C is for CB Radio

In 2019 I’m hoping to illustrate 3 children’s books. Normally this would be an impossible task, but I have 3 solid ideas already, and sketches started for each story. I’ve been thinking about these 3 stories now for several months, and sometimes that process can take the longest. 

This is a sketch for one of my books that I am working on. I feel like every illustrator at some point illustrates an alphabet book, well, this is mine. I’m very excited to include all of my nieces and nephews, and various other children of family members and friends as the photo references for the book.

Once I have more of a collection together for one book, I will choose a general color pallet. Every page will have a completely different subject, but the color will really help keep them together. I am using an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, and Procreate. I have been using these tools and program for a few months and I’m learning something new every time I draw on it. 

Year in Review 2018

Merry Christmas everyone! For all who wanted my Christmas card this year, here it is! We like to keep things simple with a year in review. And of course, I had to illustrate our awesome pets. Seriously, these two are the greatest non-humans you could ever ask for. We had no idea these two would become best friends! At least I keep saying they are. And yes, I plan on creating a story for the two of them. This card started as a sketch for a story, but then I remembered that it is almost Christmas and should probably have a card to hand out. Anyway, have happy Christmases and Merry New Year's ;) 

The Day the Milk Went Missing

After many, many months of drafts and drawings, we finally completed out book project! Meredith Neill did such a wonderful job writing this story about our niece and nephew. It was such an honor to be there for the first time the kids, my sister and brother-in-law heard the story. Who knew this project would have been so rewarding!? I am definitely going to continue this pattern of drawing for several hours a week. This project has really helped me discover the possibilities of using an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and Procreate for drawing.

Wine Label - Finished

Spent my entire weekend on this. I made a lot of progress and have enough done to send it to the printer for a test print. I created the label with Adobe Illustrator. The idea is for the label to match the wine cap. Very exciting! 

Wine Label - Matching Colors

The label design that I am coming up with is so close to being finished. I still have plenty of hours left before sending it of to get test printed. Once we get the test print and it looks good after any changes.... then I can create the rest of the labels! For now, here is what I’m getting done today. I’m matching the wine shrink caps that go on top of the cork to the different wines. Once those are selected, I match the color of the caps to the Pantone colors that best match so that it will go nicely with the wine label.

My thought behind this is simple. I want customers to be able to quickly identify the wine the had before. The labels are the same design but easily recognized by the different colors. I can’t wait to see them on the bottles!!

Robin’s Painting

Here is a painting I created for Dakota’s cousin as a gift for her mother. There are 4 siblings with their great grandfather. It was a challenge piecing images together to make this family portrait. And yes, I enjoy watching Netflix as I paint :) 

My favorite books

It’s been to many years since I’ve had these books in my hands. I finally unpacked them from storage from my parent’s attic. This is not quite all of them.   Yes they are children’s books, but to me, they are beautiful. I love the illustrations, the little details and how the pictures interact with the type.  As I study these, yes study, I get more and more excited about working toward my goal of illustrating a children’s book with the hopes of one day being published.  

At least half of my books came from books signings I’ve attended throughout school and a few after.  I’ve met the top pop-up books artists, my favorite illustrators like Chris Van Allsburg and even Julie Andrews (I Know!!!). Hearing all of them read their books and answer questions afterwards has always been inspiring.  I’ve never met a children’s book author or illustrator that didn’t love what they had accomplished. And to me, that is important in any dream/goal that you have in mind.  

 

Paint-Your-Pet

I’m hosting a Paint Your Pet event soon so I am working out how I’ll do it. Everyone who signs up will need to send me a photo of their pets. Then, before the event, I’ll need to draw everyone’s pet on a canvas. I can’t teach this one step by step, but I can give advice, like starting with the background so that later, they don’t need to paint around their pet. Here is what I’ve done with my dog, Remmy.

Procreate - Not just a word to Giggle at

When I first heard of the app I won’t lie, I just giggled at the name of it.  That put aside, so far I’m really enjoying this drawing app. I’m also new to drawing on an iPad. Mind. Blown.   I have not created much with it yet. My experience so far has been trying all of the brushes and movements with the Apple Pencil. I’ve gotten lost for hours with this. The smoothness of writing on glass gives a whole new experience with hand lettering.  Although I miss the aroma of markers and ink, practicing on the iPad is very convinient. I can save my materials for hand made items and not waste them on practicing new shapes, letters and doodles.

The things I’m most excited about with this app so far are-

1. The vvariety of brushes and how you can alter your brush so it’s just how you want it to be.

2. That you can organize your projects in the gallery. For example, I have one project labeled “Instagram” and I have been placing everything I’ve made for Instagram in it. 

3. I can easily switch and alter layers.

4. I can zoom in and rotate the canvas!

Although this is probably the most expensive app I’ve ever bought, I think it with be insanely useful and I’m very excited to be able to create with Procreate.

Couple Tattoo

Sometimes I get on a kick of wanted to get a tattoo. I have ideas, all I think I could live with. But that’s usually as far as it goes. I think this is something I would like to play around with some more. My husband is an obsessed fisherman, and I do the whole art thing. So I think this is a super sweet way of getting a tattoo together without putting our names on it. 

Etsy- A slow beginning

I created an Etsy a few years ago and never really did much with it. It's always been on the back of my mind but it seemed like so much work (and it still does). I've participated in a few craft shows now and have prints leftover. And all of the sudden, it's not seeming like so much work. I already have my prints scanned in, and the product made, it is just a matter of posting them. Now that I realized what I needed to do, I am more confident about my Etsy shop. I have sold a few things to mostly friends and family, but from what I have read thats what you need to do. Most of them have rated my shop and it's looking much better.  Now I am at the point again where I need to create more paintings and put up more product options. Someday I hope to get to the point where all of these little things I do to earn money through art will add up to enough to work at home to dedicate more time to it.

Check out my shop here and see how I have organized my prints. I bought some stock photos to edit my prints into so my shop looks more professional. Please follow and share!

Crafty Shows

I've been pretty busy the last few days getting ready for a craft show. I did fairly well even though it was cold and windy. My wonderful husband helped make another display shelf that turned out perfect. I also made greeting cards which I have never tried to sell before. I questioned on doing it because I wasn't sure on how to price them. I charged double what I thought I should but that was still below average price for something like that. Turns out, people who do buy greeting cards are more than happy to pay for them. Once again I am reminded that I should not belittle my work. My prints are good, my painting style is great, and I should charge accordingly. I know this is not an uncommon problem with most artists.

Wine Label Progress

Another post about the adventures of my parents starting a winery in Carlisle,  PA. During this time of year they are focused on the blackberries and grapes and making wine! Something they really need to start producing soon is a label for the wine bottles. Here is what I have created so far. It still needs work and each wine type will have the same basic boarder with the fruits around that made the wine. I'm liking it so far, digital illustration can be so cool!

Ballyhoo Baby Label

My friend Alyssa is starting her own small business helping future or new parents enter the world of parenthood! I created a few different designs. I went with a pun in the owl design, also making it more modern. Alyssa fell in love with the more vintage looking design showing off the two babies.

Family Farm Business Cards

Creating business cards! Anyone need and small design projects let me know!!I always love seeing the logo I created put on so many different things. We also got a shirt embroidered. My parents will have their winery soon. We are all so excited!

6 to 26

I'm sure I have shown off my giraffe drawing from when I was 6 years old multiple times before. It may be one of my favorite pieces I have ever created. I still remember sitting in front of the T.V. watching my favorite show at the time called Pappy Drewit. A wonderful show that had the goal to teach children to draw. (Later at Pratt, I actually got the chance to meet Pappy Drewit! I showed him my little masterpiece and he signed my sketchbook next to a printed copy of my giraffe.) I also remember how proud I was of my drawing, and running outside with my computer paper piece flapping in my hand as I ran to my dad to show it off. For my seventh birthday my mom put it in a little frame and I was so proud.

Anyway, I've been trying to paint more lately and brush up on my watercolor skills. I couldn't decide what I wanted to paint and as I was searching through old photos I came across my lovely giraffe again. Immediately I was inspired to create a similar piece just... 20 years later. Some responses I received on Facebook were encouraging and positive. But one that stood out was a comical post from a close friend stating "Sam, have you been trying to out do yourself since you were 6? Great job!"

Lylah #31!

Here are some photos from my adventure with little miss Lylah who is about 2 1/2 years old. You can see her creative process through some of the photos. You can ask, "How does she have a process?" Well, a habit I have noticed that a lot of young children have, is that no matter how many brushes I may have on the table, they will use every single one of them!

This has taught me to only put out a 10-15 brushes. That still seems like a lot, but I put a different color on each brush and if I don't put many out, I don't get as many exciting colors on the paintings.

 Here you can see the before and after images. I'm so proud of how this little masterpiece has turned out and the grandparents are as well! They have even sent me photos of the beautiful painting newly framed and proudly displayed above the fireplace. It is such blessing to be able to capture paintings of children at such a young age. A wonderful keepsake! Thank you for the experience Lylah!