Wacky Days of Summer

Spent part of the day working on different techniques for my portfolio. I did this sketch in Photoshop using my Wacom Tablet. I printed out the sketch and using my light table, I inked it onto Arches 140 lb. hot-press watercolor paper with black india ink and a crow-quill pen. I then painted the characters, cast shadows and grass with watercolor and a little colored pencil for texture. I scanned the illustration back into Photoshop and knocked out the white background. Working in layers, I added flowers which is a pattern I pulled from one of my digital surface designs. Behind that I added a digital blue background and added the clouds.

I like being able to combine traditional illustration with digital. Saves time, for sure, but also gives you freedom to really play around without destroying any original artwork. I just noticed how many dogs I've posted on my blog lately. Can't help it....one of my favorite animals to draw!!

Illustration Friday: Hollow

Illustration Friday: Worn

Kayla was over the top with happiness that her auntie's big 'ol red dog "Misty" was going to spend two weeks with her and her family while she went on vacation. However, Kayla's dog, Jax, was not so thrilled and decided that Misty had worn out her welcome fairly early on in week one......

Bluebird of Happiness

                                             ©Deborah Melmon

With all the work getting ready for Surtex, I missed 6 weeks of my watercolor class that I take on Tuesday nights. I'm finally back at it and here is my latest attempt that I finally finished last night. Initially it was just going to be a study as I wasn't painting on high-quality paper. But as I kept working it, it started to take shape and it seemed like a waste to repaint it. So I finally finished it! I like painting birds. May have to do another one. :o)

Illustration Friday: Craving

Buster knew he was not supposed to be anywhere near the cake, but he just couldn't help himself.....his craving for those little pink buttercream frosting rosettes was going to get him into heaps of trouble. 

Back from Surtex

It's been a long time since my last post, but I'm back from the Surtex show in NYC. Whew! What a trip. So much energy involved getting ready for it. We had a very successful show. Got to meet the clients I have been working with all year and lots of fabulous artists. So fun to see Jannie Ho who was just a couple of booths down from us. 

We had four artist in our booth this year. My banners are on the far right and far left of the photo. We had all the artwork pre-printed this year and it sure did make the set up easy. 

The National Stationery Show runs simultaneously with Surtex, so I got to see my artwork on actual products. Speaking of which, if you look closely in the bottom left hand corner of the photo, you'll see the ice-skating dog and kitty I painted last year. I'm so excited to announce that both images have been licensed as garden flags for Lowe's and will be coming out this winter!

So now back to following up on all the contacts I made and sending out samples of work that various companies requested. Almost as much work as getting ready for the show!

More Surtex

This is our third year at Surtex, and each year we have made buttons on Cafe Press and used them as promotional give-aways in our booth. Here are my buttons this year....well actually they are refrigerator magnets. Thought the magnets would be a little more user friendly. :o)

Oh, and my very creative sister is coming to town for the next few days to help me get ready. Woo hoo! Can really use the extra set of hands and some fresh eyes to look at everything. 

Surtex

Since Surtex is rapidly approaching (May 17th in NYC), I thought I'd post one of my banners that is going to be hung in the booth. I'm sharing our booth with three other talented artists, and we each get two panels to show our art. Can't tell you how complex it is to design your own panel and then also have it work with all the other panels in the booth. Each artist was allowed an "everyday" themed panel and a "winter holiday" panel. The panels are 38" wide and 85" tall. Always fun to see your artwork blown up really large! If you look closely at my panel you will see characters that I've posted in earlier blogs during their various stages of development. The panels are being printed and will be rolled up and shipped to New York, making our step up fairly easy. The panels are merely attention grabbers for the buyers to stop and look at our books full of designs available for licensing.....which is what I'm madly working on now!

A New Friend for Patch

Patch has a new friend to pal around with. Still working traditional, but have also turned these characters into digital art for Surtex. Will show you some of the stuff I've created later on in the week. Had fun today buying some new fonts to play with. Always inspires me create new stuff.

Character Study

Meet Patch. He's a new character I'm working on. I actually painted him traditionally rather than using my computer which was really fun for a change. Hoping he makes the trip to Surtex with me. Lot's to do before May 15th! 

They don't call it Spring for nothing....

Hope you're all having amazing Spring weather like we are having here in Northern California!

Unfortunately, I'm not getting to enjoy very much of it with all the work left to do for Surtex. 

I painted this little guy in Painter and am hoping to take him along with me on my trip in May.

Easter Book

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! I can't believe how fast time is going by. It's April already!! I'm getting ready for the Surtex Licensing Show in New York and it's really sucking up all my time but I thought I'd post another spread from my lastest board book. A perfect Easter basket stuffer for really young kids. You can buy them from Amazon here. I've been printing up personalized dedication cards from the illustrator to slip in the book for all my friends and thought I'd extend it to any of you reading this blog. Just email me with the first name of the child and your email address and I'll send you a jpg of this cute little ducky with his painted easter egg for you to print out! Happy Spring!

More Sheep

After seeing all the sheep in New Zealand, I'm obsessed. I didn't have time to prepare a new image to paint in my watercolor class tonight, so I decided to just play around and experiment using a drawing from my sketchbook.  I scanned the sketch and printed it out on watercolor paper. I modified the color of the line work so it wasn't black, but more of  a dark maroon color. I painted the image in watercolor which caused the line work to bleed a little bit, but I liked the effect. I then  added a little watercolor pencil for texture and rescanned the color version into Painter when I got home. I digitally added a few more details and a little more texture to the wool. I then opened the image in photoshop and tweeked the color of the grass which was much more green in the original. Added the butterfly which I cut and pasted from an old illustration. I love being able to do the finishing details on the computer. That way if it gets overworked, I can delete the stuff that isn't working and still have the original painting. 

Illustration Friday: Intricate

                                   ©Deborah Melmon

This illustration reminds me of one night at Lake Wanaka in New Zealand. A friend of mine and I were having dinner in an upstairs restaurant and we were seated near the window overlooking the courtyard below. A couple walked out of one of the courtyard restaurants and it was obvious that they were in an argument. We couldn't hear a word they were saying, but their body language said everything! 

My Latest Board Book

Here's a board book I did for Innovative Kids that is finally out. I started this book in October of 2007 and final artwork was submitted to the publisher in January of 2008 which was too late for Easter last year. So finally it is out! A cute concept.....a bag with the board book attached and dye-cut Easter eggs on the inside for kids to hide and collect. This spread is my favorite with the chick getting creative in his little farmhouse "art studio." 

The art director and I went round and round trying to create a rabbit for the cover of this book. Our first attempts, which we both liked, did not pass the muster when presented to the marketing and sales people. I think the original rabbit looked too edgy and marketing wanted a cute, white, cuddly rabbit. I spent one weekend coming up with 15 different rabbits which were reviewed and this version was finally selected. Art by committee! :o)

Illustration Friday: Breezy

With the wind in her wool, the sheep felt light and breezy. Ok, a stretch, but I just got back from New Zealand and have sheep on my mind. Decided to play around with Painter today and sketched the sheep using a crow quill pen. Then using layers, I painted the background using sponges and the blender tool. Fun!

Missing in Action

Yikes! I managed to sneak out of town without leaving a post that I would be gone for awhile. In case you've been wondering, I just got back from a three week trip to New Zealand. Wow! What an amazing trip. Toured mostly the south island this year with only a few days spent in Auckland.  The south island is much more spectacular in beauty than the north...which is saying a lot, as the north island is incredibly beautiful!  Millions of sheep everywhere. These lovely beauties live on the farm of my friend Kathryn Wills. Some of them are self-moulting sheep. Their wool just falls off, so they never have to be sheared. I had a blast wandering around the pasture taking their pictures.  More pics tomorrow!

How I Spent Last Weekend

                                            © Deborah Melmon

I started a new painting last week in my watercolor class with Guy Magallanes. Usually I don't have much time during the week to paint on stuff that is not work related, but this weekend I was puppy sitting for my girlfriend and since I had to keep one eye on a very curious and energetic puppy, I decided to sit at my kitchen table and paint on Friday. Well, Friday turned into Saturday and then into Sunday. I couldn't stop myself and ended up almost finishing the piece over the weekend. I learned so much just experimenting with the color. I took the painting to class last night and after a few minor finishing touches, I'm done!  Had a lot of fun with this one :o) Thanks Guy for being such an inspiring teacher!!

Look what arrived!

When I went to Surtex last May, I created these owls as part of a promotional button give-away that we had going on in our booth. They were a big hit as buttons and also attracted the art directors at Design Design. I've been dying to talk about it for six months now but had to wait until the product was released. And so starting this spring, they are now licensed as gift wrap, gift tags, tissue paper and greeting cards!  

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! Glad to be back on my blog again. It's been a busy couple of weeks and I've got lots to share. But for today, I'm posting a painting that I finished last night in my watercolor class with Guy Magallanes. A simple rose, but I worked on Arches 300 lb. paper which made such a difference for me...and I worked larger which also helped. Am starting to feel less afraid to just let the washes do their thing. I really like how this piece turned out and can't thank my teacher enough for guiding me in the right direction. 

If you want to see some fabulous watercolors, you must visit Guy's blog to see what he has been working on for the last three weeks. A truly amazing piece called "Trevi Angels" from a photograph he took in Italy over the summer. He shows the progression of this very large painting and just posted the finished painting today. I'm in such awe of his watercolor skills. Hope some of it rubs off on me!!!

Illustration Friday: Voices

                                                © Deborah Melmon

In my world, nothing could be sweeter than the angelic voices of a reindeer choir singing Christmas carols. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Awards!

Thank you lil Kim for passing on some wonderful awards my way! Such a nice gift as we wind down for the year. You'll have to visit Kim's blog...she is a children's book illustrator with an adorable style. And her blog shows a lot of her process when working which I always find so interesting. 

And since awards should not sit on a shelf and gather dust, I pass them on to two fabulous artists who I'm sure have plenty of awards already....but I just love their blogs and want you to love them too!

Kathleen Rietz

Lynne Chapman

Illustration Friday: Similar

                                             ©Deborah Melmon

I created the ice-skating kitty a couple of weeks ago as a similar piece of art to go with the ice-skating dog for a potential client. Both animals were painted in watercolor. Backgrounds are digital. It was a good thing I did the art separately as I had to play around with the composition several times, enlarging the animals and creating a series of borders to go with both pieces. 

These pieces definately put me in a holiday mood. Christmas is right around the corner, right?

An Award!

                                             ©2008 Deborah Melmon

Just want to thank Alicia Padron and the Picture Book Junkies for the Marie Antoinette blog award!! I'm honored to be noticed by such wonderful artists. You must visit Alicia's blog as she is an incredibly talented children's book illustrator. I so admire her artwork and her dedication to her craft. And the PBJ's blog is one of my favorites to visit. Fantastic artists and a creative site...they're always doing fun stuff over there! You guys so inspire me!!!

Color Version of Yesterday's Post

                                        ©2008 Deborah Melmon

As promised, here is the colored version of the line drawing from yesterday. I had inked yesterday's sketch on watercolor paper and then painted the squirrels and tree with watercolor.

After scanning in the squirrels, I tweaked them in photoshop and added the background. With everything in layers, it gives me the flexibility to use the image in more than one way. 

Happy Thankgiving everyone!

Tuesday Sketch

                                        ©2008Deborah Melmon

Wow, it's been over a week since I posted. Lots of deadlines right now. Funny how that happens around the holidays.....Thought I'd post this drawing, which is the line work for the painted piece which I will post tomorrow.

I've Been Tagged!

Wow! I've been tagged by one of my favorite bloggers Alicia Padron. She is a fabulously talented children's book illustrator who I know works very hard at her craft. It certainly shows, if you've seen her work lately. She is a true inspiration for me and I love watching her progress! 

I've been blogging for less than a year, and I've never been tagged, so you'd think I would have lots of interesting facts to reveal about myself....but when it comes right down to it, I  consider my life pretty darn ho hum. But the rules are to share 7 things about myself. So here goes:

1) I love to do things that require physical labor, like work in the yard, paint my house or wash my car. 

2) I  am tall (5'10") which was always so uncomfortable for me when I was young, because I was ALWAYS the tallest girl in the room. Now it seems women are just getting taller and I know lots of young women who are much taller than I am. 

3) I hate to shop. Period. For anything....except children's books and art supplies :o)

4) I used to rehabilitate injured and orphaned animals and have raised baby hummingbirds, robins, mockingbirds, ducks and squirrels to name just a few. 

5) My favorite food is chocolate...in any form. Okay, that sounds boring because lots of people like chocolate, but I put chocolate chips in my cereal for breakfast.....

6) I ran the Silicon Valley Marathon 8 years ago and finished in 4 hours and 20 minutes. (I am especially proud of this achievement!) 

7) And, finally, I love to watch trash tv on the BRAVO channel....Project Runway, the Housewives of Orange County, etc.....pure indulgence, but so fun!

OK, so now I get to tag more people to share some interesting tidbits about their lives:

Guy Magallanes

Yoon See

Tom Barrett

Home Again

                                                  ©2008 Deborah Melmon

Back from a wonderful trip to Maui and home to the cool weather of Northern California. A lazy morning to catch up on the mail, news and my favorite blogs!

Taking a Trip

                                           ©2008Deborah Melmon

I'll be gone for a week on a quick vacation where it's warm and I can play lots of golf :o) See you next week!

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!!

Tuesday Sketch

A quick sketch to get warmed up for the day. Sketched in painter with a calligraphy brush and colored in photoshop. Mowing the lawn is one of my favorite activities, although I prefer a gas mower....but little Gracie is reducing her environmental footprint and getting some great exercise with her push mower!

Illustration Friday: Clutter

This is a piece I did a long time ago for School Zone. When I saw the theme for today I had to laugh. Clutter is one of my favorite things to draw, but also aggravates me to no end around my house and studio. Can't seem to get rid of it!!!

Watercolor Lessons

Here's something new I'm trying this summer.....watercolor lessons! I've always wanted to paint roses and I've always wanted to master watercolor (is that possible??) so I've been going to the studio of Guy Magallanes in Redwood City on Tuesday evenings and have been painting with a talented group of women. So far, I'm working small...I think it's the illustrator in me...but trying to loosen up with it. I'm having a blast, and it's such a nice break from work!

Illustration Friday: DETACH

I have been growing tomatoes at a friends house who has a huge raised planter with fabulous soil. I went a little crazy and planted too many plants. Yikes! I spent Saturday harvesting about 75 tomatoes and  spent this morning making sauce! As I was "detaching" the skins from each tomato, it reminded me of skinning the clothes off little kids before putting them in the bath. Arms up over their heads, pulling off their little shirts....well, you get the picture. 

Day 14/21 Creative Exercise

This sketch was inspired by the dads who were carrying around their kids on their shoulders at the U.S. Open this weekend. I spent Father's Day watching the final round on television and it reminded me of the times I spent on the golf course with my own father. Happy Father's Day!

Day 13/21 Creative Exercise

Haven't had time to post, but have been sketching. Probably going to take me 42 days to get through the 21 day exercise! Here's some sketches of the falcons doing their exercises to build up their flight muscles. All the birds have fledged the nest and are learning to flying around the tall office buildings of downtown San Jose. I took a trip down there on Sunday to see the birds first hand and it is truly amazing to see them perched on a ledge on the 18th floor of City Hall. They've all had a few mishaps and volunteers on the ground have been there to rescue and rerelease them, but they are learning to fly pretty well now. Lucky for me they are still returning to the nesting box during the day and I can watch them on the falcon-cam. Sometimes they sit on the ledge and the parents swoop by giving them flying lessons. Soon they will be learning mid-air transfers of food which will teach them to hunt on their own. It can take six more weeks for them to become self-sufficient. Oh, and they all have names now. Elementary school kids researched names and submitted them in a contest. Two girls and a boy, Meyye, Cielo and Mercury.

Day 12/21 Creative Exercise

I haven't blogged about the Peregrine Falcons that have been nesting on a ledge of the San Jose City Hall building lately. While I was away, a volunteer from the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group rappelled down the side of the building and banded and sexed the birds. One male and two females. When I returned from New York, the birds no longer looked like the fuzzy white chicks I remembered. All their feathers were in and they were hanging around the ledge looking at the world below. Everyone has been anticipating their first flights next week.

Well, that was until yesterday!! 

The male decided to take a flying leap early and landed on a ledge right outside the staff kitchen on the 15th floor.  Volunteers were on it immediately and banded together with binoculars, towels and boxes in case the young fledge needed rescuing from the perils of the downtown area. He took another flight and landed in a tree about a 1/2 block away, perched at the top of a deodora pine.  As the winds started to pick up in the late afternoon the fledge decided to head back to City Hall. As he took off, Clara flanked him on his right and Carlos on his left as they urged him up towards the nestbox on the 18th floor.  As they turned towards the building, he was unable to gain altitude and flew right into the building and spiraled downward and landed on the sidewalk next to a small tree! An alert volunteer tried to approach the bird to see if he was okay. In his defensive mode, on his back hissing with wings spread and beak and talons up, the brave volunteer managed to capture him in her towel and get him into a box for safety. 

After an exam from the people who work for the SCPBRG, it was decided that the bird was not injured, but would spend the night in a safe and secure office at City Hall and would then be released in the morning. At 7am this morning, he was taken up to the rooftop and his feathers were misted down with water so he wouldn't take another flying leap until he got his bearings. He was given a meal and his parents were there to greet him immediately, no worse for the wear. 

The SCPBRG has a Flickr site if you'd like to see photos of the birds from the very beginning. 

Day 11/21 Creative Exercise

Do you ever get "the stare" from your animals?? Having returned from New York with a million things to do on my computer, I forget about the time....and along around 5pm, I sense someone is watching me from behind. Little Gracie is so polite. She would never order me around (ha!) but there are times when she just gives me the stare, like she is willing me to feed her, or take her for a walk, or just get off my butt and get out and smell the roses. Without my dog, I'd barely see the light of day :o)

Back from New York!

Well, I'm back from Surtex and the National Stationery Show in New York. The trip went very well, although it got off to a rocky start with a 2-hour plane delay on the tarmac in San Francisco and pouring rain in New York. Took all day Saturday to set up our booth at the Jacob Javitz Center. No matter how hard you plan, it always takes longer than you think. This was our second year to participate at Surtex and it was 100% better than last year. More clients, lots more interest and great feedback from the designs I showed. I am now madly sending out the samples everyone requested for June meetings with their clients. 

I also got to see the art director for Innovative Kids, Liza Page, who brought advanced sample copies of the two books I did for them last year. They turned out so cute! Can wait for them to come out. "On the Farm" is coming out in September, and the other book is for Easter so that won't be out until next year. I'm starting a third book for them for them in June. Have to keep quiet on the details, but it's going to be really fun and creative!!

New York is always so exciting to me. So much energy, so noisy, so BIG. We stayed at the Affinia Hotel at 30th and 7th Avenue, across from Madison Square Garden and Penn Station. I don't think that part of town ever sleeps. When we arrived, there were dead umbrellas tossed all over the sidewalks from the storm that had swept through. I guess if your umbrella turns inside out, the only thing to do is toss it aside. Too unruly to cram into a trash can. 

Although the trip was a success, I was exhausted. I spent the Memorial Day holiday relaxing and playing golf and by Monday afternoon, I felt as lazy as this princess kitty. Tomorrow I am back on my Creative Exercise. I felt so guilty setting it aside to get ready for Surtex, but it couldn't be helped. Looking forward to seeing what all my blogging creative buddies have been up to for the last two weeks! Did you miss me? I missed you guys alot. You're all such inspiration to me!!

Day 10/21 Creative Exercise

Thank you to everyone who dropped by with comments on my mice sketches. Spurred me on to start working on them in color. I painted the mice by hand, scanned them into my computer and then worked on them in photoshop and added the digital background. Hope to get a couple more up before I leave on Friday for New York. 

Day 8 and 9/21 Creative Exercise

Haven't posted for a couple of days, although I have been sketching. I'm jamming for my trip to New York next week, and have madly been working on my winter holiday designs for Surtex. So sketching little mice on ice-skates came easy this week. Hope I have time to get these guys painted to take with me....

Day 7/21 Creative Exercise

This sketch was inspired by comments made by Alicia Padron, my tender-hearted blogging buddy, who felt bad for the poor pigeon in yesterday's post. Gave me an idea to illustrate  Falcon feeding time with a softer side.  The sketch came quickly, but I spent a little more time playing with it in Photoshop. A nice break from all the other work I'm trying to get done tonight. 

Day 5 and 6/21 Creative Exercise

                                   There's a show off in every family, right?

I've been jamming all weekend getting ready for the Surtex show in New York. Hasn't left much time for anything else. Luckily, I can watch the falcon-cam while I work. I did this sketch yesterday and colored it in today. Going to have to count this as two days.... :o)