IF: Tall

Wow. I haven't posted in, like, forever.

But I have been working . . . My middle grade novel is finally coming together and I expect to start sending it out on submission to agents soon.  I want to do one last read-through, for any glaring problems, first.  I've been letting the manuscript sit a bit while I play around with illustration possibilities.  The above is from a scene and seems to fit this week's Illustration Friday theme ("tall").  The image below is also based on characters in the novel.  I began it as an answer to last week's Illustration Friday theme of "teacher," but didn't finish the inking in time to post it on the site.

Now that I have a pretty good sense of how I want the characters to look, I think I'll work on developing some more dynamic compositions and perhaps a slightly more simplified style that would read better when reduced in scale.

Illustration Friday: Shiny

Illustration Friday: Puzzled

When Adam's dad put the ten pound bunny in Adam's Easter basket, most of the family was puzzled about how they would dispose of that much chocolate.

Grandpa, however, had an idea . . .

For this week's Illustration Friday theme, I dug out these illustrations I did for a short story I wrote a few years ago (that didn't get accepted for publication -- boohoo).

I'm drawing more these days, but nothing I'm ready to post here.  Working more on character design for one of the novels I've written that I plan to submit, accompanied by illustrations, to agents.  As I work on giving each of a myriad of characters a unique spark of life, I'm struggling to develop a more distinctive visual "voice" for my work as a whole.  So lots and lots of sketching and erasing and wadding paper into balls and starting over again with the pencil and the eraser and on and on . . . you get the picture.  Progress is happening . . . just very slowly.  I want to have a couple of presentable character design sheets and at least three polished illustrations (one of which should probably be a cover sample) for the submission package.

Swamp in color

I played around with the new Strathmore mixed media paper some more, adding color to last week's Illustration Friday "Swamp" picture with water color pencils that I then wetted to spread the pigment.  The paper dried flat without being stretched ahead of time, but I'm not sure how well the paper would handle a more complete soaking. The texture is nowhere near as fine as the hot press watercolor papers made by Arches and Fabriano.  The difference isn't all that apparent in the scan, but I really feel the difference when I'm working on it. I definitely prefer the Arches. Still, working on cheap paper often has the effect of loosening up my work.  I may have to play with the stuff a little more, just to see where it takes me. 

Illustration Friday: Return

www.jeanwogaman.com

Big brother comes home from college for the summer a day early. Surprise, everybody!

Once again I am posting my IF late on a Tuesday. We've been celebrating a lot of family birthdays recently, making it hard to focus for extended periods. This coming weekend may be less eventful--if no one insists on a fuss over Easter.  I'd like to use the long weekend to immerse myself in my art.

Illustration Friday: Swamp

After the rain, the garbage dump was a swamp. Still, the clever little ragamuffins found a way to navigate the reeking waters . . .

Illustration Friday posted on a Tuesday. Better late than never.

I drew this on the new Strathmore Mixed Media Paper. It's super thick and supposed to take wet media as well as dry.  I may throw some watercolor on this.  If I like the results, I'll post them here.

Illustration Friday: Shades

Howdy, strangers!  I know, I know, long time no post.  Sorry.  I have been wrapped up in novel revisions for, jeez, almost two months.  I hope to post more frequently while the latest draft marinates.  To help me get back into the swing of blogging I present this little Illustration Friday colored pencil sketch, "Shades."  A rather obvious solution to the prompt, don't you think?

Illustration Friday: Suspense

Jorge was afraid to open his locker . . . ever since he first heard about the thing.

Little did he realize, the thing felt exactly the same way.

My 2012 Sketchbook Project is digitized

. . . and has been posted on the Art House Co-op website. You can view it at the following link if you have an Art House Co-op account:

http://www.arthousecoop.com/library/5908

Illustration Friday: Forward

Too forward!

Illustration Friday: Twirl

I'm busily working on a project I can't post about yet, so for this week's Illustration Friday I'm re-posting a sketch from my 2012 Sketchbook Project book:

To get home, you must first twirl the Ferris wheel until your house is at the bottom.