Lion & Mouse Illustration Process post

Ok I admit it. I've been absent from this blog. I've been busy working on a big hush hush illustration project which is finally winding down. Unfortunately, I can't share anything from it yet BUT I can share the illustration process of my personal Christmas card.

Lion & Mouse © Diana Ting Delosh
Inks on watercolor paper & Digital.
Here's the CARD

I all begins with a pencil sketch. As you can see, originally was thinking of doing some hand lettering on the top.

Lion & Mouse Pencil Sketch
 © Diana Ting Delosh

Next comes the ink. Currently I'm using a brush on watercolor paper. It gives me thicks and thins as well as various tones of blacks and texture. I feel it all adds to the illustration's energy.

Lion & Mouse Ink Line © Diana Ting Delosh

I use colored inks to paint right over my black lines. I've lengthened the lion to give myself some leeway with the final design. I will mess with background on a separate layer in Photoshop.

Lion & Mouse © Diana Ting Delosh
Colored Inks on watercolor paper

Experimenting with the background. I know I want stars and a magical quality to the sky. Time to experiment with backgrounds. The sky is actually a sky I had previously painted with colored inks on watercolor and scanned.  I like the texture of real paints on paper. The stars are drawn in digitally on their own layer. Thank Goodness for the Wacom Tablet!

Lion & Mouse © Diana Ting Delosh
on Background-A

 Not enough oomph. It still lacks that magical quality I was after. Make the sky darker? Toss? NO! Thank goodness for layers. Just experiment with adding digital swirls and more stars and layers until... Voila! See the finished design at the beginning of this post.

Happy Holidays to ALL!

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365 DRAWINGS 2014: Hammock Lion #1

Happy 2014!
Here I go again with high hopes and big plans for the New Year! One of the things I'd like to do is just DRAW MORE in 2014 and get back into blogging. Planning on doing 365 Drawings* to be exact - one for each day of 2014 and posting about them.

Here's my debut Drawing,  Hammock Lion, Drawing  #1, Jan 2, 2014. My 1st with 364 more to go. Needless o say I may have to double up or quadruple a few here and there.

Hammock Lion © Diana Ting Delosh 1/2/14 Pencil Sketch

Inspired by the prompt, HAMMOCK in 642 Things to Draw, Chronicle Books 

*Rules for my personal challenge.
• Planning on doing 365 drawings and posting them on this blog. Meaning no work or other hush hush illos will be shown under the 365 Drawing header. The 365 will be additional drawings.

• May not draw or post daily BUT I will do: 31 drawings in Jan, 28 in Feb, 31 in March, etc.

• Drawing = sketch, finished illo, doodle, ink, etc. in any medium but must take some thought. No five second wonders to fill my monthly quota. And yes there may be different versions of a subject. Example: I may decide to do a finished version of my Hammock Lion - which would count as another "Drawing".

• All Drawings will be numbered and dated. And posted when I can.