illustration

February recap

| terriaw

In February I had fun participating in weekly character prompts, including a sharp-dressed man, a garden girl, a girl and her lil pig, and two fellas who love butter, using photo prompts provided by @housecatillustrations.

I illustrated this girl rockin her green jumpsuit with her poodle rockin a matching green bow, using a photo reference from @sarahvandongenillustrations Patreon.

I’m close to filling up a sketchbook, working on finishing a few spreads. I illustrated these sharp-dressed guys in three-piece suits, which I don’t see too often in real life anymore.

And I had fun illustrating this page of portraits of famous people from history.

I have been practicing mixing paints for a variety of skin tones so I prepped a few pages in my sketchbooks to practice drawing more faces and fun portraits.

So many ideas to illustrate, never enough time!

January recap

| terriaw

January characters

In January I had fun participating in weekly character prompts, including a neon girl, a boy with his bread basket, a colorful woman at a cafe, and playing dress-up to read a children’s book, using photo prompts provided by @housecatillustrations.

I illustrated a few more characters using photo references from @sarahvandongenillustrations Patreon.

I’m close to filling up a sketchbook, working on finishing a few spreads I started last fall. I’ve been drawing people so much lately so this spread of animals from water to woods was fun to do, using a variety of media from gouache to watercolor and colored pencils.

So many ideas to illustrate, never enough time!

December Art

| terriaw

Art Challenge from December was #Advent_Challenge2022.

I love making Christmas art and I went more playful with this year’s challenges.

12/1 Christmas Dinner – I illustrated a fox and a bear wearing their Christmas sweaters, sharing hot cocoa under a starry sky with mixed-media – gouache, colored pencils and gold ink.

12/7 Surprise Visit – St. Nick stopped by to make sure you’ve been good this year.

12/13 Grandparents – portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Polar Bear in their Christmas sweaters.

12/19 Elf – a fox and a bear wearing their Christmas sweaters and elf hats, decorating a tree under a wintery sky.

12/25 Snow globe – Peace on Earth from a snowy gingerbread house.

I had a lot of fun with last year’s Advent Challenge so I was excited to participate again this year.

Hope you’re enjoying a festive holiday season! I will be back soon with my year-end recap.

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.

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.

Hello December

| terriaw

Hello December! Lots of nature experiences and inspirations this month for my sketchbook art and storytelling.

A few years ago, I created a daily doodle project where I set up a monthly grid, illustrated a seasonal border, hand-lettered the month and days, and filled in the squares with nature doodles and tiny illustrations.

It’s one of my all-time favorite personal illustration projects I’ve ever done. The best part is I frequently refer to these pages for inspiration. I’m planning to use these little spot illustrations to create larger illustrations and prompts for my character design development, vignettes and storytelling.

There are so many wonderful stories to tell from this month of doodles!