So this illustration was the beginning of thinking how the finals would look. Unfortunately, this is not a final. Upon review, I’ve discovered the connection between the illustration and the “ABC” book is lost. I will now incorporate the tongue twisters into the illustration with inspiration from illuminated manuscripts.
Creating thumbnails now for each illustration.
More sketches completed for letter V.
4/6 sketches completed
This weekend I’m working on creating 6 different sketches for 6 letters.
sketches completed 3/6:
letters finshed: B, F, H
One of my old past time favorite artists is Bev Doolittle. My family has had her paintings l since I was a child, so they have been a part of my life. I was thinking of how I could make my illustrations make the viewer stop and really look at them.
A unique and distinctive aspect of her art is what she refers to as “a camouflage technique” in which certain details of her art can be seen in more than one way; for example, in her paintings below, Doolittle uses the environment to create hidden or interesting new messages.
After researching different mediums children’s book illustrators use, I discovered most prefer using watercolors.
I’m sure you’ve noticed that there is something very approachable and friendly about a watercolor painting.
– Tiffany Varga, Children’s book illustrator
I agree that there is a warm and soft touch to a watercolor painting. I can see how it is widely used for Children’s books. However, since most are watercolors, what about trying something new? I kept researching and discovered few inspirational watercolor paintings that are more than just a painting of an animal:
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Testing with watercolors
Testing with pencil line art/digital coloring/textures
Related links:
Rossi
Tiffany Varga
Marsha Riti
Tiffany’s Watercolor Time Lapse Videos
Kind Koalas Kiss Kooky Kids
Little Lions Lounge Licking Large Lollipops
Merry Mice Monitor Mouthwatering Muffins
Nurtured Nightingales Nap Nicely
Old Owls Observe Overnight
Puffy Pink Parakeets Preen Peacefully
Quiet Quails Quickly Quilted
Round Rabbits Relishing Ripe Raspberries
Stealthy Snakes Slithered Silently
Two Tiny Tigers Try To Target Trout
Upbeat Unicorns Unwind Under Umber Umbrellas
Vultures Viewing a Vacant Valley
White Wolfs Wander Within Weeping Willow
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Young-eyed Yaks Yawning
Zealous Zoo Zebras Zigzagging
I plan to have all tongue twisters finished by 1/31/12. For my tongue twisters I’ve been keeping a journal. For each page I’ve listed verbs/adjectives/animals that all start with each letter of the alphabet. Here is a list of the completed tongue twisters so far:
An Adventurous Armadillo Approached An Angry Alligator
Blue Butterflies Breezed By Beautiful Begonias
Chubby Cats Chasing Clever Canaries
A Dangerous Dragon Defends Dazzling Diamonds
Eight Energetic Emus Explore Earth
Five Fuchsia Flamingos Found Four Fat Frogs
Glorious Geese Glide Gracefully
Happy Hummingbirds Hatch Hyper Hatchlings
Intelligent Iguanas Ignore Ill Insects
Juvenile Jackals Jumped Joyously
I’ll be continuing working on these and post more tomorrow.
Site has changed url and I’m focusing on updating more often than before. More frequent updates will be occurring since I will be not only posting final images, but my sketches as well. My updates usually won’t be this lengthy in text by the way.
I want to keep track of my progress on a huge project and a sketch blog is perfect. My project is to create a 26+ (maybe double the amount) children’s book. It’s going to be an animal ABC book! I want to include a tongue twister for each letter of the alphabet. That tongue twister will then describe what the animals are doing. EX: for page A; An adventurous armadillo avoided an angry aligator. Each page will be like this except for each letter of the alphabet. I want to have full illustrations on each page and maybe illustrated text.
This book will be printed, bound, all that fun stuff. But I also want it to create 3 large posters and a web version of the book as well. It will take a few months but I plan to post all of my work in progress here!
Oh and the image for today that’s posted at the top is a drawing of me for the “about” page of this site. I was going to initially have it in the header but I decided to just keep it simple and clean. 
*gets to work*
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