Illustration Friday # 15: FORWARD

Am I moving forward today? Sadly, I am posting an older piece. I worked on a new one, but wasn't ready to put it up today. It was similar to this, with snow, and running children and a dog. I did this many years ago, but still love to play with detail against open areas.

I'd like to give credit to fellow illustrator, Marion Eldridge, for moving FORWARD this week by doing a digital piece for Illustration Friday. I, too, am exploring the digital realm, and am impressed with her progress. Love your "baby steps," Marion. Click here to see Marion's post.

They ran FORWARD through the snow. © Cheryl Kirk Noll

Illustration Friday # 14: TWIRL

I played with character and movement this week. I started with sketches of children twirling, and this went through many incarnations. Still not sure if this is my favorite, but it's 11:30 on Thursday night...  the next Illustration Friday is knocking on my door...

Illustration Friday #6: ROUND

I'm putting up an older piece for this week's Illustration Friday prompt, ROUND. I have so many... round moons, round suns, round the campfire... but I chose a holiday image of children dancing 'round the tree. When I painted this (watercolors and colored pencil), I called it "Dancing with the Stars."
Now that a fun, family Thanksgiving has come and gone, I'm trying to move on to the the next holiday.

Illustration Friday # 4: SCATTERED

The prompt word for Illustration Friday this week was "scattered." Leaves, ants, seeds, my brain... so much to choose from with this word. I chose birds.This is my hedge, re-imagined. I always wanted to have a gate it it.

Scattered, © Cheryl Kirk Noll

I figured out how to put a gate in perspective, and put the grass on a curve. The child and birds are painted, everything else is a photo manipulated in Photoshop. I felt that this one one of my more successful attempts at this style. 

Illustration Friday #3: CONTRAPTION

I thought this word would be perfect for the new art/photo combination, but it turned out to be more challenging, and I'm not entirely happy with it. I started by looking at Rube Goldberg cartoons for inspiration. They're wonderful, but didn't get my mind going. This just feels too stiff, but I'm glad I took a stab at it.

Contraption

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.

Learning

Dress-up girls

I'm playing with my art. Here's my first try. I want to move towards a style geared to younger kids; less realistic, more fun, playful in perspective and sizing. 

The original sketch had a dog, a baby, another kid and a bed, but this is what I ended up with. 

I'm doing the figures in watercolor, and dropping in and manipulating photographs in Photoshop for many of the objects and clothing.

I don't know where it will go, but feedback is welcome.