Mission Commission

Last month, I was commissioned to do a painting for the recently reopened LDS Macon Mission. The task was to find a scripture to illustrate. Every Mormon missionary knows Doctrine and Covenant 4 by heart, so I knew if I picked key words, phrases, and images for a montage representing that passage, they would understand the piece.  I used gouache on an opaque acrylic under-painting, with some pencil for this piece.

Elephants on Parade

One of my projects this month included a large gouache painting for a nursery. The patron who commissioned this piece is about to give birth to her fourth son and requested a line of elephants to represent her boys. She also requested that I use a specific technique, which I will happily share with you now. First, I draw the image (outline and some value) in graphite. I use spray fixative to keep the graphite from smudging before doing large washes as under painting, usually in burnt sienna. In this case I did the sky in purple.

At this point the painting looks terrible. My husband suggested I start over, but I thought to myself "It's not dead yet!" and pressed on. Here you can see I added top layer of gray on those brown elephants…

but it isn’t until I lighten the value with the blues and greens that the muddiness goes away. After both layers of paint, I go back with the drawing pencil. The backlighting gives the illusion that the sun is starting to set. Go to sleep sweet baby.

Illustrator's Day 2013

Here I am in Atlanta, with illustrator, Will Terry, who gave an insightful presentation on the future of our field.  Scholastic Books Executive Editor, Diane Hess and Abrams Books Art Director, Chad Beckerman, also gave helpful advice about how to get noticed.

As one of the first twelve to register for Illustrator’s Day, I got a chance to participate in a mentorship assignment. I usually do the assignment multiple times as a way to hasten my growth as an illustrator. This year, mentor, Mark Braught had us to choose from a list of animals, time periods, and places.

I did one painting of Victorian gibbons in Egypt 

and another of 1940's Asian rodents.

One of my first scribbles in deciding which animals to choose, was part of a bunny. Since rabbits don't technically fit into the rodent option, I didn't use it. I later went back to the sketch and spent the two weeks after completing this project doing several dozen bunny paintings. There was no underpainting or physical texture to these new pieces. They were more gestural and generally more energetic. It was such a breakthrough for me! You never know where you'll end up when you get to work and follow your heart. Thanks for the springboard Mark!