Hello for the Holidays

Tee Hee - I'm psychic! I posted a link to these in my IMAGINE post last night (cause I'm so slow!) and it turns out I'm ahead of the game for this week. Excellent!

Illustration Friday: IMAGINE

late again!!! this is just about my favorite thing in the world to do - make things up! i used to do it all the time, but i never get the time anymore. but in keeping with the imagine theme - these are drawn from my head, with the exceptions of referencing a zebra for correct stripe pattern, and a friend's photo of her cat for positioning.

this is a beginning. i was planning on inking them, but i ran out of time - what with christmas cards to do! speaking of which - here is a special holiday greeting for all my friends out there in the blogosphere! Enjoy.

as I was working on these drawings over the last few days, I shared them with some friends and discovered that none of them had ever heard of a narwhal, but I assure you it is a real creature. Check here to learn more.


UPDATE:
I thought I'd add some of my notes for a little look into how I arrived at these creations. I started out with a little word play brainstorming. This always helps to get to me focused on the theme, if I don't have an idea to start with. I also look around for some quotes that might inspire me.


But I wasn't really getting anywhere with that, so I moved on to the hybrid idea. This was something I loved to so as a kid, and since I always drew from my imagination when I did it, so I thought it'd fit the topic perfectly. I quickly wrote down as many animals as I could think of - then started mixing the names. You can see I started out with LOTS of mixed animals, but in the end I decided to keep it a simple combination of only two.

Illustration Friday: SURPRISE

And now, for something completely different...



... a surprise for Santa, or a surprising identity crisis. you decide.

So, I didn't have a unicorn for this one... I actually had to draw something NEW! Ah-HA! I knew if I stuck with this long enough, I'd have to. I'd really like to draw something by hand one of these days, pencil & paper, the whole shebang - but I was inspired by an image I saw today at work and just went with it. I'm calling this my first draft - I like the idea and would like to take it further. But I also am running out of time this week so I thought I'd post what I got.... so far. Enjoy!

Illustration Friday: BLUE

...or illustration 'almost next' friday. Wow! What a busy week - so many posts!! A girl goes outta town for a few days and comes back with the flu for a few more days and apparently misses everything! ;) Well, here I am again - way, WAY behind the times (just found out the topic this morning) and I'm going to have to recycle, again. I thought all day about throwing something together, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it - I'm still sick, what can I say!



YKSISARVINEN
the arctic unicorn

colored pencil (berol prismacolor)
approx. 10" x 14"
on 180lb. Arches hot press watercolor paper

This is a big guy, and although he's not blue (more of a blue-gray), he lives in the blue world for sure. Icy and cold. Hey, maybe this can make up for my missing COLD illustration as well! Yeah... yeah, and NIGHT too. Awesome! Three with one post!! :) Now that's recycling!

In truth this is my least favorite unicorn. I really only like to top half. His body on the bottom is twisted and forced into the frame - but his noble head and massive horn I love. I like the lighting too - that's something I don't always pay attention to. Don't even ask how I got those northern lights with colored pencil - I don't even know how I did that.

Enjoy and sorry for the lateness!

Illustration Friday: SMALL

KI-LIN
the chinese unicorn

colored pencil (berol prismacolor)
approx. 16" x 16"
on 180lb. Arches hot press watercolor paper

In keeping with my theme within a theme (I totally hadn't thought about it that way R.A. but you’re so right!)... this is my littlest unicorn. I had it all worked out at one point, but I think I remember him being about 5 or 6 inches tall. Isn't it interesting how, with being so small, everything else around gets so big. A blade of grass becomes the equivalent of a sapling tree, a droplet of water could soak you, a colony of ants could present a real threat. Poor little guy!

Yeah, I like these themes!! They've been making the last few weeks kind of easy for me, but new work is coming... I just know it.

Happy Black Friday to those of us shopping in the US!

Illustration Friday: FREE

SAAMOJA.UNPANGATIGA
the serengeti unicorn

colored pencil (berol prismacolor)
approx. 12" x 18"
on 180lb. arches hot press watercolor paper

just to get a post in early(ish)... here's another recycled illustration.
run free, right?

i swear, i do more than unicorns. ;)

comments, questions, criticisms are welcome.
(but please don't hurt me ;)

Illustration Friday: STRENGTH

LAE.HAO.KELA
The Volcano Unicorn

colored pencil (berol prismacolor)
approx. 16" x 16"
on 180lb arches hot press watercolor paper

My first IF. I'm actually working on an original piece for this but since I am already a week late, I'm resorting to the recycled image. This is an illustration I did several years ago. The idea, well that's long and complex, but part of it was to personify strength, solidity... after all he lives in a volcano.

Comments Welcome

Enjoy and thanks!