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Behind the Scenes: Hogwarts

This piece has been a long time coming!

My thoughts behind that is two-fold: first, I’ve wanted to draw the Hogwarts castle for a really, really long time. And second, this drawing has been on my shelf as a commission for a YEAR.

Now I HATE making anyone wait for anything, especially an entire year. But this one was delayed for a lot of reasons: finding the right reference image and then having it sent to me the day before my phone decided to lose EVERYTHING on it, not being able to find the perfect reference image again, me selling and buying a house, and then still not being able to find the right image again. But, it was found and I had the drawing in hand ready for delivery less than a week later.

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Drawing a Day Challenge 2018: What I Learned, How It Went

Behind the Scenes, Drawing, Uncategorized

Is it really over???

I know I’ve said this a lot, but man, it feels like the challenge just started, yet somehow it feels like it went on forever.

I was so tempted to surprise you all and do one more week of the challenge to do some of the top requested drawings that are left, but my family is home on vacation this week and as our youngest has a birthday this week as well, that had to be my priority. I promise to get to that list soon though!

On to the recap!

What I learned:

The biggest thing I learned was that taking almost a year off from working is not good for me mentally. Every time I saw the boxes for my studio and office still in the sunroom waiting to be unpacked or my future office/studio still in shambles, I’d get more frustrated, anxious and agitated. Every day that I got to do a drawing, I felt all of that melting away. Yes, my boxes are still there and the office is no where near finished, but I had my joy back.

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The Wrong Direction Easter Eggs

Behind the Scenes, Illustrations

This blog post is extremely overdue. However, it’s Easter weekend, so I thought it might be appropriate to finally post now!

The Wrong Direction is the 3rd installment of the children’s book series The Adventures of Boathouse Mouse, and I have the honor and privilege of illustrating them. This book came out in April 2017, almost a year ago!!!!

While I was illustrating this book, I had some fun with it and included Easter Eggs, just like I did with The Cat and the River Thames. If you’re unfamiliar with Easter Eggs, they’re fun little details included in movies, whether it be hidden details or references to other movies (Disney and Pixar are well known for these!). One thing I’m trying to add in each book now is a cameo of the person I’m dedicating it to. I didn’t do it for Book 1, and Book 2 was my parents.

Book 3 was originally going to be dedicated to my daughter. I was going to go in age order for the kiddos, but once I read the book, there was one scene that changed my mind:

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Drawing a Day Challenge 2018: Day 25!!!!

Drawing

HELLOOOOOOO END OF THE CHALLENGE!

I have to be honest, when I finally sat down to work on the drawing this morning, I almost started to cry. Part of it is just exhaustion from all of the work that goes into each day’s drawing, but a lot of it is I’m going to miss it so much! Thankfully I have a great project lined up to keep me busy 😉

But here he is, the final drawing of the challenge and last piece to the Hogwarts House Mascot series:

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Drawing a Day Challenge 2018: Day 24

Drawing

Happy 2nd to last day of the challenge!!!!

I decided to just finish out the Hogwarts House series; half of the series was already done, and I know I had some people very anxious to have the series in print, so it made sense to finish it now. Continue reading “Drawing a Day Challenge 2018: Day 24” →

Drawing a Day Challenge 2018: Day 23

Drawing

Today’s drawing did not go the way I wanted it to by any means…but that’s completely and utterly my fault.

I asked on Facebook if I should finish up the Hogwarts House series that I started yesterday or if I should continue to choose the subjects randomly. That question completely backfired when my results were tied! I decided to choose one subject at random and then throw that suggestion and one of the house mascots into a bowl and draw that way. Well, that ALSO backfired when I drew randomly and it was a house mascot….and it just happened to be the one I’m terrified of:

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Drawing a Day Challenge 2018: Day 22

Uncategorized

This morning my boys asked what today’s drawing was going to be. I said I wasn’t sure, but that I was going to be taking all nineteen suggestions left on my list, writing them out on slips of paper, and choosing a slip for each day remaining in the challenge. They both thought that was a great way to figure it out, and then my youngest said these six words:

“I hope it’s the dolphin today!”

I paused, and then said there wasn’t a dolphin on my list.

He said he had asked for one, and the more he talked about it, the more I remembered him suggesting it. How it never got onto my list, I don’t know.

And then we remembered another drawing. And another…and another….and even another.

I forgot FIVE SUGGESTIONS. My list went up to twenty four suggestions this morning!!! Yikes!!!!

At lunch time, I put all the slips into a bowl and my four year old buddy who was visiting today chose today’s subject from the bowl:

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Drawing a Day Challenge 2018: Day 21

Drawing

Happy last week of the challenge!!!

Crazy days like today make me anxious for it to be over. Between babysitting all day, trying to draw, doing work for my other business (I sell Monat hair products), and everyday life, one less thing on my plate is going to be a welcome thing!

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Drawing a Day Challenge 2018: Day 20

Drawing

Happy Friday, everyone!

I am so glad this week is almost over. My boys have been wrapping up their Odyssey of the Mind presentations this week (the Regional competition is tomorrow!), my daughter is in her last week of the modified swim season, and we are all just plain tired. My day started off with sunshine, coffee with a dear friend who I haven’t seen in forever, and of course, drawing!

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Drawing a Day Challenge 2018: Day 19

Drawing

This drawing took forever today….but it’s not entirely the drawing’s fault. There is so.much.fur. in this drawing which took awhile, but the biggest time sucker?

Getting to watch one of my most favorite movies EVER while drawing!

I know, I should have waited until after the drawing to watch it, but we just got The Greatest Showman on digital download and I just couldn’t wait until Saturday night when we surprise the kids with it. I think I did more movie watching than drawing this morning, and if you haven’t seen that movie, it is a MUST SEE! I can’t say enough about how wonderful it is, and the kids and I are obsessed with the soundtrack.

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