Finding My Style in Illustrator

I admit to feeling frustrated lately with finding my style in Illustrator.  It's a flat vector based computer program and sometimes I just don't like that look.  My artwork is usually created with lots of layers of paint and paper.  I decided to play around and see what I could come up with.  I went with my favorite subject matter and here is what I created.

These are the icons I started with. I tried some texture with my brush strokes to give the foxes depth.

I played around with the background to add more interest.

Then I tried out some patterns.

Then I played with textures I made with a very cool app from Adobe called Adobe Shape as well as the watercolor brush and I came up with this fox.

I love how he turned out.  He's much closer to my painting style and I think the texture I created is nice.  It's still a work in progress but I know I'm headed in the right direction.

Thanks for stopping by!

Remembering Europe 2004

Ten years ago this week my hubby (then boyfriend) and I spent 10 days in Europe. We started in Canterbury, England then went to Paris, then to London and finished in Killarney, Ireland. We'd only been dating for a couple of months. Jeff was going to Canterbury for business and was planning on staying for a week to see other European cities. He invited me to go with him. Who was I to say no to Paris!

It was fun and crazy with ups and downs hopping from country to country. We actually missed our flight home due to fog in Ireland. When we go again (hopefully) I'd like to stick to one country. It was an amazing trip. We both still think about it. Here are some of my favorite photos from our first vacation together. These were taken on my good old film camera by the way. You remember film, right?

Canterbury

Paris

 

 

 

 

 

 

(How young and cute are we!)

London

 

 

(Yep. Typical tourist!)

Killarney, Ireland and County Kerry

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed this little walk down memory lane. I've been very fortunate to do a bit of traveling in my life. When I was a teenager my family went to Australia! My mom has those pictures so I can't share those. I'm not a huge fan of traveling now since it's become such a hassle. We should always be exploring though. There's so much to see in this world and in my own state of North Carolina. Maybe this walk down memory lane will spark some local traveling with the family. Next week I'll share some snippets from our Disney trip. That was an adventure! One hotel room and a 5 & 6 year old. I'm still recovering.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

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More Sketchbook Fun

I'm continuing to explore my painting process with the Catalyst Wedge and Blade. This time I let the bunny emerge instead of trying to paint a specific animal like I did with the fox painting from this post. I also used a bamboo skewer to apply black ink for his outline and face to help keep the painting raw.

 

As you can see I don't let anything goto waste. I made sure to use up my paint on my palette on the other page. Who knows what will end up on that page. We shall see.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

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Playing in My Sketchbook

 

I had a great time playing with my Catalyst Wedge and Blade in my sketchbook. I created this fox only using paint and the wedges. I used a felt marker for the eyes and nose. I think I need to go shopping for more Catalyst tools.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

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Back to Painting Every Day

We've returned and recovered from vacation (I'll post about that later) and I'm back in my studio. I finished this sketchbook page today. 

I call it "Weeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Thanks for stopping by!