Illustration Friday #12: GROUNDED

After all the family time during the holidays, I'm back to trying my hand at new work for Illustration Friday. This week's prompt word was "grounded." Watching my grand-niece, Zoe on the cusp of walking, I was inspired to illustrate this amazing process.

Gus is Grounded! Illustration ©Cheryl Kirk Noll

I am taking inspiration from a baby's tenacity with this task, and sticking to my task of working with watercolor and Photoshop. 

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

attemp

ts 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

Illustration Friday #2: HIBERNATE

For the second week of Illustration Friday, the prompt word was "hibernate." I looked up animals that hibernate, and chose the ever adorable Hedgehog. 

I did a page of sketches of hedgehogs first (they are sooo cute!), after doing Will Terry's tutorial on character design. (what makes a hedgehog a hedgehog?... pointy nose, oval body, and spines)

And how could I best incorporate the style of combining watercolor and photos, using Photoshop? And add a little twist of humor? 

The result:

Hedgehogs apparently hibernate in piles of leaves, making them vulnerable to disturbances of all sorts, so friendly folks in England sometimes provide lovely hedgehog homes for them.© Cheryl Kirk Noll

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.