Image 23 / Book of Blessings

I've been slacking on these...life's been getting in the way of "my blog on". But I promise to be more diligent about posting the rest of these. 7 more to go! oh how I miss the sea....

Happy Earth Day! Image 21 of Book Of Blessings/Running Press

We only get one earth. Let's take care of it! 

Spring really is here

I hope it doesn't snow aneeeeeee more. But some folks don't plant things til Mother's Day. I guess that's the super safe zone. I don't know if I can wait that long. Representing spring in full force here's image 16/Book of Blessings by running Press, illustrated by yours truly-SW

Tiny Mouse

Image 12/Book of Blessings by Running Press Miniature editions. This little mouse is harvesting is little wheat crop! He could eat off that one germ of wheat for a week!

A Leopard Can Indeed Change his Spots....according to this fun little movie I made

This is old school picture taking and then compiling it in iMovie with a a little song from my omnichord. Oscar material I'm telling you ;) Watch out Pixar...I'm a coming for you. yeah....Doing this one minute video gave me a huge appreciation for what REAL animators do. Unreal.....That said, I liked my little story. 

Printsource Ad

So this is my first real year as an illustrator on the island of me. No steady paycheck....no crown room..(Hallmark's cafeteria). I eat quickly and get back down in my art dungeon these days while my little lad is in daycare 2 days of the week. This is my time to crank. The rest of the time I work at night. My husband and best friend for life is really supportive and I couldn't do this without him. No way. I appreciate all the things that he does for us. Like laundry and vacuuming, or putting Finley to bed almost every night so I can work. I've got a good one. He watched Fin last night while I made this ad for Printsource. I'm super excited about the collections I've been toiling away at. Thanks for having a look and have a good day! Gobble time is around the corner. yippee!

Marker Fumes = happy fun time with fluttery butterflies :)

I've been working mostly in black and white for over 5 months now because of a very special and exciting project which I will share with you in September. But as excited as I am about this now done project, the lack of color in my work in combination with the fact that it's been grey as heck outside is killing me. And when it snows it gets dirty.....blech. The magic of Christmas is long gone, new years resolutions have already failed....This time of year is hard for a lot of people. And why wouldn't it be?? We need spring! We need fresh air! WE need nature! WE need motivation. Color is a big motivator for me. It always has been. So I've been obsessed with markers....an easy and accessible color tool. My other obsession lately is obviously flowers, animals and plant. Below is the marker study and then the finished piece. Oops, what do you know, a little grey got in there :)-Sarah W.

Hello folks! Just wanted to share my MATS Bootcamp assignment :) If you haven't heard of it check out the link. It's a great way to make new work for your portfolio. For the mini we were instructed to go crazy and doodle cuckoo clocks til our hearts content. The mini is a warm up assignment that helps you prepare for the actual assignment. Hopefully if you sketch enough (and stretch) for the mini you have enough ideas for the actual assignment. For February it's ye old iPhone cover. 

I'm pretty happy with how mine came out but I could probably noodle with to for another week. That's why deadlines are goooooooood :)-Sarah W.

Make Art That Sells-Assignment #3 Children's Picture Books

So this week was kiddo time. And I loved it. ONCE....I got over the moody snail. Lilla had us focus on the Hans Christian Andersen tale of "The Snail and the Rose". Maybe it's because I'm 6.5 months pregnant, maybe it's because the snail is a party pooper..but the story was a little depressing and I wasn't in the mood to draw a bratty snail. Maybe because I'm feeling bratty :) and don't want to admit it! Raging hormones and sugar cravings like you wouldn't believe! Anyway, Lilla said we could interpret the story anyway we liked and I was very thankful. Hopefully if we couldn't have changed it I would've gone into professional mode and done my best bratty snail ever. That said, down below is my take. And also some sketches and doodles that got me there. I liked the idea of the snail having a unique shell and a purpose. Han's snail is sad and has no purpose. He also tries to make the Rose tree feel bad about blooming gorgeous flowers year after year- jealous....:) So I thought, Why not have his purpose be to HELP the tree bloom to a lovely melody he wrote?! What I thought was extra cool about this assignment? Lilla chose a snail because it's a simple character that everyone can draw no matter what their skill level. Also, the story is laid out for us and ready to be told-with our help. Just like a real book assignment. She certainly knows what she's doing, that one. :)

March is roaring....

roaring right by I say!!!!! It's already the 7th for crying out loud. What the heck???? I guess it's true what they say. As you get older time just flys. Good thing we're having fun :) Wow, I'm just full of cliche' sentiments right now. Anyway, just wanted to share this little buddy of a gouache study I did for a top secret animal project that Colin and I are really pumped about. We started it awhile back and then dropped the ball. Hopefully there will be no more ball dropping. I simply CANNOT have it! hmmph! This little guy below is actually going to a friend of mine who runs a lovely lovely lil' blog called because it's awesome. I freaking love that name so much. It makes me feel better for over using that word. Cause I do. She's having a little one soon and wanted it for her little future leo baby! 

Super Fun Family Portrait Commission

Helloooo. How are ya today? Enjoying your Saturday afternoon so far? I just had waffles and bacon so I'm swell :) I'm also really excited to share a project we finished right before Christmas that we've been too busy to share until now! It was another commission from the lovely designer Jennifer Bertrand. I should mention she is debuting an internet radio show about design and other musings. Pretty cool. She asked us to do a family portrait for her lovely friend Violet. Her husband is none other than Frank Black from the Pixies. WHAT???!!! Of course we freaked out and then said yes. Then freaked out some more. We are obviously fans of the Pixies so it was such an honor. Plus we had total creative freedom so we went to town. As we sketched and looked over pics of them we couldn't help but fall in love with their quirky/down to earth family. We tried to capture the essence of the lovely couple and there 5 awesome kids as best we could. Colin had the brilliant idea of doing a family totem so we found out what their fave animals were. We had a blast and feel so lucky to have been able to do this project.

WIP-Tigersheep Alphabet Cards

Hello! Hope all is well on the interwebs. A while back Colin and I decided we wanted to create a set of alphabet cards. It's just too appealing of a project for 2 illustrators who love character design and also have an almost equal passion for typography. Here is WIP of an impala. I just wanted to share the overall style of what some of them are going to look like. I'm excited about adding more line work for texture and of course some cool hand lettering. One of my favorite things about doing this project is the studies I get to do of the animal in my sketchbook. And also getting to learn cool things about the animals. ANIMALS ARE AMAZING!!!!! I'm going to post some of my process sketches and studies later possibly tonight.