The first pencil drawing of a character is by far, my favorite part of an illustration. It’s fast. Full of possibilities, energy and texture. It’s alive! I believe my work is best when I let the sketch do heavy lifting in an image.
Here (above) is my latest color piece where I tried to let the pencil do the most work. And although this image lacks action and sense of setting in my opinion, I still like it and think its one of my best pieces yet. This image will be a color sample in my latest picture book dummy about a gadget-loving girl and a doll. My goal is to get this newly updated dummy submitted to the 2 people who requested it earlier this year before this year ends! (I have a 5 month old baby girl, so I’m moving a little slower these days :)
The pig (above) and pig & boy sketches (very bottom) in this post are sketches I had sent to a small publisher earlier this month when they thought I might be a good match for a story they were publishing. Unfortunately, they weren’t convinced. I guess it just wasn’t in the stars. But it was exciting for a little while! Bummed, but not defeated.
Thanks for stopping by to see what I’ve been drawing!
-Shanda
These are so cute! I love seeing other illustrators processes. Good luck with your dummy book! Doing that with a 5 month old is HARD!!
Comment by Liesel — November 12, 2014 @ 2:48 am