SCBWI Orlando

I had a chance to attend the Orlando SCBWI conference, it was great. The homework we had was to illustrate a Mother Goose rhyme, I found Elsie Marley, it was about a lazy self focused farm girl that is not feeding her swine...

This is the sketch I submitted to the art director. Her comment was to  concentrate on the fancy comment in the poem and make Elsie preening herself, I loved the suggestion and this is what I submitted:

At the conference someone suggested the room was too big and it looked like a mirror, so I fixed that and this is the finish,

I made the pigs lighter and fixed the room, by making it line up with the corner of the house and adding a window, I am happy with it. It really added to the poem.

This months Facebook header is all about bunnies. I was thinking of the holidays in March, St. Patricks is less fun than bunnies so I decided on this one. The girl and boy decided to pick some veggies from the garden and share with the bunnies.

facebook headers

I decided I would give myself a challenge and create a new header for both my website, SusanMillerIllustrator.com and my Facebook page. This is my first one, I created this on the iPad Pro with my pencil. I never had a cintiq and I am thinking working like this is the closest I have gotten to it. I love being able to make changes, change out backgrounds etc. So, happy February.

JingleBulbs

It always amazes me how fast the holiday season arrives. I decided to do a JingleBulb of the week segment to my blog. This teachers ornament was inspired by all the great teachers I have had in my life. I found a great glitter technique that enabled me to get the glitter inside the ornament, its very pretty and sparkly.  My 2017 collection can be seen at JingleBulbs.com

Christmas in August

I have been having a good time making JingleBulbs and at the same time learning more about illustrating children's books by watching SVSLearn on my iPad. For the last couple of years I was making the ornaments in September, but this year I started early and it has been really fun. I plan to have them online in mid September.

The witches forest

I have been illustrating a lot on my iPad, and watching online classes from SVS Learn. This is the sketch I did with the pencil on the iPad. I enjoy working this way because its so mobile, I worked on it on the couch in the studio and even when I volunteered at our museum. The prompt was to illustrate telling a story and including a tree house.

More fun with my iPad

The prompt is Teeth, it is an illustration for a wonderful blog called http://thedustofeverydaylife.blogspot.com

What I enjoy about Procreate is the fact that it records when I am creating art. I love seeing the videos from other artists, one of my favorites and inspiration is an illustrator Deb Johnson, her website is
http://www.deb-johnson.com

Procreate fun

This Christmas Mark bought me an iPad Pro and the pencil.

I have been having fun creating art on it. The one on the top is the first one I did.

The second one is my exploration of the brushes and shadows. The thing I like the best is the fact that I can be working on this when I am sitting on the couch, or in the studio.

More painted glasses

I am a member of the Museum of Art guild here in Deland Florida. For their silent auction I donated the table I painted and these wine glasses. I was trying to figure out what to put the glasses in and then I looked through my pantry and found this wine bag from Publix, the price was right, FREE.

The advantage of being an artist with the studio, is that I have many things I could use to decorate the bag. Beads paint and a glue gun were all I needed.

The table I painted...

I love painting furniture. This is a table I got from the Hitchcock Chair Co, years ago, it was waiting for a vision.

Then of course I looked around on Pintrest, a decorative artists best friend, and I came up with this design.

Fairy Door

VeroBeach.com is in downtown Vero Beach Florida. The merchants downtown are asked to participate in Enchanted Doors. Each business will make a door based on their businesses, since my sister and her husband own VeroBeach.com, she asked me to create a fairy door. I am looking forward to see what the other businesses create.

My sister and I had a fun time hunting for things to use, we visited Michaels and Hobby Lobby. We were having a hard time finding the door and then found this one at the last minute, it was perfect.

This is the front of the fairy door.

The side, I used sculpey clay

Heres the back, the toadstools were fun.

A better view

My new iPad pro

For Christmas I got my iPad Pro, and pencil, I love it!!

I also purchased the app called Procreate, which is like Photoshop, which I finally know how to use.

 The black line was done with a brush marker, and all the color was done in Procreate, I did all the color sitting on my couch, this is the best part, I think the advantage is that I don't feel stress while painting, that is what I love so much about digital, if I make a mistake, I always do, I can delete, I lived through the days of having to paint it over, thats hard.  I also love the fact that Procreate has a gouache type brush, which I love.
But the best part is the pencil, it really is like painting and drawing with a pencil. Very direct.

Highlights Look and Look Again

I created these 2 pieces for Highlights High Five magazine, the spanish version. The kids find the differences between the two illustrations, its called look and look again. Gracias, maestro was one of the first pieces colored digitally.

Wine Glasses

A couple of years ago I saw some wine glasses in St.Augstine that had boobs on them. I thought the idea was pretty funny. So, I gave it a go. I made a set for my sister in law and her friend ended up ordering some. This is her set. My favorite is the navy blue one because the white really pops.

A little glitch

The very talented artist June Goulding noticed my bike did not have a chain, little things that I need to pay more attention to. So now she can ride her bike.

My first coloring book

I had the chance to work on my first coloring book for VeroBeach.com. This was the first time in a long time that I worked in colored pencils and I really enjoyed it. I loved the control and the layering, I plan to do a lot more work this way. This was a great chance to start.

Outerspace

This is the first illustration of outer space that I have ever done.I created the original in Photoshop and then tweaked the colors and textures in Photoshop. This art was done for the Highlights company.

Jingle Bulb Coloring book

I have been working on a coloring book of designs  based on my JingleBulb business.

 I thought i would sit down with my colored pencils, I really enjoyed the process and gave me a better idea of creating my coloring book.

I found this idea on Pinterest, and it was so much nicer having all the pencils organized and available.

My new Studio

We finally moved into our new house and I have the studio almost done. I still have to hang up the ornaments that I make, but aside from that everything has a place.

Let me show you around. Its small but efficient.

We bought 2 ikea tables and put them together to give me a place to draw and also a place to craft. 

When my daughter came over she could be on one side and I could be on the other, it works out really well.

I am lucky that the closet is large, it holds a lot of my art supplies and when I don't want to look at it I can close the doors. The cubes are from Michaels , they hold a lot and they are easy to put together.

I found this table at a consignment store, I painted the bottom black with chalk paint and added some nice knobs from Hobby Lobby. This set up works well for me, I have my printers and scanners near by.

We bought this book shelf years ago, it managed to survive the move. Once again those cubes really work out so great. I was going to put up cabinets but it really closed in the room, so I need something else to hold even more things that I can't get rid of.

On the side are 2 pieces of art created by an artist I admire, Judith Moffatt.

I did the pony above as a present for my father who loved horses, I created that at the age of 4. 

 

The first piece of art my friend Katie Atkinson gave me when we left Ct. This painting was used in a greeting card for the company Good Cause. My friend Jeannine Audette had the studio wall art made for me by an artist that I love, Normas Francini, and the the squares were done for me by my coworkers at Weekly Reader, it was a tradition to make one of these when an illustrator would leave, I treasure mine.

I am very happy to have the studio all set up and am grateful that everything has its place. The two windows look outside to a pretty country road, where there are plenty of birds chirping.

My Secret Santa Solution

I play  Bunco, we do a secret Santa yearly and this year  I picked my friend Liz to buy for. I wasn't sure what to get, and then viola, I had a good idea.

I saw this at Joanns

Hmmm what to do, Liz works for Victoria Secret and has wonderful ugly sweater parties. So the fun began. And this is what I came up with....

And then inspired by last years party I found little lights that I fit in the victoria secret inspired bag.

And it lights up. I hope she likes it.