Monday, February 1, 2016

Deep Blue Birthday

My little buddy turns seven tomorrow.
He's kind of smitten with the ocean lately,
especially the big guys, the scary guys, 
and the whales.
I love discovering new beauties in the creative process.
Coloring is something I'm both awed and fascinated by,
so I decided this would be a great opportunity
to experiment with how I color my sketches.

I sketched in buttery soft oil pencils,

and layered colored pencils on top.
No paint this time.


After that, I scanned my colored sketches on to the computer
and played with laying in textures with Photoshop.

Now I get to take my sketches 
and turn them into the party - 
cupcake toppers, 
fishy "paper dolls,"
sharks on a stick, perhaps.
More to come...


Whale-y wonderful books:



Whale Song - Tony Johnston, illustrated by Ed Young
The Storm Whale - Benji Davies
The Blue Whale - Jenni Desmond
Big Blue Whale - Nicola Davies, illustrated by Nick Maland

4 comments:

m. bloom said...

The way you've layered texture and color in photoshop is lovely. Not easy to get a beautiful, natural looking watercolor effect (speaking from experience!). Paul and I should probably take a class or follow a tutorial on that topic -- we are rubbish at it.

Meanwhile, I've put in requests from my local library to hold the blue whale books you've suggested. I have a habit with my older son... when he uses the word "awesome" to describe something banal, I ask him whether it is "as awesome as a blue whale."

Mazel tov on your son's 7th birthday and all things wonderful in your life. So much for which to be grateful!
xo

Faith E. Hough said...

Beautiful, as always!

Rebecca Gomez said...

They are lovely! What a cool thing to be able to use your art to help celebrate a birthday!

Dawn Simon said...

Seven! Wow! I love your sea creatures, color-free and colorful! :)

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...