Under the Ice

A new paper illustration! I brought in the book "Confetti" by Brittany Lee (http://britsketch.blogspot.com/) to work a week ago and one of my coworkers loved the mermaids in it. I've been wanting to make something for this friend for awhile, and I thought I'd come up with a fun new mermaid for her. I love all things arctic, so this was an easy leap for me to make.

I've been very busy with some rather stressful things the last few months, and as a result my creativity dried up for a bit. Just a few sketches here and there. But this idea got stuck in my head and I really loved it! Within a week, I had it drawn out, cut up and glued down. The actual construction process on this one was my fastest yet--less than a day!

My creative mood is seeping back into my daily life, so I'm looking forward to starting the next project. After I've un-super glued my fingers, that is.

Mariah

A quick sketch of my best friend's daughter dancing with her grandpa.

Snowy Monarchs

This one is an early house warming present for my parents who are currently building their own eco-friendly house (check out the blog here: http://sumacgrove.blogspot.com/). My mom requested a paper illustration of a national park, and since Sequioa is one of my favorites and I have very happy memories with my family there, I chose to do one of these amazing monarchs.

Sequoia Process

This time when starting a new paper illustration of Sequoia National Park, I needed to do a more thorough planning process. After measuring the frame and box, I built my composition in Photoshop to scale, creating the different layers I intended to make.

Once I was happy with the colors and composition, I lowered the fill on each layer to 0% and gave it a 3 pixel stroke, creating an outline. I printed the outlines to scale and used it as the templates for the cut-outs.

After cutting out the elements for the back layer, I placed tracing paper over it to create the dense atmosphere you often see in flurries and snow storms. Unfortunately, the only tracing paper I could find that had the right thickness was too short for my composition. So I cut the paper to correspond with the trees. A little bit of paint for the snow rounded out this layer.

The next layer is the middle ground. A little more detail goes into this one, particularly the bark on the monarch Sequoia to the right. To keep this layer at the correct height, I cut small squares of balsa wood for supports and fit them within the frame.

Another layer of tracing paper went over the middle layer (this time, using olive oil to make the bottom portion more transparent, giving a slight illusion of a gradient). I wasn't able to resolve the issue of merging the two tracing papers together, so I had to create tension on the paper to keep them lined up well. Next went the final layer, another monarch sequoia and the matte board. More snowflakes (painted and paper) were added last.

Shadow Play in process

I started with the characters and their clothing

I started adding different layers to create the depth.

More drapery and plants added to the depth, but it was still missing something to tie it all together. In the final version, I added one more plant and some ropes from the ceiling.

Shadow Play

My second paper sculpture! Based off of Arabian Nights. One big difficulty I had with this one was creating a shadow using paper. The bird on the fabric behind her doesn't quite work in that respect. Perhaps if I brought the bottom portion all the way down the fabric to give it more of a cast shadow look.

Night Owls

My first ever attempt at paper sculpture! I definitely learned a lot of do's and don'ts while working this one out. I'm in the process of another paper sculpture at the moment and should have it posted soon!