Pen & Palette / IF Trouble

I was offered to illustrate the cover of the Pen & Palette, which is the newsletter for the Carolina’s Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators. How very exciting!

Also, I think this makes a pretty good entry for this week’s Illustration Friday word, Trouble.




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I decided on a fox dragging a kite in its mouth. The fox cause I thought autumn colors would be nice for a Fall issue, the kite because it’s like a logo thing for the SCBWI. Sort of like a donkey represents the Democrats or the elephant represents the Republicans.



I had a few other ideas like a sleeping beer with a kite in its paws. I also thought about doing a moose with the kite tangled in its antlers but… I like the fox.



This is the second stag; the sloppy painting part. This is a hard part to get past cause the work always looks trashed at this point. I think, "Oh no! What have I done to my sketch??"



Here I have gone over the pencil drawing with black paint. With this step and the step before, I try to be loose. But I still feel I'm not loose enough. Like maybe I'm not brave enough to let the original sketch go.