sketchbook

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.

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!

December Sketchbook Art

| terriaw

I started a new plan this year to create seasonal art by setting up a new sketchbook each month, brainstorming a theme, color palette, surface pattern, greeting card to hand-letter and character sketches and vignettes for little stories. I’m a very in-the-moment kind of person so I’m hoping this will help me establish seasonal art I can promote over the next year, in advance of the season to allow time for publishing and manufacturing.

I painted this pattern in my December sketchbook for a wrapping paper or greeting card design.

I also hand-lettered a greeting card design in two different sizes, a square shape and a rectangular shape.

Next up I’m working on a few woodland animal character sketches for little story vignettes.

One of my favorite things to do is simply draw an animal or scene with a pencil but I also love painting, so I’m excited to see these little illustrations come to live with watercolor!

It’s the most wonderful time of year!