Brian Lies visits Illustration III at RISD ce

What a treat I had last night.  RISD CE instructor, Emilie Boon, invited New York Times best-selling author/illustrator Brian Lies to her Illustration III class. Intelligent, well-spoken, down-to-earth, and incredibly talented, his "just us artist's sitting around" presentation was informative and inspiring.

Here, Brian is showing us one of his originals for Bats at the Beach, meticulously painted in acrylics.

Brian was generous enough to share his process, from idea to hand-written text, through multiple revisions, sketches, studies and tracing paper drawings, to color studies and painting. Here he lays a classic acrylic underpainting. 

 Brian also told us about his latest project, More, which he illustrated. It looks AMAZING!! It will be coming out in March.

Here, students from Illustration III and instructor Emilie Boon get a close up and personal look at Brian's amazing originals. Thank-you so much for your generosity, Brian. Let's hope "More" is a best-seller, too!

Illustration Friday #5: FUEL

I didn't have time to do a new piece for Illustration Friday this week, so I'm putting up an older piece that illustrates a legend about the goddess Pele, from Hawaii. This is done traditionally, using watercolors.

The taunts from her sister only fueled Pele's anger.

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

Illustration Friday #1: FEROCIOUS

Since I just started the blog, I'm trying to catch up a bit. 

I've began doing Illustration Friday.

This website puts out a prompt word each week, and hundreds of artists (from kids to pros) illustrate it and upload their photos. 

My first week, the word was "ferocious." I tried it with the new style, combining watercolors and photos, and a less realistic approach to people.

Little girls can be ferocious. Ask any parent!