Illustration Friday # 21: SWIM

copyrighted art, not to be reproduced, painted by Cheryl Kirk Noll

Illustration Friday is a weekly creative outlet/participatory art exhibit for illustrators & artists of all skill levels. A new topic is posted each Friday and you have one week to draw, paint or doodle your interpretation.

I haven't done Illustration Friday in a blue moon, (almost a year, actually), but their prompt word for this week was "swim." I have a number of finishes that fit the bill, so I decided to try to get my feet wet again.  

I did this illustration a few years ago for a story about a woman who "swam with sharks." I was just starting to play with the textured style I've been adding to my traditional watercolor, which you can see in the coral.



The second piece is an exercise I did for an Adobe Illustrator class last year at RISD-CE with Bryan Rodriguez (great teacher), where I learned about vector vs. pixel, how to "live trace" my art, how to push and pull with that durn pen tool, manipulate with layers, and on and on. I can see why people like Illustrator for it's precision and flexibility.

Octopus, done in Adobe Illustrator, © Cheryl Kirk Noll