Illustration Friday: Vacant

                                               ©2008Deborah Melmon

Our first storm blew in yesterday in the Bay Area, and it feels like Winter is on it's way. We tend to have beautiful Indian Summers in September and October, so it is a bit of a shock to the system to have wind and rain.... Anyway, the weather makes me think of the birds flocking together for the Winter and all the nests that have been abandoned until next Spring. 

Little vacant nests lined with feathers and crusty old bird poop. 

Doodles from the Sketchbook

                                                                      ©2008 Deborah Melmon

Illustration Friday: Repair

                                        ©2008 Deborah Melmon

Daniel had that sinking feeling that his quick Saturday morning chore was going to turn into a weekend of repairs....I did this illustration years ago for the Palo Alto Weekly Newspaper. I think maybe 15 years ago...yikes, where has the time gone?? Thanks to Photoshop, I scanned in my image (had to scan in four sections and piece it together) and then changed a bunch of stuff that I never really liked about the piece. I altered the guys shirt, the length of his arm, the color of the wall, the pillow, the dogs face, all sorts of things. Easy repairs!

Illustration Friday: Late

Hurry Nick! You'll be late for the Halloween Party!

Color Study

I wasn't happy with the last elephant I posted, so I reworked him and added a background. I painted the background as a separate layer so I could move the characters around in photoshop. I had drawn some other kids to go into the illustration, but I kind of liked the tension between just the little boy and the elephant. 

More Character Studies

Another color sketch I worked on today. Main character is an elephant, but am also working on ideas for kids. Now that I see today's elephant compared to yesterday's sketch, I think I like yesterday's elephant better. Looks younger, rounder and cuter. Back to the drawing board!

Character Study

Working on some new ideas and playing with some new techniques. The beginnings of a character study of an elephant that goes to swimming class. Black colored pencil line drawing on Arches 140 lb. watercolor paper. Color is good 'ol Winsor Newton watercolor. No digital messing around this time!

Illlustration Friday: Sugary

The Anna's Hummingbird's primary source of food is nectar. If man had as high a weight-specific metabolic rate as a hummingbird, his daily intake of food would have to be approximately twice his body weight. Also, his temperature would be over 750 degrees F and he would use up 155,000 calories per day. Now that's alot of sugary!!