Book News: I'm illustrating SEA-MONKEY AND BOB by Aaron Reynolds!

Hyped. See my Inkygirl post for details. :-)

My daily sketch is in honor of Banned Books Week

For more info about Banned Books Week, see http://www.bannedbooksweek.org.

Wish I could send this to my younger self

See my blog post on Inkygirl about why it means so much to me to be interviewed in the 2014 Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market (now in bookstores!).

Daily Sketch: "Floating"

My Daily Doodle. 

This was experiment with water textures. I used a bunch of layers and played around with opacity levels as well as layer masks. I wanted to create the impression that just the girl's face and upper torso were above the water, with the rest of her gently floating beneath the surface. I also wanted to create some interesting light reflections as well as a hint of the darker textures down below.

As is usual when doing my Daily Sketches, I didn't really know what I was going to draw when I opened up my blank canvas. I started with some watercolor and semi-transparent textures first, with blues and greens and violets, adjusting transparency. At first I was going to do an underwater scene but then changed my mind. I sketched the girl on a separate layer, then created the color of her skin, hair etc. beneath that layer.

Created entirely in Photoshop with a wide variety of custom brushes.

I've always been fascinated with water textures, and had been hoping to illustrate an underwater picture book someday. Looks like I'm going to get my wish. :-) Stay tuned for more news, hopefully soon....

Daily Sketch: An Armadillo For Sal Towse

Here's an armadillo for my friend Sal Towse. Part of my self-challenge to draw more animals that I don't normally draw; thanks to those who made suggestions! 

Here's a list of animals suggested so far as well as animals I've drawn so far.