Animal Parade

I'm not sure exactly where I stand with the older drawings from high school and early college years. So instead of attempting to make a bigger mess out of an old mess, I'm skipping to the latest drawing and just uploading at random from there.

So this is the latest piece I did for the "Six Amigas." It was originally a design for my friend's birthday card, but the task just became too overwhelming and the project was scraped. I picked it up a few months later as a final project for my Intro to Illustration class. It was great to earn credit for drawing my friends, turning a hobby into something a little more worth while.

What made this piece interesting was how many times the animals changed for each girl. At one point I asked everyone what animal they would want to ride, which some how threw all my originals ideas upside-down and backwards. Everyone wants what I had designed another girl to ride and I felt torn between what I thought looked best and pleasing the ones I love. In the end, however, after a few test sketches, everything worked out, everyone got the animal they wanted and the design worked. The progress of making "Animal Parade" was a lot of fun and made me feel a bit more ready for my career as an illustrator.

Haley - Moose
Lara - Leopard
Gayle - Black Bear
Me - Galapagos Tortoise
Allison - Zebra
Shelley - Ostrich

Ponchos Part 2

Long ago I promised a second part to Ponchos Part 1, and finally here it is. After doing the original image I wanted do a series of individual images for each person with their symbol in the background. It was fun coming up with different outfits and poses for each person, though I'd really like to change some of the outfits now, they were not stylish when I created them either.

Allison - Diamond (because she's worth a lot)

Elle - Strawberry (based off the original drawing in Fruit of Cute)

Gayle - Snowflake (because of her last name)

Haley - Bow (because she's cute like that)

Katie - Bubble (because of her bursting personality)

Lara - Moon (because I'm star and we have the same name (and also because she glows))

Me - Star (because I've always loved stars)

Megan - Sun (because she asked)

Shelley - Heart (because she's so sweet)

Ponchos Part 1

The idea for "Ponchos" came one Sunday when I was doodling and drew myself in a cute star poncho, pointing my toe as I jumped through the air. As you can see I copied that pose into this image.

To me, all my friends are special, so i tried to make everyone unique, using different clothes for everyone and giving everyone their own symbol. Some people's symbols were transferred from past drawings (Gayle's from her ice super powers (too be posted), same with Megan, and Elle's strawberry from "Fruit of Cute"). It was actually a challenge because people didn't always like what I gave them. Eventually I gave up and stopped taking comments and in the end everyone was happy.

From left to right:
Shelley - heart (she even has heart cards)
Gayle - snowflake
Katie (sitting) - bubbles
Megan - sun (I love her arm holes)
Me (jumping) - star (shooting star!)
Allison (sitting) - diamond
Haley (sitting) - bow
Elle - strawberry
Lara - moon

With each symbol, I held a reason for why I chose it. Next post will be the individual outfits (the ponchos are coming off!) and this description.

Friends of Wonderland

This was one of my first real attempts to fill the space and create a scene. I had fun designing costumes and portraying everyone's character. It was interesting to see it would all turn out with all the different types of media I used: sharpies, crayola markers, and colored pencils. I find I use this blend of media in a lot of my art work I've done over the course of high school and early college years.

Alice - Me
Queen of Hearts - Elle
Playing Card - Megan
Mad Hatter -Katie
March Hare -Gayle
Cheshire Cat - Lara
White Rabbit -Haley
Caterpillar - Shelley
Dormouse - Allison

Centarians

This one is pretty. Everyone got to pick what color they wanted to be. That was hard since I'm the only one who knows all the different colors of horse and the specific names, but we worked things out and everyone was happy. I just liked drawing horse-legs and making everyone unique. I must say it came out well on the coloring side, but the hair is another question

Gayle - chestnut with socks

Megan - black with socks

Shelley - white

Katie - dapple gray

Me - blonde chestnut with socks and a star birthmark

Lara - tri-colored

Elle - strawberry roan

Haley - dun (she just said "Like the horse in that "Spirit" movie")

Allison - bay

Rivals and Friends

This isn't the normal set of friends that I show every time. These 3 are friends and classmates that also did art, so in high school I considered them my "art friends." Its kind of funny--and a little sad--how many different friends I had and yet I paired them off into categories: church friends, art friends, everyday friends, etc. And then subcategories as well! Mostly it was because I had so many different kinds of people as my friends, that they didn't necessarily blend were I to put them all into the same room, so I kept them separate. Nonetheless, they were, are, and always will be my friends because I care for their well being and happiness.

Left to Right:
Christy
Me
Casey
Panda(ora)

Ps. I miss those shoes! They were so cute!

Mario World

This one was Gayle's idea, she really loved coming up with video game ideas (as you'll see later). I was just happy to be Toadstool (he's my favorite). I thought it came out really good, and am proud of the designs. However, I really want to redo the craftsmanship! I mean, come on 15-year-old self! Get presentable!

Haley - Mario
Lara - Luigi
Elle - Princess Peach
Me - Toadstool
Gayle - Wario
Katie - Bowser
Allison - Princess Daisy
Shelley - Yoshi