Escaping the Heat

It's that time of year. A 114 degree day. So far, more than a dozen days over 110 degrees. It's that time of year when we Phoenicians flee this oven we live in otherwise known as "They Valley of the Sun." So, for the next couple of months, as I take every opportunity to escape the heat, this blog will be on hold.

An Interview!

Want to find out more about me? Check out my interview on the Susan Sandmore Blog! Thanks Susan! Susan's a very talented writer who just landed an agent. (Not that long ago I called her up and coming. I was right!) She's got a great blog and a great sense of humor. She threw some fun and unexpected questions at me. If you haven't done so yet, head over and check it out. I won this honor by choosing the right answer on her 10 Truths and a Lie post. I love contests and winning things! In fact, since then I also won the book Moon, Have You Met My Mother:
The Collected Poems of Karla Kuskin, thanks to Elaine at Wild Rose Reader.

Want to win a book yourself? Check out Cynsations for the latest Giveaways!

Note: This post was re-posted and updated from last week. I felt it got lost in the middle of my W-I-P, so I'm giving it another go with a few more links.

The Prize Winner is...

or should I say are!

Kate and
Angela Fox (azang)

Why two winners you may ask? As it turns out when I set the rules for this contest, I was celebrating the 10,000th visitor to this blog and I figured the chances were slim, even with Statcounter, that I'd be able to discover the true identity of the 10,000th visitor. Well I was wrong! I hit 10,000 right on schedule on Wednesday and guess what? I was able to track it right to Angela Fox.

Kate your name was drawn out of a hat! OK, I didn't think of actually using a hat, it was more like a Tupperware container. Among everyone who left a comment last week your name was chosen!

Thanks to all who entered!

If the winners could please drop me an email with your mailing address I will send the prints off to you. You can reach me at gail (at) gailmakiwilson (dot) com. Kate, if you have a blog or website let me know and I'll add the link!

Work-In-Progress Part 5

And here's the final! Click on the image to enlarge.


To see all the steps of this work-in-progress click here.
To find out how you can win a signed print of the finished illustration click here.

Work-In-Progress Part 4

Finally the bubbles! They are done with Prismacolor colored pencils on DuraLar Matte . I've never used Prismacolor on Duralar before and thought this piece would be perfect for it. I've seen others use it, and I've played with it some, but wasn't sure how it would work with my "many layers" technique. (Which can easily be 10-20 layers. For the bubbles I probably have 4 or 5.) It was very different for me. There is less detail than I normally do. Which is fine. I was going for a softer focus, blurred motion thing. It sure went a lot quicker! And it gave me the shiny quality of a bubble that I don't think I would have gotten as quickly on paper.

Here's detail of one of the bubbles. I'm doing them on a separate sheet of Duralar, scanning, and adding them to the composition in Photoshop. This way I can play with the exact placement and add a transparent quality. Even though I'm drawing each element in this piece by hand my final "original" will be a digital file.

To see all the steps of this work-in-progress click here.
To find out how you can win a signed print of the finished illustration click here.

Work-In-Progress Part 3

Now I've finished most of the girl. I need to soften the darks underneath her neck a bit more. I faded out the wisps of hair at the ends. I like the white of the shirt. Having it vignette works fine. I don't feel the same about the hand. It's actually drawing more attention to it then I want. It looks kind of awkward. Like I didn't know where to stop, which is true. So I will be including her wrist.

Once I've got the form down, I really like drawing hands. Seems like most people don't, but I find if you look at what's really there, and don't let your mind tell you what to draw it's not so hard. Same thing with ears. Draw what you see.

The other thing that happened, without me realizing it, is my paper angle had shifted. While focusing on the details I lost sight of the original placement. Here I have angled the image properly and will have to extent her hair (hair extensions!) and sleeve down to make the bottom edge horizontal again. I guess you can see where I'm going with the color now.

To see all the steps of this work-in-progress click here.
To find out how you can win a signed print of the finished illustration click here.

Work-In-Progress Part 2

Here I have finished up her hair and face. As I work down her neck, I will decide just how "finished" to go with her shirt. I'm picturing having it vignette. I like the whiteness of the shirt. I'm noticing a dark, hard edge under her neck where I left off. I'll be softening that as I go. I'm considering doing a vignette with her hand too, but will have to see how it looks. Even though I'm working in values of gray here, I know as I work that she has blue eyes and sandy blonde hair.

To see all the steps of this work-in-progress click here.
To find out how you can win a signed print of the finished illustration click here.

Work-In-Progress and a Prize!

Prize!
Each day this week I'll be posting a different stage of this illustration. In celebration of hitting my 10,000th visitor to this blog, I will be giving away a signed print of the finished piece. Since it will be difficult to know exactly who the 10,000th person is, I'm going to open this up as a contest. Just stop by any day this week, check out the W-I-P, and leave a comment. Each comment will count as an entry in the drawing. (There will be no limit to the numbers of times you may enter.) On Monday June 23th I will post the name of the winner. So stop by and have a look. Good luck!

Work-In-Progress Part One
At this point I am using Graphite pencils on Duralar Matte. The overall size is 9x18. I know this piece will be mixed media, I know I will be combing B&W with color to push the "concept" of the piece. I'm undecided on where the two will meet. I'm approaching the girl as a complete B&W drawing that can stand on it's own, but keeping the option of it becoming an underpainting, with some color being added, in the back of my mind.

To see all the steps in this work-in-progress click here.

A Notice from my Library

So, I go to renew some books online today and had to laugh out loud when I checked the reason why I wasn't able to renew them. It said:

You cannot renew items because:

• You owe too much money

Oh, well. I guess it's time for my annual donation to my local library!