for the Thanksgiving holiday.

I created a set of wreath greeting cards a few years ago as an experiment. Illustrating wreaths always seems to be a trendy thing so I wanted to try it.

I love how they turned out so I used them as inspiration to create matching place cards.

I’m on a roll so I’m going to try these for our New Year’s Eve festivities, even though we stay home, make appetizers and watch movies. Check back to see how those turn out.

I think it would be so fun to sell custom name tags like this as a little side gig. Would you order a set for your family gathering?

If you celebrate Christmas, cheers and enjoy your time with family, good food and a little break from work.

December Art Prompts

| terriaw

There were so many wonderful art and illustration prompts circulating in December. I’m excited to share the new illustrations I created in my sketchbook for the #Advent_Challenge2021, many of which were inspired by my own December daily doodle project.

Traipsing through the snow

Christmas Robin

Candlelight

Visiting a Christmas Market

Rooftops

Cabin in the Woods

Christmas Star

I love how these turned out so I’m excited to do something fun with them.

It’s the most wonderful time of year!

Bookstore Reading

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We had a wonderful time at the Rare Vision Books’ Christmas in the Depot Town Event in Genesee Depot on Saturday December 11.

We joined fellow Wisconsin authors and illustrators for a Christmas event at Rare Vision Books for reading from our newest books. Deb was so wonderful at reading from our first picture book!

We also enjoyed the wonderful Christmas vibe while patrons waited to meet Santa.

We have a limited edition set available which includes an adorable Roxy the Fox plushie and our new book.

It’s always a treat to meet other local authors and share tips and experiences. We had a jolly time!