Petanque playing elephants

Some character concept sketches for a humorous piece. Inspiration can come from unexpected sources. This one came courtesy of a friend who provided a very colourful description of their neighbour.

watercolour illustration

This is about my 3rd attempt - maybe 10th if I count all the paintings of separate sections I did to try and decide the colours. I knew this one was going to be a challenge for me - being a learner of watercolour still. It's far from perfect, but time to move on. I'm happy enough with this one.

(P.S. It's a mulberry tree if you missed the previous post)

Illustration roughs - "Attacking the Mulberries"

Here are some preparation sketches for a new piece. I'm planning to try watercolour for this one. Hopefully I can improve upon my woeful earlier attempts at using this medium. For the idea here, I borrowed an old theme from Illustration Friday which was simply the word 'savour'. In this piece I'm also drawing on childhood experience, climbing on top of the shed to attack the mulberries.

Character design

Here is some concept art for the main character of the picture book I've been working (and posting) on. The first image is an experiment with new ways to render digitally. The second image is more of an exploration of personality. As the personality crystallizes I expect to develop a more consistent way of drawing and constructing this fellow.

Illustration "Visitor"

Number 4 in the series.

In this illustration we follow the character towards a house on top of a hill. I thought this might be a good image to provoke a feeling of intense curiosity in the viewer. Who lives there? Why is this character going there today? Is he a regular visitor, or is this a special occasion? etc. I must admit, I'm not yet sure myself. I do have some ideas, and quite a lot of imagery floating around in my head. Hopefully I can make sense of it all at some point in the future, or else a writer can! In the end I may even reveal the identity of the hill top dweller prior to this scene, as these illustrations aren't necessarily in sequence.