posted by: Lesley
©Lesley Breen Withrow
I’ve been illustrating a lot of Christmas/Holiday cards lately. Here’s a pattern I used on part of a card. ‘Tis the time of year to make holiday art, so it can be printed and on the shelves in time! ho, ho, ho!
Posted by: Lesley
It’s nice to see the tooth fairy diary I illustrated Tooth Fairy Tales – My Record of Each Lost Tooth for Potter Style (an imprint of Random House) is already available for pre-orders! It’s coming out August 10th of this year and I can’t wait to see the printed version of it. It’s a part of the Potter Style Summer 2010 catalog which is available on-line and is beautifully designed. So check it out if you have a moment.
Posted by Liz
Rachael Ray, you’re the tops. Once again, one of my designs has turned up in her monthly magazine, specifically April 2010!
The item is called Budget Cuts, and it’s a piggy bank with various budget-related “cuts” outlined on it. Get it?? Haha! So you, too, can save your pennies for lottery tickets and donuts. Mmmmm, donuts.
Here’s how it looks all by itself, from the FRED site:
Posted by: Lesley
©Oxford University Press
Here’s a snippet from a piece of art I’m working on. Gotta love drawing colorful bugs!
Posted by Liz
I did the recipe art for January’s Highlight’s High Five magazine.
I feel certain that you will never think of Mac and Cheese Muffins the same way, ever again.
AND, then… for February, here’s Banana Dippers!
I say dip it. Dip it good.
Posted by: Lesley
©Gartner Greetings
I illustrated and planned the subject matter for this religious greeting card collection called ‘Sharing the Faith’ from Gartner Greetings (an imprint of Gartner Studios ). It’s a beautiful collection that has a soft natural look, lots of textures and patterns and art that ties in nicely with its up-lifting verses. It’s a 40 card collection that I shared with another fabulous illustrator and was a joy to work on.
Instead of New Years Resolutions, I always evaluate where my art and business is heading. I like where my business is heading (check) Licensing is a bit of a “slow boat to China” way to riches but I so enjoy the art I am creating so I know this is a good direction for me. I do still freelance my illustration for editorial and book publishing but I have decided to take this art to a bit of a different place (different for me anyway!) I an loosening up my line work, even digging out my ink nibs and incorporating elements of collage in my work. I ham having so much fun but like anything it is hard to make time for new portfolio pieces. Here is a new one from me!
Posted by: Lesley
This past summer I illustrated the story The Boy Who Wanted Wings for the magazine Angels on Earth. Angels on Earth is owned by Guideposts, which creates spiritual magazines. This is an inspirational Christmas story written by Patricia Gaddis-Clark, and is well worth the read. It was a joy to illustrate too! I know it was intended for print, but I am glad to see it on-line as well. Enjoy!
posted by: Lesley
©Lesley Breen Withrow
Today I woke up to a ton of snow on the ground. What a surprise it was! Unfortunately, it turned over to rain and now it is a slushy mess. But, the snow has helped to put me in the holiday mood. Well, the snow and the Christmas tree we just put up! There are no gifts under it right now and I’m not sure if we’ll ever has as many gifts as those under the tree I illustrated. Ha! But that’s okay.
Posted by: Lesley
In this post I thought I would show you a bit how I work from sketch to finished art.
1. Here’s my sketch
2. Next I lay down the foundation colors and start to fill in different elements of the art.
3. Once the initial art colors and characters are painted, I like to bring the art into Photoshop where I add lots of the details, textures and patterns. I have a large library of textures and patterns that I have created on paper using paints and scratchboard and pen and ink, etc. I have also been known to scan fabrics, newspapers, buttons, really what ever I think I can use in my art. It’s a lot of fun creating those different textures and patterns and once I scan it into the computer I can use it multiple times because it’s now a computer file.
4. And here is the final art with all the details, textures and patterns added in in place. But wait, there’s one more addition to this piece!
5. I decided to add a border all around it. This was a border I created by hand and scanned/manipulated in the computer. Hope you had fun seeing a bit of my working process!