Spring Postcard - Holli

My piece for our spring mailer is an older one but one I really love!



It's from a past Woogie Wednesday project we did here and you can see all the junk I started with. You can also see that I modified the piece a bit for the mailer.

Spring Postcard-Jannie

My piece for the spring promo! -Jannie

Spring postcard - Anette

We just sent out a spring promo. Here's my illustration for the postcard. I decided to make an illustration in my new, digital style this time.

Illustration style - Holli

1. Painterly/Digital
2. Found Object
3. Clay

I have 3 different styles which is really just one style in 3 different mediums since my characters seem to look the same. I started out my illustration career with digital and clay work and then introduce found objects. Out of the 3 I really love doing my found object pieces because it's totally away from the computer. I like my digital work for quickturn arounds or pieces with a lot of detail. Clay is the most time consuming for me because of kneading the clay, sculpting, baking, cooling and then painting. I'm very thankful for heat guns when it comes to painting :)

Illustration style - Anette

1. Ink and watercolors
2. Acrylic paints
3. Digital (Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter)

I started out working with ink and watercolors, and gradually developed my style. Actually, I didn't know that I had a style before people started to tell me that they recognized my work. Then I moved onto acrylics and I got more comfortable with my style - and it looked even better. When I recently started to work digital I wondered how I would make it still look like my style. I didn't need to think about it for long, it just happened - and I immediately felt that it was the next step in the right direction. Working with these different mediums has challenged me to figure out my strengths and weaknesses, and made me more comfortable with my style no matter what medium I work with.

I think all illustrators struggle with their style from time to time. There's so many great styles out there, and whe you discover an amazing illustrator it's easy to compare your own style to hers. It's great to look at different types of styles to get inspiration, but it's just as important to stay true to your own style, to what comes naturally to you.

Illustrating Children's Picture Books-Jannie

There is a wonderful book that was just recently released called Illustrating Children's Picture Books, written by Steven Withrow and Lesley Breen Withrow. A complete resource and well-rounded guide to creating picture books.
And I'm honored to be part of it! There is an artist profile of me in the book.
I find this book fresh, modern and very extensive. There are alot of tips on visual storytelling, tutorials, and of course, inspiration. Recommended! Get it here on amazon.

Inspiration from February - Anette

Some of the things that inspired me in February:

1. Making patterns of my illustrations. This is so much fun!

2. This interview with the talented author/illustrator Melissa Sweet.

3. Interior design blogs like decor8. I feel so inspired to decorate my house these days. Maybe it's the time of year, getting ready for spring?