Monday, February 23, 2009

Illustration Friday - Instinct


Recently I started sketching at work during my all-too-brief lunch breaks and I've been wanting to post these daily sketches on my blog. I had determined that today would be the day I posted my first daily sketch, but of course I chose too complex a subject and didn't finish, so I had to figure something else out.

Our cat, like all cats, instinctively searches out warm places to take a nap. This evening was laundry time and the bag full of hot laundry fresh from the dryer suited her just fine. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity for today's sketch. (No, sorry, I'm not going to give in and say a "purrfect" opportunity. It's been done.)

She's usually a pretty good model but there were some noises outside that were distracting her and she kept moving her ears or picking her head up, but I managed to get this quick sketch done before she shifted positions completely.

So I'm delighted to be able to present both my Illustration Friday piece and introduce my first daily sketch all in one.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Illustration Friday - Time















Copyright 2009 The Farmer's Wife.

It's Bath-Time!

I won't have a lot of TIME this week to work on a new illustration for IF, but the freelance project I have to work on fits the theme so why not make it do double duty! This is an illustration for a soap label I'm designing for The Farmer's Wife , a company that makes all-natural, handcrafted soaps. Every year they introduce a couple of new soaps and I get the fun of designing and illustrating the new labels! This one is for a new addition to their line of wildlife soaps: Howlin' Wolf Soap. The illustrations are painted in acrylic on medium-grit sandpaper which gives the paintings a wonderful softness and - since you really can't see it on the Web you'll have to trust me on this one - a kind of glow from the sandpaper particles catching the light through the thin layers of paint. The sandpaper is a little rough on my paintbrushes, but I love the results. However, I've had the rubber ducky song from Sesame Street stuck in my head all weekend...