Submission to ICON6 Illustration Road Show

This is the piece I am submitting for the ICON6 Illustration Road Show slide show. I will also have a table and promotional materials at the show in Pasadena, CA, on July 15.

Daisy Girl was totally reworked from an old sketch and more fully realized. I had fun working on this. I should say, I had fun after I figured out a technique. For many years now, I have greatly admired the work of turn of the century illustrator Jessie Wilcox Smith and also Cicely Mary Barker. I have tried many times to mimick their techniques unsuccessfully. I finally came up with something (totally by accident!) that seems to come the closest to the aspects of their work I like the best: loose lines, some modeling in the shadows, some texture in the shadows.. imperfection yet still accurate drawing, some invention, imagination. I'm not saying this piece is all of *that*, but I do feel the spirit of the painting is in the ball park. Feels nice to research something for a long time and finally arrive in that ball park!

Technique Experiment

Today I have been experimenting with painting technique tests for the finish on the Sephilina pin up for Jamie's book.

I want to use the watercolor techniques I've often used in the past, but also preserve the line work. After several unsatisfying experiments, I decided to use gouache with smoothly modeled soft finish rather than a loose watercolor style.

The first thing I did here was draw out a little sample with tuscan red pencil, fleshing out the shadow pattern (which I took liberties with) and added some lines. Next, I applied Golden Acrylic Fluid Matte Medium in a thin layer.

After that, I painted in the local color of the face and hair, very thinly, in gouache, and then began building up layers in the shadows, preserving the white of the illustration board as much as possible. I did find I needed to glaze a little white gouache over some areas and used it for a soft highlight here and there.

After all of that, I used my all time favorite pencil, a brown Stabilo Aquarelle pencil, to add a few lines on top of the color.

a conte drawings from my Tuesday night drawing workshop.

I am trying to work out simplifying the planes of the head. This still looks a bit complicated and muddy. It's not easy for me for some reason! I also had trouble with this particular shade of conte - it stains the paper which makes it difficult to erase and correct.