So I'm taking this class...

I signed up for Childrens Book Illustration, a night class offered at the community college, and there is A LOT of homework.  Which is good, because it forces me to draw.  Want to see?  Good, let's go!

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This was the first assignment I handed in.  We had to draw children in three different age ranges; and in three different states (standing, sitting, in motion).  I used reference photos from the internet, and the bottom two are in pencil, various lead hardnesses.  The flying kid was sketched out in pencil, and then I used a manga set of markers to shade him in.  Sorry about the demon eyes.  I got a little carried away with the marker.

Sketchbook - we're supposed to fill three pages in our sketchbook every week.  Doesn't sound like much, does it?  (ha.)

Again these are all from reference photos.  I wish I had the imagination to make up stuff like this on my own, but nope.  This was all done with a red Col-Erase pencil.  It's a pencil crayon but erasable.  Allegedly.  I was sitting on the couch and was too lazy to get up and look for an eraser, so I just scribbled harder to go over the parts I didn't like.

The cow went on some outgoing mail; I found her by doing a google image search for "cow" and she came up as "curious cow".  She was outlined in a Micron pen and then coloured in with Copic markers, kind of a quick-and-dirty job since I'm really not great with markers (YET).  Then I found a website that is all about character development, (visual, not like working hard and never telling a lie) and it's not in English, but there are a ton of great reference photos.  All the hamster drawings are in pencil.  I love this little guy.  From the website it looks like he's in the Disney movie "Bolt," which I haven't seen.  I figured I'd better start working on some kind of stuff that kids would like, since the final project is to illustrate a 16-page kids' book.  I'm sweating a little just thinking about it.  Then again, being challenged like this is sure to make me grow. Or have a nervous breakdown - one of those two things.

This big momma is a work in progress.  I just got started on her last night.  I hope to finish her tonight, because I still have to complete two more sketchbook pages for Monday, PLUS my assignment.  Yikes.  Anyway, this is from a  reference photo from a National Geographic book I snagged at Value Village.  So far I've only used a 4H pencil and a Palomino Blackwing.  I  might add more values with different pencils, but I'm not very good at that yet.  Since I used to just cross my fingers and hope you could tell what it was supposed to be, I think I've made some progress.  HA!  (Oh, and if I haven't, it's an elephant.)

I have a LOT more work on the go for this class.   I'll post pics as I go along. I'm hoping to see some real improvement between now and the end of  March when it's over.  Critiques welcome - you might see something I don't, so let me have it.

Love Shelley!