Illustration Friday: Rambunctious

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 The Mighty Hunter (page 4)

Another one from the archives for this week’s Illustration Friday topic, a page from a short story I wrote and illustrated a while back called “The Mighty Hunter” It’s told from a housecat’s point of view and was inspired by my own cat’s antics, particularly his intensity and focus when he’s in “hunt” mode, and his obliviousness to how goofy it may seem to us. Click the image to enlarge!

I’m actually not sure if this is actually the final version of this piece, but the source files are offline at the moment. That overdue archiving project keeps coming back to haunt me!

Holiday shopping alert!

Right now my CafePress store is featuring a wide variety of items with my drawing “The Holiday Courier” just for the holidays. Today is the last day to get express shipping for free in time for holiday delivery! http://www.cafepress.com/Critterwings

I have several pieces on display and available for purchase in my RedBubble Gallery too. Although it’s too late for Christmas delivery from there, keep it mind either for yourself or your next gift-giving occasion: http://www.redbubble.com/people/stephsmith I’ve purchased a few items from this site already and they are all gorgeous! If you’re a member, look me up!

I’ll be adding more pieces to both galleries over the holidays. If there’s anything you’ve seen here that you’d particularly like, let me know!

Illustration Friday: Similar

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Still Life Media Study

So, it feels like a cop-out for this week’s Illustration Friday topic, but with various December Craziness going on I dug back into the archives again.  Click the image to enlarge and see all the detail. This was a small series I did about ten years ago just to experiment with different media. I’d set up a simple still life and rendered it in (clockwise from the top left) watercolor, acrylic paint, India ink (with watercolor) and colored pencil. I tried to make a conscious effort to take advantage of the strengths of each medium – the soft shading of watercolors, and the vibrant colors of acrylic, for example – while keeping the image itself as much the same as possible, and was forcibly reminded of the weaknesses in my techniques. Little exercises like this are always a good reminder to keep exploring and pushing myself. Also a good reminder to date my artwork, which I’m notoriously bad about…

 If I remember correctly, the India ink one was last, and I was losing the light and totally sick of drawing that window which is why I left it out, LOL.

Holiday shopping alert! 

Right now my CafePress store is featuring a wide variety of items with my drawing “The Holiday Courier” just for the holidays: http://www.cafepress.com/Critterwings

I have several pieces on display and available for purchase in my RedBubble Gallery too, although it may be too late for Christmas delivery from there: http://www.redbubble.com/people/stephsmith I’ve purchased a few items from this site already and they are all gorgeous! If you’re a member, look me up!

I’ll be adding more pieces to both galleries soon, if there’s anything you’ve seen here that you’d particularly like, let me know!

Open for Business (sort of)

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The Holiday Courier

Well, I’ve finally dipped my toe into the water and signed up with a couple of different online merchants to sell products with some of the images posted here. At the moment the offerings are rather limited… if anyone has any requests from the images they’ve see on this blog or at my full porfolio, let me know!

Right now my CafePress store is featuring a wide variety of items with “The Holiday Courier” (seen above) just for the holidays: http://www.cafepress.com/Critterwings

My RedBubble Gallery has a few more options, but I’ll be adding more to both stores as I have time to prep the images: http://www.redbubble.com/people/stephsmith I’ve purchased a few items from this site already and they are all gorgeous! If you’re a member of that site, look me up!

If anyone has any suggestions or comments, please leave me a comment. I love hearing from everyone!

Illustration Friday: vacant

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Vacant

 I could make some kind of joke about this week’s Illustration Friday topic, but I  guess I’m just feeling too air-headed to come up with one…

This was a very quick, sketchy drawing, once again with the brush pen, with a few touch up-ups with the fixed-width pen. This particular brush pen is starting to get a bit scratchy and doesn’t come to as fine a point as it used to, but I sort of like the effect, especially around the hair. I haven’t been using the brush very often, so I still struggle with it. A struggle worth making, I think, since every time I try I’m happier with the result. This one captures more of the feeling from the pencil underdrawing than I usually manage with it.

Illustration Friday: Late

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Running Late

OK, I can relate a little too well to this week’s Illustration Friday topic! Still a bit off my game with these from my crazy end-of-summer but I managed a quick doodle at the last minute. In all honesty, although I do push it sometimes and tend to finish projects at the last minute, I almost always finish them on time. Unfortunately for my husband, I can’t say the same about getting home in time for dinner!

Because of the topic, I’ll even post the sketches I started for last week’s Illustration Friday word, “strings.” These are beyond late, I’m afraid, as they never made it past the sketch stage in time to post them.

Strings