The first painting is a depiction of the Prophet Isaiah fortelling Christ’s birth. (Isaiah 64)

The second is John the Baptist announcing the coming of Christ. (Isaiah 40)

The third shows a pregnant Mary and Joseph making their way through the wilderness in route to Bethlehem. (Isaiah 35)

The fourth shows the announcement of Christ’s birth to the Shephards. (Isaiah 61)

The fifth and final shows an empty nativity scene with the Holy Spirit hovering overhead, and Zion in sight. (Isaiah 52)

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Here is a sampling of some of the pages and spot illustrations from the book:

I look forward to designing more characters, learning more techniques, and exploring new topics in books to come!

My latest project is inviting some exciting new challenges in character design!  A quick project overview: my client, a humanitarian aid group working in the Central African Republic, asked me to illustrate and design a book that teaches children how avoid getting worms.  According to research, worms is a plight that effects 40% of all children in the country, and causes problems such as diarrhea, malnutrition, and stunted growth. This instructional booklet will teach 4th-6th graders how to avoid infection, stay clean, and help educate others.

So my part in all this?  I get to jump right into character design!  There are 5 characters in the story, but for now I’ve started with just two: Fatima, a girl, and Fumo, a boy.  Before I began I spent a lot of time looking at reference photos, noting facial structure, clothing patterns, hairdos, footwear, and expressions.

Brainstorming Sketch

Next I made some scribbles in my journal.  I had no intention of these drawings making it into my final piece, they were just a way for me to get what I’m thinking out of my head onto paper.  When I get my ideas down it helps me move to the next step. This is a vital step because I must believe in my ideas before I move to my final piece.

Next I move on to my favorite part, where I design out the character’s look, feel, and personality.  The most important part at this stage is giving my character an interesting shape, or silhouette, as well as visual balance overall.  Notice how the arms move away from the body, and there is a slight tilt to the head and the shoulders. I’m also mindful of their clothes, the expression and body language. The best part of all, I can make as many ‘mistakes’ as I like because it’s not the final piece!

Fatima

Fumo

Finally I transfered my drawing to the computer, choose my color palette, and begin to do a black and white vector painting over my drawing in Adobe Illustrator. There are all sorts of ways to make colored cartoon with my graphics programs, but I settled on Illustrator as my program of choice.

I began coloring my characters, and chose different cultural patterns for their clothes. Someone also mentioned to me that generally only the wealthiest of Africans from this region have clothes that match, so I had the challenge of giving them loudly patterned clothes that still work in harmony. (or perhaps pleasing dissonance).

Fatima, with color fill before pattern.

This of course is still a work in progress and I’ve yet to hear back from my client on their approval. However I hoped to share with you some of my process.

The good news is, I didn’t give up on Illustration Friday!  I’ve had a busy spell these past few weeks, but I can’t complain about the influx of work—as a freelancer, that’s great news!  However, things have slowed down these past few days as I wait to hear back from clients.  What better time then to pick back up with Illustration Friday and practice some digital painting!

Some illustrators I’ve been following for inspiration are Daniel Swartz and Jeremy Provost, (also friends of mine.) Though their styles differ from each other, their work inspires me and it helps enliven my characters and improve my technique.  I’m finding there are more and more ways to incorporate texture into the digital scene, and I enjoy the way both of these artists do just that, while still keeping their brightly animated feel.

The word for this week is ‘swell.’  I know the direction I took this is sort of “golly-gee-willikers’ quaint, but that was my first honest reaction.  Other interpretations could be along the lines of swelling, such as: “I hit my thumb with a hammer and now it will swell” but I happend to like this sun-shiny approach.

Enjoy!

A more recent logo project I’ve completed was the Celebrating 10 logo for Common Ground Christian Church (where my husband and I worship).  The church had a large gathering in Military Park in downtown Indy yesterday. The fascinating thing about logos is that they are very similar to puzzles.  You are given a number of elements which have to be visually present for approval from your client, yet still maintain readability from a distance and visual simplicity.  Often if your client’s list of requirements are a mile long, your logo ‘puzzle’ becomes harder and harder to solve. Below are some examples of logos I submitted before the church made their final decision.

This logo, thankfully, did not come with a long list of requirements, but it still was a bit challenging to land on a final design.  My final solve reflects the biblical passage in 1 Corinthians 3:6 where the Apostle Paul says, in reference to the growth of the church, “I planted the seed, Apollos [another missionary ] watered it, but God has been making it grow.” This passage helped tie all of the elements the church wanted when promoting this event: the visual aspect of the Trinity, perhaps some trees to reflect the park we’ll be meeting in, and a focus on the ‘C’ and ‘G’ in ‘celebrating.’ (also in Common Ground) and also a slight ‘retro’ feel.  All of these elements were featured, but I believe proper emphasis was placed on the growth of the church into maturity.

Logos are truly amazing in that, with one or two little marks or pictures, so much can be said.  They will remain something I will always need to practice, and forever be in awe of!

A few months ago my friend Heidi Beaver and I agreed to read a children’s book together and then illustrate from it.  She chose a childhood favorite from her grandmother’s shelf: Miss Bianca Goes to the Orient, by Margery Sharp.  (Yes, the very same Miss Bianca from Disney’s The Rescuers, and The Rescuers Down Under) Though not wholly captivated by the plot line, I was entranced by the language and imagery which made it a pleasurable read altogether.  I am heartily for books that assume more of young readers abilities to comprehend, rather than less.  There was more than one occasion where I had to pick up the dictionary. (Anyone use the word ‘coiffure’ recently?  Apparently Miss Bianca does.)

The passage I chose from this book falls right in line with this week’s Illustration Friday word “gesture.”  It embodies the opulence and splendor of the Orient, as the writer imagines it.  Here is a portion of the passage I chose, Miss Bianca is on another rescuing mission, of course, and she comes across a peacock in the grand courtyard of the queen, or Renee, as the book tells us.  The Peacock has a key piece of evidence for the case, but first Miss Bianca is distracted by his beauty:

“Good day,” said Miss Bianca, with a graceful bow.

After a moment’s hesitation, the peacock bowed back…”My salaams,” said the peacock.  His iridescent throat actually brushed the marble pavement. — It was too tempting altogether!  Miss Bianca, who had naturally intended to wait until their acquaintance ripened, couldn’t resist the opportunity.

“Would you mind if I stroked you?” asked Miss Bianca impulsivley.”  ”Twill fulfill one of my dearest dreams.”  she added, “which I had begun to believe but a dreem indeed!”

“Not at all,” said the peacock graciously. (Besides being proud as a peacock he was vain as a peacock.) “A very natural ambition!”

Delicately Miss Bianca laid her hand on the short blue-green-purple plumage. Delicately stroking, she felt almost and electric shock, such as any contact with sheer beauty always produces in the aesthetically sensitive…

“I dare say you’d care to see me unfurl?” he suggested.

“If it’s not too much trouble!” begged Miss Bianca.

“Well, I don’t usually at this hour,” said the peacock, “But to please a lady of such obvious taste and discrimination as yourself, here goes! —You’ll get a better view if you stand back as  bit.”

Upon which, as Miss Bianca took his advice, slowly and majestically he raised the great multicolored fan that was his tail.  To Miss Bianca, at ground level, it look like and Aurora Borealis died in rainbows…”

“Superb!” murmured she. “Quite, quite superb!”

I used my new favorite medium, gouache, for this piece, and a small amount of Photoshop post processing to make the photo look more like the actual painting.  If you are interested in any of my illustrative work, please feel free to contact me!  I’ve also really been wanting to do a mural, so if anyone is interested, please let me know!

Be sure to look for next Friday’s word next week, until then, have a fantastically summery day!

This week’s Illustration Friday word is ‘stay.’  After visiting San Diego last year, my husband and I tossed around the idea of visiting the Northwest region like Oregon, Washington, and Northern California.  Before every vacation, I like to imagine what our stay might be like.  Not only do I think about the places we’ll go, food we’ll eat, and people we’ll spend time with, I also like to imagine the atmosphere, the mood, and the energy. This image, depicting Seattle’s iconic Space Needle, is a place I’ve never been before, and can only guess at what it’s like.  But for this instance, I prefer to guess. I was allowed to enter my imagination and explore!  Hopefully in the near future we’ll visit, but for now, I’m left to enjoy this nice color and complementing urban and natural landscape.

An insight into my process: I generally start with a line drawing (it’s the illustrator in me), then scan it into the computer and digitally rough in the values. My color comps help me to ‘pre-paint’ the image, by planning my palate, mapping the values, and giving me confidence and direction before I finally put paintbrush to canvas.

Black and white render of digital painting.

Be sure to check out my next post where I’ve digitally painted last week’s IF topic, ‘remedy.’  I’ve also posted it to They Draw and Cook.  Enjoy my recipe for the best remedy: cookies!

The ultimate remedy for any ailment.

It’s Friday again!  That means another concept for Illustration Friday!  I’m sad to say, however, I missed my deadline for the Illustration Friday Website… apparently Friday noon is not when everything is due.  From here on out, I’ll get it posted Thursday night. Regardless, I will share my concept for my Thotful followers!  Here is a black and white comp of my concept for this week’s Illustration Friday.  The word was: ‘Remedy’. My concept for the ultimate Remedy: Monster Cookies.  Cookies that are the solution to any problem from a bruise to a broken heart.  You see my monster’s enthusiasm for the heart-stopping goodness of the M & M’s, the peanuty-buttery, oaty, chocolatey, deliciousness before him.  The best way for this delicious remedy to be served up is right out of Grandma’s oven. My Grandma Penrod always made these incredible treats for the grandkids when we’d come to visit.

If you are in need of a Monster Cookie Remedy this weekend, here’s my Grandma’s Penrod’s original recipe for you to enjoy!:

Monster Cookies (Makes a monster quantity of 4 dozen.)

6  eggs                                                            2 cups white sugar (or 1 1/2 cups)
1 pound Brown sugar                                      1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon corn syrup                                  4 teaspoons soda
1cup margarine                                               1 1/2 pound crunchy Peanut butter
9 cups oatmeal                                                1/2 pound chocolate chips
1/2 pound M & M’s

Mix in order given, do not over bake. There is no flour used in this recipe.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 12 min. I usually bake it about 10 min. it makes a softer cookie.

Stay tuned for next week’s topic!