Shoreline Collage Illustration

June 23, 2025June 23, 2025 | terriaw

My next ecosystem illustration in my series is a shoreline!

I started out with a large piece of Arches watercolor hot press 12 in. x 16 in. paper and painted a shoreline background.

I added details with colored pencils.

And then I added bits of paper to figure out what size to draw the wildlife.

I painted shore birds and shells on another piece of the same watercolor paper.

Before cutting them out, I took a photo, brought them into Photoshop and cleaned up each bird and seashell into a separate motif so I can make a new pattern with this theme.

Shoreline Bird Illustrations by Terri Wilhelm

Finally, I placed each motif on the shoreline background with a piece of foam tape to give them a 3D effect.

This is becoming a series so stay tuned for the next habitat illustration!

Wood Lands Map

February 27, 2025February 26, 2025 | terriaw

There’s always a big list of ideas to draw, brewing in my head. My husband recently suggested I draw a map. Which I jumped on right away. I love looking at maps!

This illustration project was a lot of fun to play make believe and dream up a new wood lands.

I started out with a version in my sketchbook using colored pencils. I loved it so much I did a second version on Arches paper with watercolor paints so I could have it as a stand-alone print.

This illustrated map is full of deer grazing in a clover meadow, fox and raccoons drinking from a river, bunnies romping among the trees, squirrels hanging out in their tree hollow, turkeys chasing each other, bear surveying the woods where their secret den is. There’s also a crow and hawk flying overhead.

Fallen logs allow for crossing the river and tracks help you make your way on the trail. A couple run-down outbuildings might be a good spot to rest and have a picnic.

January’s great illustration project was all about Stargazing, February was all about this woodlands illustration map. Stay tuned for next month’s great illustration project!

Woodlands Advent Calendar

February 2, 2025February 2, 2025 | terriaw

I had a lot of fun making this Woodlands Advent Calendar in Melanie Chadwick’s class.

Woodland Advent Calendar by Terri Wilhelm

The front piece is a tree with doors cut into it for each day. I painted the background with watercolor and the tree with colored pencils and Neocolor II wax pastels.

The piece behind is a grid of woodland flora and fauna illustrations for each day of Advent.

I also cut out a mat frame to put over the illustrations so I could display this all year long.

I adore Advent calendars so I’m already starting a second one with a frosty blue background for winter animals.

I Love Stickers

Animal Faces Sticker Sheet by Terri Wilhelm

November 29, 2024December 6, 2024 | terriaw

I love stickers of all kinds so I’m having lots of fun creating stickers with a variety of my illustrations, and creating illustrations that I can turn into stickers. I’m also working on getting my artwork printed on coasters and ornaments.

Animal Faces Sketchbook by Terri Wilhelm

I have sketchbooks full of illustrations that would work perfectly for stickers and sticker sheets, coasters, ornaments and more, so stay tuned!

Let me know if you’re interested in any of the stickers featured in this post!

New Work! Zoo Life

May 17, 2024June 7, 2024 | terriaw

I’ve been working on filling up a page of random animal drawings to add more spot illustrations to my portfolio.

I sketched out the page first with graphite, painted the body shapes with a watercolor wash, and then filled in the details with colored pencils.

I photoshopped each one so they are now ready for many possible uses, such as editorial illustrations, maps, web banners, surface patterns, greeting cards and more! I had so much fun with the page that I’m going to keep going with more animals.

A to Z Animal Zine

April 2, 2024April 2, 2024 | terriaw

I love to draw animals! I’m so excited to finish this illustration project, which has become one of my favorite pieces!

This is an A to Z animal zine, inspired by Sarah Dyer’s Patreon drawing session. I tore a piece of paper out of my Moleskin A3 sketchbook (16.5″ x 12″) and folded and cut it into a snake book so it would have 26 panels. Sarah provided a selection of reference photos for each letter. I couldn’t attend her live session so I worked on mine in my spare time over the course of a week. The folds end up with a few hidden panels so I added a little nature scene on those end pieces where the book turns.

I painted the back side of the paper with a blue and green wash and used colored pencils to draw a faux topographic map pattern.

I adore this project because it got me to draw a great variety of animals.

I love making zines, a mini “magazine” from one simple piece of paper, so I’m excited to make more like this.

I often hear the advice to make the kind of artwork you would like to get hired for so I’m going to make more art like these zines!

Character Sketch

March 15, 2024 | terriaw

I loved dreaming up this random character with her friend while doodling in my sketchbook.

Next up I want to do more sketches of them on their adventures through the outdoors together and cook up a fun story.

I also want to dream up more characters to build a library of characters to tap into for a variety of art and storytelling.

Painting Textures and patterns

March 10, 2024March 20, 2024 | terriaw

I’ve been having fun experimenting with textures, patterns and scenes in my sketchbook lately.

Some of my scraps were fun to turn into a sunrise, sunset, clouds floating through the sky or a winter scene.

Water is one of my favorite things so I loved painting water scenes like this bookmark and postcard.

Sometimes I just like to spread around lots of paint and turn the page into something cool with a few marks using white gouache.

I really enjoy this process of making art where there’s no pressure and no destination, just meditatively dipping my brush into water and then paint and swirling into onto the page. It’s also fun to have a few pieces going at the same time so I can keep going while waiting for one to dry.

December recap

December 29, 2023 | terriaw

I’m excited to recap the fun art I made in December!

I participated in Max Romey’s Trailbound Sketches 24 Days of Advent watercolor challenge where you do a small painting a day that adds to a larger puzzle. This was such a fun project which helped me be bolder with my art.