The 100 Day Project: Days 61 - 100 (Highlights)

Finishing up 2020 with the last of #The100DayProject2020...

(To see previous posts about the project, please click HERE.)

62/100: High on a hill were three party goats, weird.

Layee odl layee hee hoo!

(This is the colored version of the last image of my last post.)

62/100: You never know where you're going to see a party animal...

66/100: What does a well-mannered duck bring to a potluck?

Cheese and quackers, of course!

67/100: Did someone say garden party?!?

72/100: Close En-COW-nters

73/100: The party was great until...

The balloon drop.

81/100: A squirrel in a king costume.

85/100: A parrot in a cowboy costume.

87/100: Hang in there!

88/100: #100DaysofPartyAnimals Election Edition

89/100: Festive or a moosetake?

91/100: Hanging around...

94/100: Woo-hoo! 2020 AFC East Champions! Go Bills!

95/100: Holy mackerel... It's SANTA CLAWS!!

96-99/100: It all started with a question...

What is the squid emoji doing?!?

Is he... A French Impressionist Painter? A disco dancer?

Or maybe a football player?

100/100: Happy Moose Year! (I know, I know, it's a stretch...)

For my final image in the series, I thought it would be fun

to come full circle by re-interpreting day one’s character

in the looser style I’ve been playing with lately.

Having a moose in his underwear also seemed like an appropriate image

to finish off 2020 since one of the surprising (and recurring) themes of the year

has been a general lack of pants... (It’s definitely been a year like no other.)

Wishing you all the best in 2021 (with or without pants)!

The 100 Day Project: Days 21 - 60 (Highlights)

It's time for a blog update about my #100DayProject2020

(before it's 2021!)...

21/100

By the time Wendell finally arrived, the party was over.

24/100

A purrmaid for Mermay.

25/100

May the 4th be with you.

#StarWarsDay + #Mermay + #100DaysofPartyAnimals 

= An out of this world #FurMayParty!

30/100

A (mer)Bear Hug (in honor of Mother's Day 2020).

36/100

A peek into my process.

41/100

A furmaid merpup.

45/100

Rainbows and unicorns and mermaids, oh my!

46/100

Monkeying around...

49/100

Lion fish? Sea lion? Furmaid?

51/100

An extra special party animal for the start of the second half of #The100DayProject.

52/100

Celebrating my friend, Dee Romito's, release of the first book in her

Fort Builders chapter book series.

54/100

After a full day of celebrating, this birthday bunny is all tuckered out.

60/100

High on a hill were three party goats, weird.

(Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo!)

If you'd like to see more from this project,

please visit me on Instagram.

2018: 125-131/365

In my last post I mentioned that I took part in the Illustrator Challenge at the New England SCBWI Conference.  The theme of the challenge was Fairy Tale Mash-up, so I created "Swinederella": a combination of Cinderella, The Three Little Pigs, and a dash of Little Red Riding Hood.  It was created using pencil, watercolor, and Photoshop.

Since I love seeing how other artists create their art, I thought it would be fun to share images of my process from start to finish...

1. Thumbnail Sketch

2. Character Design

3. Clean Sketch

4. Watercolor Washes

5. Black & White Underpainting

6. Starting to Add Color

7. Final Image (after many, many layers!)

I'm still figuring things out in Photoshop, but I have a feeling that I'm really going to enjoy this way of working!

2018: 106/365

Cinderelephant

I'm back!!!

It's hard to believe that it was a Spring break.  Snow and ice would definitely suggest otherwise... But that's a story for another day.

The illustration that I was working on before my blogging break reminded me of a Cinderelephant painting I did (shown at the top of this post).  And, since today is also "Save the Elephant Day", I would like to share a variety of elephant art that I've created over the years...

(See the start to finish process pics here.)

(Find out about this painting's unusual inspiration and see the process here.)

I hope you found this post as fun as I did...

(I didn't remember how many elephants I've created over the years!)

You might think that I've had my fill, but seeing this actually makes me want to make more elephant art in the future!

2018: 72/365

In honor of my sister Stevie's birthday, I thought I would take a break from the puzzle pieces to share a painting that I did of her a while back

(but never posted).

2018: 2/365

Sometimes you just need to see things with fresh frozen eyes...

Yesterday, my uncle sent me a link to an article in The Washington Post about how spectacular Niagara Falls looks right now.
I have lived a short car ride away from the falls my entire life, and like many things that are in our own backyard, I have come to take the magnificence of this natural wonder for granted.  Reading a national news article about it was just the wake-up call I needed.  So, late yesterday afternoon the boys and I bundled up and headed north...

Now, I think I need to express how intensely I dislike cold weather... So much so, that when I asked Bob if we could go check out the frozen falls he said, "Who are you?!?"  But, there is something about the start of a new year that makes me want to shake things up and get out of my comfort zone.  
And, I'm so glad I did... The view was breathtaking!  
(Literally.  Record low temperatures combined with mist that freezes in the air and turns to mini-ice-daggers-that-stab-at-your-face will actually take your breath away!  Hahaha!)

It turns out that once I got past the extreme cold,
I was left with some pretty remarkable inspiration...
Today I played with textures based on yesterday's view.

Things I experimented with:
- Scratching into the paper before applying a watercolor wash
- Using a glue stick, and white crayon as a resist (to keep white areas) before applying a watercolor wash
- Torn paper as relief
- Using torn paper edges as a "stencil" for pastel application
- Applying paint with plastic wrap
- Layering all of the different techniques