Illustration Friday: Shadows

Even though this piece was not originally for Illustration Friday, it fits in just fine! Really, it has always been intended as a gift for my cousin and her boyfriend to celebrate their new home!

Home Is Where the Heart Is!
brown ink, watercolor and pencil on Arches hot press

I have also just realized I forgot to draw something... there is a mistake! Aha! Let's see if anyone else can point out what I forgot, hee hee! It is far too late to be fixed, so I'm not going to fret over it. That's what I get for doing a rush job! :)

Illustration Friday: Soaked... finished!

Here it is, fully painted and colored all nicey-nice like:

"It was finally my turn to do the Spring Solo, and I soaked in every minute of it!"
(brown ink, watercolor, and colored pencil)

Illustration Friday: Soaked

Yeah, it's been about two weeks since IF posted this topic, but at least I'm trying! Didn't scan the original sketch before I inked it...

"It was finally my turn to do the Spring Solo, and I soaked in every minute of it!"

and here it is alllllmost finished...

brown ink, watercolor, and soon to be colored pencil

I'll post it when it's done, (and scan it on the good scanner!)

ArtLibs: "soaked," "elephant," and "cardinal"

Still in sketch phase, but I plan to fully finish and color it in!

Boo to You!

"Hebert felt positively spooky in his ghost costume."
watercolor, acrylic gauache, watercolor pencil
© 2010 Melanie Linden Chan

In my search for my true-love-of-techniques, I played around with some acrylic gauache. Acrylic gauache is nice because the pigment is more saturated than watercolor, but it can be applied just like watercolor, and once it dries the paint cannot lift off the paper, just like regular acrylics. This was my first try, and as usual I got grumpy from my lack of talent in rendering tiny details with a paintbrush. So I whipped out my long-forgotten watercolor pencils, and behold! I may have found what I've been looking for: a way to paint texturally and keep things nice and tight. When I was about finished, I topped it all off with some caran d'ache textural scribbles for good measure.

FYI, this is also an Illustration Friday topic: spooky. "Hebert felt positively spooky in his ghost costume."