odds & ends from various sketchbooks

Hey everyone,

Hooray! 2 posts in one month! I'm on a roll. Hehe. Yes, I am currently working on continually posting in my blog more frequently. I'm getting there. ;] All in due time. Anyways, today's blog includes various sketches from the many sketchbooks that I seem to keep, but never finish (that's a joke on my starting many sketchbooks and flip flopping all over and in between them). The content really ranges from character sketches I drew over the past summer spent in New York while I was interning for Express to subway sketches to process work from various past and current projects I worked on.

I also included some preliminary thumbnail sketches I did for the last illustration i posted based on the theme "Adventure is Out There"! I had so much fun with that illustration. Doing the research and collecting the reference photos was the best part of that project, not to mention that I actually really liked how that illustration came out. :]

Then there are some 2 final line drawings from an old project from spring. It was a spin-off book cover for Brandon Sanderson's novel "Mistborn", which I HIGHLY recommend reading to anyone who is an enthusiastic reader of sci-fi/fantasy as I am. It's an amazing action packed book that has a little bit of everything: action, mystery, crime, religion, romance, and a very in intricate system of magic.

And last but not least, I included a linoleum block print I made for Brandes' Advanced Media class last spring that I especially liked how it turned out. I want to incorporate the themes of simple backgrounds, and heavily reliant on basic line weight, along with shapely animal designs into future projects of mine, because this is the direction I want to go in. It's a very comfortable and enjoyable style of painting and illustrating that exemplifies what I want all my illustrations to be: simple, fun, colorful, and cute. :]

Hope you enjoyed this post. Til next time.

Love, Erica.

p.s. coming soon! many pages from handmade sketchbooks, character turnarounds, and in progress photos of my newest illustration project that is strictly Hush Hush until next time. Hint: i'm working on a sculpture. ;] I do so love working in sculpey every once in a while. :]

Here and There

& VOILA! I am back from the dead. summer is dead & gone and fall semester is now in the full swing of things. Gotta think about building up portfolios for the many array of companies Iwish to apply to and start planning for my thesis which includes writing a full children's book story/plot all on my own. :D lots of work. sketchbook pgs from the summer and additional pieces that I plainly forgot about are to come in the next post. and because I have portfolio class, I suppose that gives me more of a reason to constantly keep this blog updated. YAY for the viewers!

so for starters, how about this first 1 week illustration i did for patrick fiore's illustration class. we were told to go out during our morning class time one last tuesday and to have an 'experience'. it could be something as simple as getting a haircut, or going to see a museum, or go fishing, etc. I chose to head over to Marina Jack's playground in the middle of their Island Park. I went out to take many pictures of kids on jungle gyms, sliding down slides and running across wobbly bridges. And well, this is what came out of that:

watercolor on 400 lb watercolor paper. no tricks about it. :)

value study : color studies.

enjoy. until next time.

-Erica.