Here's Poppy!

This is Poppy!

Her hair is always up. She hates having hair in her face while researching.
She has big glasses, but they have a stylish frame.
Also, her bangs are cut too short because she refuses to have a hairdresser touch them.
Her baggy shirt is due to her "all comfort all the time in order to make research a breeze" policy.
She wears denim shorts with fringe bottoms to hide the rough edges.
Lastly, she enjoys flip-flops because they're easy to slip on and off, this allows more time for research.

My Children's Book

I've decided to give it a go. I'm talking about making my own children's book of course.

Daunting, I know.

However, it must be done!

I'm also going to try the self-publishing route. I've done some research and I believe I've found a good place to do business with.

The title of my book is Poppy. I might change it later on...we'll see!
My story is about a 6 year old girl who loves plants, insects, all nature basically. During a family picnic she encounters strange plant like creatures. These creatures, she later realizes, are not in the know it all plant encyclopedia, Plant Pro. What are they? Who are they? Are they friendly, or mischievous?

That is the basis of my story. I'm really living this project right now. I'm constantly thinking of layout ideas, dialog, character concepts, you name it! Ah, the joys of being an illustrator.

The drawing above is the first spread of my book. This is Poppy's room. I decided not to introduce her until the second spread. I thought it would be interesting and fun to meet the character through her belongings first instead of a illustration of her. Also, each spread is going to be a full illustration, this gives me more room to add as much detail as possible.

Hope I can finish it by the end of the year!

All Professional Like

So! Here is the turnaround with flat color.
I would totally buy this figurine to collect if I saw it at a store!

An Oldie But A Goodie

Yes, I decided to dig up this old "seed" character from a while ago and make a turnaround for it.

I know.

I'm kinda working backwards! 

But hey, it works. Hehe.

This is what I have so far. Kinda rough around the edges...but aren't we all?
Tomorrow I shall clean it up and make it look all professional like.

Branum's Animal Crackers

   Ah, good ol' Barnum's Animal Crackers. I loved eating these as a kid...wait a minute! I still love eating these fun animal crackers! Ha!

However, I am not still loving their package design. C'mon guys, time for an update!

I decided to redesign their packaging as a personal project. I wanted to make it more fun, and more kid friendly but keep true to the circus theme we all know and love.

I started out with this layout.

I was very happy with it. I gave more character to the animals and made them the circus performers instead of a side show. Also, I thought that an environment might add more to their story as a circus. However, when I began to add color it just wasn't working out.

 

 

Sure the animals looked great but no matter what color background I painted it clashed with the characters.
Also, for such a small box, I realized this stile wouldn't look clean enough.

So I decided to go vector and vuala!

I removed the background and made the tent come forward. This instantly made the animals the focus and the tent more of a pattern. I still have to tweak the gradient on the title, but other than that I'm very pleased on how it came out.

I will post the finished product later on this week!

Finale!

Here are the last four pages.

I'm really happy with the outcome.
I have learned so much, and I bet my future illustrations will be even better.

Woot!

Oops!

Ha, so I just realized I never posted page 6!

So, here it is!