Project In Progress: #Owl Art

Hello!

I've been busy lately getting ready for the holiday season. "ALREADY?!?!" you say. Yes, already!

Firstly, I have been ordering prints of my work, matting and packaging them, so I may sell them in time for Christmas! I have plans to do a special Art Sale and Show at the family restaurant for November, and I'm just working out the details how I'm going to go about it. I will also be uploading images of my prints online at my online print store through Society6.com, here on my own little shop: http://society6.com/mlcillustration

Secondly, I have been busy creating new calendars for 2013, also for sale here at the family business. I don't know if I'll be making it available to order online in my Cafe Press shop (http://www.cafepress.com/mlcillustration) however, I shall let you know if I do! It will be featuring all of the art I still haven't displayed in last year's calendar, so it isn't new stuff... but it's new stuff to many customers who really haven't seen my art yet.

And Thirdly... Originally, I wanted 2013's calendar to have all new owl art... but stuff has been going on at home lately that has kept me out of the studio. I still want to finish the art for next year, though! So here are a few snapshots of what I'm working on right now:

Art Copyright 2012 Melanie Linden Chan

Art Copyright 2012 Melanie Linden Chan

Art Copyright 2012 Melanie Linden Chan

Art Copyright 2012 Melanie Linden Chan

Art Copyright 2012 Melanie Linden Chan

As you might notice, I'm starting to play around with colored inks! It's quite fun, and although I've got a good idea how I want to complete each painting, actually accomplishing what is in my Mind's Eye is going to be pretty difficult. So I've got a challenge ahead of me!

New #owl Sketches!

As the summer is coming to a close, it suddenly hit me that the holidays will soon be upon us, and I thought, "UH OH."

Because it was in my plans to have a calendar full of new art for 2013! I haven't created anything frame-worthy for a while due to working on Little Raindrop's book, so it sort of feels like I haven't accomplished much this year. 

Now I'm scrambling to get twelve new pieces done in time...and hopefully done well! 

In the meantime, I've been ordering mats and prints of my work so I can sell them starting in November. I'll be getting my Society6 store ready for online orders as well. I'm not good with the shipping/post office thing, so I'll leave that up to them. And I should probably clean up my CafePress shop, too...

Here are some of the sketches I've done so far, (the good, the bad, and the ehhhh):

There is a theme to this new calendar... but I won't tell you what it is! It's going to be a surprise! (And I don't mean the obvious!)

ttfn!

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."

Working from Nature

For the last section in the Introduction to Illustration course, we studied Natural Science Illustration and worked on rendering things from nature with our pencils and inks. 

Acorn Squash and Gerbera Daisies Pencil and Micron Pen on Bristol Board

The best part about this was that we all got to visit RISD's Nature Lab, which was wonderful. I'm going to have to find a good excuse to sneak away there for a couple of hours, because they have so many animals and things in their storage, and I only had time to draw ONE owl... and they have three! He still needs some work, but isn't he so fluffy and cute? :)

Great Horned Owl (fairly certain it is, anyway)
2H Pencil on Strathmore Drawing Paper
(Thanks, Jess, for the pencil!)

I will keep both of these images in my online portfolio, probably in the Sketchbook and Fine Art sections.

Even though I've had experience in all three sections, (Children's Book Illustration, Comics, and Natural Science Illustration), taking this Intro course was helpful because it confirmed my suspicions: that I love to draw pretty much anything. I got a few more pieces to put in my portfolio, got a better idea how I want to do Bungee Bunny's book when the time comes, and got really vamped up about drawing more from life.

In all, I got quite a bit out of this course, which goes to show that one learns something new every day. Or re-learns. Hoot to that!