Fav Art Supply

I don't know if this is an art supply in the strictest sense but I really like my smudge guard. I use a pen tablet and anyone that uses one of those know that your hand tends to stick to the plastic especially in the summer. I like how my hand glides over the tablet when I wear my funny little glove. It's also great for sketching with pencil and paper, it really helps reduce smudges. My only problem is that I keep misplacing it. I was so tired of looking for it, I finally just bought myself a backup.

My favorite art supplies

Lately I've used a lot of acrylic paints for my illustrations, but I think that watercolors will always be my favorite kind of paints. I love how the colors mix together and how quick this medium is to work with. A watercolor sketch created in a few seconds can look so amazing.

Pets

Sometimes a pet can be your best friend as is the case of the little boy in On a Dark, Dark Night. The manuscript for the story does not mention a dog but I felt that the character in this story needed a little buddy to keep him company.

House Pet

I did this piece as a "somewhat" portrait of a friend's pet. Little Vixon.

Pet

Not every kid wants a dog or a cat - some kids like spiders!

Red

In looking at the work I've done, I haven't really used red as a primary color in my work. It seems like I tend to lean more towards orangey tones of red and I mix in colors with red so I never get a true red either. I wonder what that says about me psychologically :) Who knows? Anyway, here are two pieces where I've used red as a base color for backgrounds.

*and just as a side note, the robot now lives with the founder of klutz books so I always think that's cool.

Red

Red is one of my favorite colors. And the primary color of this illo of a fancy restaurant. I wanted that red velvet, fancy-schmancy feel to the room. So I used photos of the Russian Tea Room as inspiration.

Here's a study I did on a reddish toned background. I did this before diving into the finished work, then I used the eyedropper tool to pick colors out of this study to use in the final art.



This is a fairly large piece with lots of little details. Here is a larger close up section that shows some of the people...

Red

Lately I've been doing a lot of work for the 1-3 age group. I seem to have found a niche I really like. The content is usually pretty simple, and I tend to use a lot of bright primary colours to appeal to toddlers.I didn't notice how primary until I was looking for a "red" sample for this weeks post!


These illustrations go on activity page with four or five per page so I've posted them a bit larger here to show the details.

Red

Red with anger!
I painted this illustration a couple of years ago when I first started using acrylic paint in my work. The black lines in their faces gives it away. In my more recent acrylic paintings I've used different colors for the eyes, noses and mouths to get a softer look.

Paula on "Facial Expressions"

It's not only people that have a diversity of facial expressions. Animals also show personality and a variety of emotions. The above is a sample from a spread I did of some sheep in various activities. The face plays a big part in depicting what they're feeling. When you think about it, it's primarily the eyes/eye brows and mouth that tell us the most about a character's emotional state of mind.

Facial expressions

One thing you often see in a children's illustrator's portfolio is a lot of smiling kids. Too much smiling kids actually. My portfolio was just like that. I try to make a variety of facial expressions when I paint new illustrations, especially if there's several characters in the picture. I'm getting better at this and it's definitely making my portfolio stronger.