After working with graphic design for a while I got my first illustration assignment about 7,5 years ago. It was this mural that I painted at a local cultural center. The text stays "Play corner." My illustration style has changed quite a bit since then...
Lately, yes, I've been finding my inspiration in the social networking tools Twitter and Facebook. Most of my associations on Twitter are illustrators, authors, designers, etc., so the chit-chat is primarily about what one is working on, what inspires/interests/amuses them, and so on. It's akin to working alone in a studio, but right next to me, a group has gathered, and I can over-hear these conversations. Participate or lurk--whatever--I'm energized (though sometimes over-whelmed!) by the stimuli. Seeing these others in creative-mode makes me want to be creative, too.
My website and blog.
Last weekend, during my trip to London, I got inspired by a wonderful exhibition of Beatrix Potter's work at the Victoria & Albert Museum. I got to see all the original illustrations from the book "The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies." They also had several sketches from the book, including her original book dummy! Isn't that amazing?
We just completed our 9th postcard mailer as a group. Here's a little re-cap of all we've done:
For our Fall postcard mailer, I wanted to focus on the color palette in my illustration. Fall has such distinctive colors, so why not use it? Here is my little secret: I went to colourlovers.com for some inspiration-and found this palette-"Autumn feeling." It is such a great place to go to break out of the same old colors one tend to always use.
-Jannie
I had two similar ideas for this promo - one with a mole and the other with a hedgehog. I painted the mole in acrylic and the hedgehog in watercolour.
I wasn't sure about the mole picture in the end, I think I over painted it and the colours were too strong...
I prefered the softness of the watercolour, so the hedgehog won...
Below is my illustration for our IFK fall postcard. I have also included some earlier color versions and rough sketches and ideas working up to the final piece. I obviously decided to use a bear as the main character early on in the process. I changed the color background to blue to add more contrast when there seemed to be a lot of yellows and oranges on the other IFKer's images.
My blog & website
Here's my image for our fall mailing. My eight-year-old son asked, "hey mom, what's up with the giant pumpkin?" When I said I wasn't really sure. He proceeded to tell me how he thought the pumpkin was going to start rocking, roll down the hill, crush the girl and then smash in the bushes behind her. He punctuated each step with an gleefully evil snigger and various crushing noises. Sigh, I had no idea I had created such a violent image.
This is my illustration for the fall mailer we just sent out. I love the colors of fall!
I'll be at Gibson's Bookstore in Concord, NH this weekend. And now that I see all the great stuff they've got going on there, I'm completely bummed that it isn't closer to my house. Check out all the happenings this month at Gibson's
I'll be there this Saturday at 10:00 am along with children's book author Marty Kelley, the author and illustrator of "The Messiest Desk" and Jean Cochran the author of the book I illustrated, "On a Dark, Dark Night." Marty and Jean will be reading their books and I will be doing a drawing demo and a craft project. So if you are in the area, please stop by with the kids.
