Sunday, December 1, 2013

PiBoIdMo - ends :)




So 30 day and 30 story book ideas. Did I do it. Did I complete the task. Hell no! :) But I got 17 ideas down which I am quite pleased with, so I will work from there.  What I liked about this challenge was that it forced me to commit to paper thoughts that would usually only go on in my head. So what is next, 12x12 or Picture book dummy challenge. I think the latter as 12 books in 12 months is not doable by me and to create a dummy book in 6 months feels doable. So one step further towards publishing - yeah :D
The picture book dummy challenge starts January 13 2014
http://kidlitart.blogspot.com/2013/11/2014-picture-book-dummy-challenge-faq.html
So now the question to ponder over the next couple of weeks is which idea to do :)

Sunday, November 3, 2013

PiBoIdMo day 3

Yes I have been doing it every day except today. My brain is zonked and I was just playing with "paint" and paper so to speak. So my picture book thought which is not very clear is sort of shown in the sketch.  I wonder what the story could be.... Maybe it will be tomorrows jotting.
:)
Mouse and I will be joining Sunday Sketches today. :) - yeah it is Sunday and we made it :)

Monday, October 28, 2013

A really good course by Will Terry- How to Design a Drawing

As some you may know I illustrate a bit, and many times I look at my work and something is off to me. I would add a bit more colour, more detail which would distract from that off thing, but it is there. Over the last couple of months I have been follow some webcast and blogs with illustrators and I came across a number of illustrators who offer courses, and this guy Will Terry some how gelled with my psyche.  On Thursday I came down with a cold and by Friday I was unable to concentrate to draw. So I was bumping around Will's blog watching some of videos, and on the side bar discovered he offers a number of "pay for" video classes. Now, this guy when he does his "free" videos he gives tons and I mean tons of good information, and the "pay for" video class is not cheap but is not expensive either.  So in the mist of tissues and snot I went and clicked on one of his photoshop painting and started the video. In the first class he says something that really hit home- it went something like this - if when you have done your illustration and something is not right it is most probably because something is off  with the design on the illustration and not the painting. If that is the problem you really need to do my course How to design a drawing. He hit a cord with me and he explained some more, I said what the heck do I have to lose besides some money, if he is telling the truth I will get some help. So a couple dollars poorer and with a new box of tissues I sat down and started to watch How to Design a Drawing.  What can I say other than it was fantastic. It was not a thrill a minute, it was rather grueling  and a lot of info to take in, but it was wonderful in what he taught me and what I learned.  I am mostly self-taught and while I have tons of art books which do cover basics it is very different to have someone sit there and explain things in person in "live time". In this video he talked about drawing rules and drawing elements (lines, space, value, colour, texture). I learnt a hell of a lot. Did it help me? Yes it did. I went back to the drawing board so to speak and started to redo the background on book I am presently illustration (thank God they are just simple silhouetted shape backgrounds) and with Horrible H's critical eye I was able to understand and correct the errors of the page.  So if find you are drawing and something is more times than not feeling off, I would definitely recommend you try Will Terry's How to Design a Drawing http://folioacademy.com/store.html?category=k&u=online-illustration-classes .  Have I finished the class I originally bought - not yet for I might get his one children's book first :)
Hope you have a great day.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

A search party

a quick sketch
Pre-PiBoidMo  day 2 with Marcie Colleen where she gives 5 useful tips http://taralazar.com/2013/10/26/pre-pibo-day-2-marcie-colleen/.  Of the 5 tips, two I know I have to do 1. clean the clutter. It is really bad. I honestly can not find anything on my desk or in my study. It is not even organised clutter at the moment. The second (tip 3) "schedule some search parties". This will be super and I AM going to do this with the kids starting from today ( if it is not raining). We will take our cameras and head out. I will ignore the stress that wants to gather in my shoulders, I will unclench my jaws as I envision the sibling interaction of the kids as we walk through the bucolic country side :)
Selfie time is way over :)

Saturday, October 26, 2013

PiBoIdMo - Registered

Registered, registered, registered! Yeah!  I am rather keyed up about this and think "Yes I can manage this!"
Registration is open till November 7th and the 5th Annual PiBoIdMo month starts on Nov 1 :)
The first inspirational post is up and it is all about taking 10 minutes for yourself to do what you want.  I think I should be able to manage that :)  Here's to my 10 selfie minutes :)
Jehanne
post link - http://taralazar.com/2013/10/25/pre-pibo-day-1-leeza-hernandez/

Monday, October 14, 2013

one of those days

A totally unproductive day in a way. I have a 13 page book in-front of me that I need to do the layout for but I think it will not get done today and for this evening I've got Natural science and maths test preparations I have to do with my kids as the mid term break is coming up which means test - yuck. Geez I am so looking forward to the break where I do not have to make sure the monsters have done their homework,  packed their bags,  brushed their teeth and hair etc .  Hmm I wonder if I should have added more shadow to the little monster's face. I am thinking so.
J.

Monday, September 23, 2013

and just a bit of colour

The monochromatic digitally painted. The sky was effected by that outside :)
Program - artrage4, watercolour and prisma crayons.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

A monochromatic morning



Decided to paint something that did not require to much thought this morning. I got a blue tit reference from the web and then put on some you tube Adele and 7 songs later this little 5x7 digital watercolour was finished (I hope). Unlike other paintings I resisted the urge to use my prisma colour pencils (digital). Ahh well it is a good this was a quickie for my monsters are now beckoning. :)

My Sunday Sketches entry is this little bird. Join our friends at  Sunday Sketches.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Something a little simplier

Working a simpler style this weekend:)
Hope you have a great day.
Using this little dear for my Sunday Sketches entry. Join our friends at  Sunday Sketches

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Creating Lino cut like prints via photoshop

coloured illustration to black and white lino print to coloured/inked lino print.

I saw an interesting job up on a freelance site and it asked for lino cut prints - traditional or computer generated. I had not a clue how to do this, but figured it should be possible. So I went off to google and play and this is the result. Yup I am rather happy with it :) This might be because I do not know the difference LOL
The tutorial can be found here http://www.edb.utexas.edu/minliu/multimedia/PSTip-linocut.pdf

Hope you all have a happy weekend and please join our friends at Sunday Sketches. 

Friday, August 30, 2013

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Sleepy owls on a Sunday

Ahh back to the birds again :) Here are two sleepy white owls - a mama and baba. They are inspired from this little needle felting I did (below).  They are a digital painting using digital watercolour and "prismas" pencils.


Hope you have a great Sunday :)


Sunday, July 28, 2013

Expectation on a Sunday




Below was my inspiration for this painting -  a little needle felted doll I made a couple weeks ago. It is funny how when you start to do something it seems to take a life of it own. The end painting was not what I expected as I am not a vintage chic person, however I covered an old diary (with lots of blank pages) to use as a journal of sorts and alas that also ended up being vintage chic. So I am being to think I am a closet vintage chic person - "gasp!"
Hope you all have a happy Sunday and please join our friends at Sunday Sketches. 

Digital oil and "prismas" pencils.
Art rage (painting)  and Photoshop (text).






Thursday, July 4, 2013

a naked bear

Was practicing felting the last two days and made a little teddy. I like him but ... maybe he is a bit too naked ? :)

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Catosity

I did this a little earlier this week and wanted to play :) So here is my SS entry and  remember to visit the cool friends at Sunday Sketches. 
Hope you have a wonderful week :)

Sunday, June 30, 2013

creating a portfolio

For a while I have been trying to compile a portfolio as I am told it is a must. So after many months ( more than a year) of starting, stopping, hemming and hawing I think I have finally done one. This is little illustration comes from a felting I did and used as my "cover". There is still some fine tuning (and proof reading)  I need to do to the portfolio but I have published it and would love some feedback if you got a moment.  To see it click here

Wishing you all a happy Sunday and Sunday Sketchs
:)

p.s I used Wix.com free template to create the portfolio which is really cool at it is easy to use with all the gizmos I wanted, however to get rid of the ads I need to upgrade.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Saturday, May 18, 2013

inspiration from the window - Symbiosis

Symbiosis sketch
Winter has led straight into a ferocious summer and the insects are making up for the lack of transition by swarming it seems. Two days ago as I stood in the safety of the house behind the glass wall I watched the sheep outside as they twitched their ears trying to deal with the mosquitoes, when I noticed the birds.  The black birds we sitting on the fence and on the sheep! Whether sitting or walking a number of them had a bird on their back. It was actually quite funny and amazing to watch these passengers and the symbiotic relationship in play.
 Even though this is posted on Saturday it is my  Sunday Sketches entry:)Wishing you a Wonderful Sunday ♥♥♥ 

Friday, May 3, 2013

a 10 minute warm up

A little doodling pondering about mothers day. Wonder if it will get pass the doodle stage.  Playing with artrage symetery tool and prismapencil like brushes.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

on my desk top

Morning, I am still suffering from the afterglow of reading my ArtRage 4 manual- sigh*** Below is what my present Wacom screen looks like just before 7am on a wet cold dreary morning.
 This is a WIP  page for a story I am working on.  What I wanted to share was the little custom colour picker which I discovered yesterday (yes by reading the manual). The custom color picker is the 1/4 circle in the lower left corner, with the painted bird in it.  I was quite concerned how I would paint the bird 30+ times throughout the story other than use the reference postcard (upper right with the pin). Then I read about how  I could sample my colours from another image. Yes that is nothing new, photoshop and illustrator etc can do it. So I got my original mock up and took the colour sample "shot" and I was expecting to see little squares which I would have to muddle my way through, but low and behold  when I opened the customer color picker I saw my bird and I just more my cursor on it and I get the color I need- WOW!! I am so thrilled about this! Yes Geeky I know.
I should state for the record this is not a new feature and is available in the lower version, whose manual I did not read.
:)
p.s - if any of you are wondering about the bird in the picture - she is in a cage, but as I am focusing on just painting her at the moment  I have made the cage's line art invisible, hence she floats in mid air :)
p.p.s I am using digital watercolour here.

Friday, April 26, 2013

a 10 minute unwind

unwinding from a non art day with a little symmetry play with my new artrage 4- yup I upgraded it today and am loving it. I think I am loving it too for I finally read a manual and there are some things this program can do that are amazing.  Okay off to wash the dishes- urghhh



Sunday, April 7, 2013

Fortune telling on a Sunday


It is April now and each day on the local news portal there are predictions of when Spring will come. We wait in anticipation of that day as it snows and snows. There is not talk of summer as yet :)   So today my Sunday Sketches entry is a fortune teller.
Digital water colour with a touch of digital colour pencils.
Wishing you a Wonderful Sunday ♥♥♥

Sunday, March 31, 2013

A blue bird on a Easter Sunday

A little digital watercolour blue bird in the hope that spring will soon come for us and my entry for  Sunday Sketches. Hope you all have a great Easter Sunday.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

eye pratice

Wish I had more time to play on this today. Digital watercolour - Artrage3

Friday, March 29, 2013

Playing with Artrage

Playing with some watercolour brushes in Artrage. I have a book to work on where I want to use digital water colour and in the past when I have wanted to use Painter it kept crashing in the middle of painting and my pc is not powerful enough to use the watercolours without serious lag time - like go and make a cup of coffee lag time between each stroke, so I have been opting to use photoshop. But alas as for me photoshop does not create great watercolour work :( . So I dusted off my Artrage, watch some tutorials and began to play. This weekend I will start the first illustration in the book project and will see if my pc will be able to handle the 8.5 x 8.5" 300dpi illos  without too many coffee breaks or head banging.
Artrage can be found here http://www.artrage.com/artrage-studiopro.html
Some tuts can be found here http://www.artrage.com/artrage-tutorials.html
A good additional tutorial ( which I am working my way through) can be found here ( also the textures talked about in the artrage tutorials) http://www.digitalartacademy.com/courses/artrage-pro-watercolor-and-mixed-media/
cheers and have a peaceful Good Friday

Sunday, February 10, 2013

a rabbit on Sunday


Ahh I final got something done on a Sunday - yeah !  So I get play on  Sophia's  Sunday Sketches. Hope you all have a great day.

Friday, January 25, 2013

PB Dummy Challege

I have not for years set a goal but this year I have decided to try and do one complete picture dummy book. So I have applied to join the unoffical PB Dummy Challenge - I am crossing my fingers I am not too late in the game to play.  Either way I will follow the guides and do a book of my own -yeah !  So the first thing to do is to pick a project. Hmm that is hard I am between Peep and turt and my  little ghoul boy. I think I might be leaning towards Peep and turt as they might be easier to deal with..hmmm...
ghoul boy

peep and turt


Till next time :)

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

A birthday sample

copyright Jehanne Silva-Freimane
A reject job sample to show I can draw and paint,  which I decided to finish as I wanted to play more with Painter.   A number of things need moving to make it more balance, but ....  The words are not the original ones that come with story  but are mine and tell the situation (Oh my I see  typOs LOL) .
Used Painter 12 - colour pencil, watercolour and blenders.