Illustration Friday # 18: SHADES (of spring)

Shades of Spring © Cheryl Kirk Noll

I did a new piece this week, loosely using my niece's husband and son as models. The prompt word is shades, so I'm calling it "Shades of Spring." I did it with my "new style," hand-painted figures done in watercolor,  and photographs manipulated in Photoshop.

It's been a glorious week here in New England... maybe even a bit too hot yesterday. Daffodils are up, and the ones in the illustration are from my garden (but not this year.)

Hope everyone is enjoying the early spring. We can cross our fingers and hope we don't get frost next week.

Learning curve

Falling Leaves

I'd been doing loose sketches of kids, and decided to incorporate a few of them into a fall raking scene. Trying for a playful look, I used photos of leaves and oversized them, a photo of a fence, and "spherized" it in Photoshop. I learned to mask and use a few filters. (I'm finally getting used to my new Wacom tablet.) The children and tree are painted in watercolors. I also painted the background, but decided on photos instead.