The Book That Almost Was

For me, 2012 was an important year, full of excitement and heartache. From winter 2011 to winter 2012, I poured my heart into a wonderful children’s book project that was ultimately canceled. After all that hard work, the book would never be published. I was devastated and completely disheartened. Shortly after that, my nephew was born and I went to live with my brother for over half a year to lend a hand. I threw myself into distraction, hid away everything related to the book, and just tried to move on.

Looking back, there are things I wish I’d done differently, but I learned a great deal from the experience and I’ve finally come to a point where I feel comfortable with sharing a piece of it. I did not write the story, and because of that I can’t share the entirety of the work that I did on the project, but I would like to share with you a few highlights.

Here are some pieces that were not quite (but very nearly) completed—






Just about everything else was in the final stages of sketches and color studies—










Here are a some of the very earliest character sketches from the project—







And some photos of my workspace while painting—






This is only a small fraction of the work, which consisted of numerous thumbnails, notes, changes, sketches, color studies, and mock-ups. I worked with an amazing editor who believed and trusted in my abilities, and I sincerely hope that I will get another chance to work with someone like her again. Despite the fact that the book was never completed, I still feel a great sense of pride and satisfaction now when I look back at everything that I accomplished in that year.

All this is to say that I’m not giving up on children’s books.

I’ve had a taste of it, and I know it’s something that I want to do. Whether it's someone else's story or my own, I am ready to try again. Right now I’m working on a few things of my own, and though writing is difficult, I’m trying. I’m giving it all I have.

Clownfish

Inspired by some of my favorite movies, including Finding Nemo, Ponyo, and The Life Aquatic, and by my childhood and family, which has always been full of love for the ocean.

Detail:











Inspired by some of my favorite movies, including Finding Nemo, Ponyo, and The Life Aquatic, and by my childhood and family, which has always been full of love for the ocean.

Detail:

Dragon Hatchling

Another dragon, a sweet little baby this time. This is round two of my digital experiments with texture and brushes, and I think I am getting the hang of things! There's so much more that I could possibly do with this, but I am happy with it as is and I think it is time to move on to something new.

Thumbelina

Click to see it larger!
Here's something I've been playing with for a while-- a scene from Thumbelina, shortly after her escape from the toads. I wanted to try a different approach from my usual and test out some new Kyle T Webster Photoshop brushes, which are all quite lovely. My favorite brush so far has been Gouache A-Go-Go, no surprise there! This was a lot of fun but it also took much longer than I would have liked. Working digitally has always been challenging for me, there are just so many options and it's easy to get stuck endlessly messing about with minor details. Maybe working like this just takes some practice?

She Sails

This is part of an image I made some time ago for an amazing sailor and adventurer, Stephanie Katz, to be used on her new blog about her travels. I was so happy to be asked to create the header and background for this place where she would document her experiences, and the process was such a fun one that I was sad when it was done. Go on and visit Stephanie on her blog to follow her travels at SheSails.net !

The image is something of a collage, with foreground and background images painted separately in gouache and then assembled together digitally, that way I could have more control over composition and placement even after the painting part was done. 

I ought to have posted this sooner, but immediately after, I got tied up in a long term project that I can't talk about just yet. Let it suffice to say that I am bursting with excitement about it.

Lorenzo and Lynda

(Photo by Elizabeth Stemporzewski, used with permission. Thanks Elizabeth!)

Here is a portrait that I painted for Lynda and Lorenzo, friends of mine that I have known since elementary school. They just got married! I was so happy to be asked to do a portrait for their wedding, which was used for the cover of their guestbook. Congratulations Lorenzo and Lynda! All my love! ♥

Their Hearts and Eyes are Golden

For a while now I've been keeping record of all my Tarot readings and interpretations, written in a notebook that I use specifically for Tarot. I think Tarot reading is pretty fun and useful— I read the cards to clear my mind and to sort my thoughts, much like guided introspection. A journal for secret little internal explorations deserves a special cover, so I painted an alternate version of a favorite Neatbook page, Tree Children.



By the time the first Tarot journal was filled, I'd grown so accustomed to the cover that I didn't want to let it go. I decided to paint the same image on the next two, with varying background colors. I think it's interesting how differently the covers came out, considering they came from the same initial drawing.  It was a fun and frustrating experiment, though not one that I'll be repeating any time soon!



Happy as I am with the copies, the first is still my favorite. Someday I hope to take a screen printing class, and once I've learned and gathered what I need, this will be the first thing on my screen printing to-do list.

I actually painted a different and redrawn version on a larger notebook, but after some consideration, I decided I didn't like the size for a Tarot Journal. I have other plans for that notebook, so I'll save it for another time.

On an unrelated note— Let's pretend that I did not completely miss a full month of blogging.
Technically, today is April 1st, but if I pretend this is March 31st, will you promise not to tell?
Shh... It will be our little secret.

King of Newts

Above, I present to you the good King Edmund-- the great and gentle giant bearded newt, lord of all newts, and protector of rivers and rolling hills. Often on warm days he can be seen emerging from the waters to bask in the sun and watch children play in the shallows. Click the image to view larger.

Doodles of this fellow have been in my sketchbooks for quite some time now, and I am happy to have finally done something about it. This was a fun one, with a few experiments along the way. The tree and the water are things I tried to tackle differently from how I normally might, and I am pretty proud of them. There is nothing so satisfying as the completion of a new painting.

Below, you can see the sketch to final. Start from the bottom left.
As always, click the image to view larger.



It has been too long since my last post, again not for lack of things to be posted. For some reason I always wait, I hold on to things before posting them. That, and I have a terrible tendency to all but forget/ignore the existence of the internet for long stretches of time. A few of many New Year's resolutions: blog more often, don't hold back, have no shame or fear, find balance, get it together.

See you soon, friends. All my love.

Happy Halloween!

Here's a new painting just in time for Halloween!
It's the time of year for scaring, sharing, costumes, and candies!

My plans for this weekend: Watch something fun and spooky, eat things with pumpkin in them, and hand out sweets to all the cute little witches and devils of the neighborhood. I'm so looking forward to all the costumes! Happy Halloween 2010!

The Telephone Series

Looks a bit familiar, doesn't it?

It's the third and final part of the Telephone series!
I'd been meaning to make a third piece from the very beginning, while working on the first and second parts of the series, over 2 years ago. I put the project off to the side for the longest time, but now it's here and finally, the Telephone series is complete:

Secrets, Telephone, Tangle.



It's strange to think that this is really the only sequential series of paintings in my entire portfolio... Perhaps there will be more in the future, who knows.

Looking at the three together, there's a small but noticeable difference in style over the years, though the basics of my sensibilities and style have not much changed. I tried to match the third piece to the original two, but little differences in the faces in particular came up that I didn't noticed until the end. I also had to do a bit of digital color correcting after I scanned it in, as I'm apparently a lot heavier handed with my colors than I used to be. Differences and all though, I am thrilled. I feel a nice sense of accomplishment now that this series is complete.

I love it, I love it, I love it.

Mimes and Rainbows + Owls and Flowers

I wanted to dabble a bit again in digital coloring, and of course this is what I come up with. Mimes Upon a Rainbow.

I love mimes and for some time I've been telling myself "Nancy, if you insist upon drawing mimes, at least have them expressively miming some sort of action." Obviously that has yet to happen. I consider mime to be a highly under-appreciated art form, and I'd like to show my appreciation appropriately, yet I always find myself drawing them as passive and wistful romantics... probably something to do with the lack of color and speech. Perhaps next time will be different, but for now I give you these calm and slightly sultry creatures to look at.

And here is another somewhat-sultry-eyed,  digital, candy-colored confection for you, Owls Among Flowers.



Birds and flowers...two more things that I can't helping drawing over and over! This is actually taken from an old sketchbook page of aimless doodles in black rollerball pen. Seemed like it might be a nice drawing to practice digital coloring on, and here we are. I actually started and nearly finished this one months ago and then forgot about it for some time.

For anyone interested in seeing a simplified version of the process behind things, I've created a new set on flickr called Process: Sketch to Final. I think it will be a fun thing to update from time to time, so please do have a look!

Here's today's Sketch to Final:




Visit the Flickr page for a larger view and description, yes?

That's all for tonight's middle-of-the-night post. Off to bed I go!

Nayana

A portrait of Nayana, painted for Helene (Biscuitbear), a member of the Enchanted Doll Forum.
Thanks Helene, it was a pleasure to paint your lovely girl!

Ex Libris for To Boldly Fold

New things have been a-brewing.

I mentioned in my last post that it was about time for a new sketchbook, and I went with something different this time around! It's a gorgeous, handbound, leather softcover sketchbook made by a good friend of mine, Melissa Chao (To Boldly Fold), who sells her books on Etsy. Let me tell you, it is a dream to draw and paint in. You'll be seeing some new things from that sketchbook in the near future.

So! Melissa recently asked me to create some creature & nature themed illustrations to use as 3x4" bookplates in a limited run of her books, and of course I agreed! Nature, creatures, beautiful sketchbooks, need I say more? I came up with some sketches, Mel chose her favorite 5, and I took those 5 to final.

Have a look!











And for fun, I've put together all the images from sketch to finish! Click the image below to view larger:



From sketch to finish, the whole project took about 2 weeks. It was tremendously fun! Maybe in the future I'll do a few more paintings based on some of the sketches that weren't used.

Anyway, if you'd like to support a talented independent crafter and buy a handmade book from Mel Chao, visit her Etsy shop! And of course, I'll keep you posted on when those bookplates will become available!

Rainbows

This is what happens when I draw while watching preschool television :)

Just Because

I'm making it up as I go.

Paintin'

Alright, alright, we won't waste time talking about why I was missing for so long. Please forgive me -- I am here now, and I come bearing gifts! As promised, they are not from my sketchbook, for a change.

Dancing in the Night:


Watering the Flowers:


Also, I have updated my Flickr with a new Illustration set. Here's a piece from a long time ago (almost a year now) that I never got around to putting up, though I've always meant to. It's a follow up to Secrets. Click on it to go to the Flickr page and go to all sizes, where you can view it much larger indeed.

Telephone:


More later, and soon!

Why, Hello There...

My name is Nancy.
I am an illustrator/animator/crafter, and this is my new blog.

I know we hardly know each other, but if you'll let me, I'd like to introduce you to some very friendly fish:



These little guys are painted in gouache, cut-out, and laid over a watercolor collage background. They're part of an experiment in stop motion animation, still in progress.
Someday I will polish it up and share it with you.

Expect a lot of new developments in the days to come.