Posts Tagged ‘Drawing kids’

Illustration Friday: Liquid (and other art on the beach!)

Filed under: Growing Up Artsy,Illustration,Sketchbook | May 23, 2013

Abby on the Beach

Just got back last night from a wonderful beach getaway! We went with friends who also had a precious little girl :) These beach beauties were my muse this week! And perfectly fitting for the latest Illustration Friday prompt: liquid. We played in or beside liquid all week!

beach pic 1

HJ beach drawing

Beach pic 2

beach pic 3

HJ got really good at sand sculpting during our stay.

sand mermaid

And so did I… I present my greatest beach masterpiece: “The Princess and the Mermaid”!

 

Ha! -Shanda

A Sketch from My Book and Notes from My Head

Filed under: Illustration,On My Mind,Sketchbook | January 15, 2013

From my sketchbook.

My baby is my muse. Here’s some practice I did of her profile. Kids are so hard! Their faces are teeny and this ended up looking nothing like my particular kid… Maybe the overall shape might be close, but the face looks too old. Kids are tough to draw. But I really enjoyed charcoal pencils after a long time of not having any. My daughter added the abstract shapes and color around figure- she’s brilliant!

Well this is a good time to update you on what I’m currently working on. I’m proud that I have a manuscript written. It’s still too long and lacking something, so I’ve signed up for a formal manuscript critique at SCBWI Southern Breeze Spring Mingle (February 20-something). This should be interesting. It’s my first time doing this, so I’m just hoping I don’t get too discouraged by the feedback. I’m an artist who is wondering if she has a CHANCE of being able to write too. We’ll just have to see!

For Illustrator’s Day (which is now attached to Spring Mingle), I’ll be working on an illustration with guidance from Mark Braught. It’s sort-of a how you see yourself kind of assignment. Still thinking about this one, but I’ll try to show my progress as I go, like I did last year. Let’s hope it’s awesome enough to put on a postcard to send out to editors and art directors:) I’m really trying to figure out who I am as an illustrator. I feel like this year is going to be a very important year of my figuring some of that out… maybe :)

Well, that’s it for now! Have a great week.
-Shanda

Shanda McCloskey, Children's Illustrator & Author