Happy Valentine's Day!

Here is my Valentine's Day mailer for this year!

Whether you celebrate Valentine's Day or Single's Awareness day you should go out and dance!

I hope you all enjoy today!
Made in Photoshop CS4. For anyone who is familiar with ballroom dancing, this is supposed to be a new yorker. : )

So I am an "Avatard"

As of late I have been very interested in the cultures, concepts, and clothing in the TV series Avatar the Last Airbender. As a result I felt compelled to create a character to resemble myself in that setting. For those of you who know the series, this would take place after the series, and if you don't want spoilers I suggest you stop reading here.

I shall share the utter nerdy-ness that overtook me as I created an entire character and background for said character.

Her name is Azaya and she is a 22 year old Waterbender, like her father. However, her mother and older brother are Firebenders. She grew up in the Fire Nation- specifically Shu Jing, the home of Piandao. Currently she lives in the Earth Kingdom as she prefers their food (not spicy) and occupational opportunities. Her best friend, Zorra (yea Zelda rip off!) is a Waterbender from the Northern Water Tribe, where she visits every now and then. (As I said, this takes place after the war is over and peace between the nations is being attempted.)

Her abilities include Waterbending, Healing, and Dual Swordsmanship. She wishes she could Firebend as well (especially to incorporate into her dancing)...actually she'd love to be able to bend all of the elements but alas, she is not the Avatar...c'est la vie.

Her professions include: Dancer, Painter, Teacher, Actor, Herbalist, Singer, Healer (gee, remind you of somebody's ideal lifestyle?)

She really enjoys the fire nation's style in clothing, and thus mostly wears it, though she pays tribute to her tribe with a few accents and her water tribe vile- a trinket on her dao sword, in which she keeps water from the North Pole so she can always have a piece of it wherever she goes. She is also relatively new member of the White Lotus Society and carries a white lotus gambit on her other dao sword.

Also, despite long finger nails representing royalty in the Fire Nation...she keeps hers long because she enjoys imitating (and mocking) people with vast amounts of money- she is slightly bitter that she has none and has no fear of showing it.

Enjoy!

Winter...A Bit Late!

Well, it's a bit late to upload this, but here is my winter card for this year! However, without any snow and cold weather this does not feel so appropriate, and it most definitely does not feel like winter! Where is the snow?

Anyway, enjoy!

It's Autumn!

Hurray! It is officially autumn, and to celebrate I made an autumn postcard!


For those who enjoy autumn as I do, hopefully you can relate to taking a walk in the crisp autumn air as the wind blows the beautifully vibrant leaves. All of the warm colors, scarves, and hats perfectly compliment the chilly air so that you feel alive but still warm and cozy- the perfect combination. This is possibly my favorite season and I hope to share my love of it with all of you!

This is also done completely in Photoshop CS4 with my lovely tablet.
A re-visited project should be posted soon, however my dance classes start this week so my illustration time might be slightly more limited. Until then......

Happy Autumn!!!

Rooster's Adventure on Amazon!

Rooster's Adventure is officially available for purchase on Amazon.com under the books section!

http://www.amazon.com/Roosters-Adventure-Liz-Bell/dp/1466338431/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1316829958&sr=8-10

If you enjoy this book and wish to support me or my art, please spread the word!

Despite being out of work with the other children's book illustrations, I have managed to keep myself busy with my autumn postcard, which is still a work in progress, as well as re-doing a piece I found from four years ago, which I will post soon! Currently I am still tweaking the line art.

How I have found time to wrap myself in art while I have my teaching job, my other job, babysitting, and dancing, I am not sure...but I am happy that I have! I hope it does not disappear when my dance classes start three times a week.

Until next time!!

Book Updates!

I have both good and bad news...I will get the bad new over with first.

The illustration project for the new children's book is being postponed, so it is up to me to do my own art. However, that shouldn't be too difficult, especially with holiday card season fast approaching!

And now for the good news! My first children's book, Rooster's Adventure, should be available to purchase through Amazon and CreateSpace eStore within the next two weeks! Currently it is also available on Lulu.com.
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/roosters-adventure/16954698?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/1

However, Amazon/CreateSpace frankly does a better job with the printing and quality. It is also available to a much wider audience- most people know about Amazon, whereas few people are aware of Lulu.com. So if you know anyone who you think would enjoy this book, please spread the word! If things go well with this book, I intend to publish my second children's book, Puppy's Problem, also through Amazon/CreateSpace.

Lastly, I am inspired so much by fall that I hope to do another autumnal card, possibly evolving into a series of cards. I will also start brainstorming for my winter cards, both of which will be for sale should anyone want to buy a print.

Best wishes to all of you! And thanks for reading!

'Till next time!
~Liz

Exploration!

After a long break I finally felt the strong urge to draw pull me back to my computer, where hours flew past without my even noticing. It was amazing, and felt so good to illustrate simply because I wanted to again. This is the product of locking myself in my room for hours on end when I have the desire to just keep working on art. It is an original character of mine that I have not drawn in a few years. Done completely in Photoshop CS4 with a tablet.


Whenever I illustrate my original characters they tend to come out in a much more detailed, cell-shaded style that strays quite far from my children's book or editorial style...so this time I decided to make an attempt to combine them- depict my character in my children's book style...and I would say it strongly resembles it, yet there are quite a number of ways that it varies as well. However, I am happy with the result!

And before anyone asks, yes he is a goth. His name is Zairin. He was conjured in my mind during an interesting period in my life, but he really is quite nice at heart. Previously I did not see myself illustrating tween/teen novels, but I could see this in some of those novels I see on the shelves today.

Any thoughts? Please share them! I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

Until next time!

Time for an update!

Well, now that school is out job searching has become my full time job. However, in addition to that I have been asked to illustrate a children's book! I have been developing the characters and am now starting to play with fonts for the cover design for my client.

I do not want to give away too much information about the book, as it is not under my copyright, but I will say that it is about a boy who wants a teddy bear and how he goes about getting one. The boy is what I assume will be the main character drawn, along with a few other people and finally the bear. Currently I am still uncertain about whether the finished works will be done digitally or with dip pen and ink with watercolor, but I am working on the sketches digitally.

Below are a few examples of different layouts with three possible fonts for the cover. The three fonts I use are Garmond, Myriad Pro, and Optima. My favorites (Baskerville, Gill Sans, Helvetica, Didot, Cochin, ect.) just didn't work with the illustrations or feel of the book.





I'm sure to some these all look the same, and for that I apologize, but there are differences! I am playing with the size of the text versus the illustration, the type, as well as the placement of the title and author/illustrator names.

Anyway, I just felt like an update was necessary, and thus you have this. Hopefully there will be more soon once we have decided how the text will be dispersed over the 24 pages- then I can begin working on thumbnails for the double page spreads!

Best wishes to all of my followers, and enjoy! Until next time!
~Liz

Another Birthday Card!

Well, it's about time I update this!

This is the outside of a birthday card I designed and illustrated for my boyfriend. Happy Birthday!!
And this is the inside design and illustration. For those of you who have seen the emperor Palpatine "Goooood" youtube video, this card was inspired by that. Enjoy!
This was created completely in Adobe Photoshop CS4 with my wonderful tablet. Also, I did design the faux barcode, it most definitely is not a legitimate barcode.

Until next time!

Celtic Goddess Brigit

Well, I have been busy working on my book, images of which will be posted soon, and finals!
In the mean time, this is my interpretation of the pagan Celtic goddess, Brigit. I decided to experiment with textures and new techniques in Adobe Photoshop. Ideally I would like to re-do this in all traditional mediums, but for now this will have to do.

A brief explanation of this beautiful goddess:
Mind you, this is not the Christian interpretation of her, this is the ancient pagan goddess.

Brigit is the daughter of the Dagda, father figure to the celtic gods and goddesses.
She is a triple goddess, representing the circle of life and regeneration through three forms: the maiden, the mother, and the crone. She is often associated with fire and, of course, the life of plants and animals on the earth.

Enjoy!

This is a design for a Valentine's Day card that I sent out, as I am a huge fan of Johnny Depp, especially as Jack Sparrow. It was an overnight assignment so that I could send it out on time. Sketched traditionally, scanned in, then done in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

Enjoy!

And Happy Valentine's Day!

Contests, Books, Valentine's Day?

I have been so busy working on my children's book and entering various contests that I forgot to show my blog some love and update it again!

Contests:
Adobe Achievement Award http://www.adobeawards.com/us/?trackingid=IEGTE
If you are eligible you should enter! I am a bit confused about the three "phases" though...

Rolling Stone Cover Opportunity! This was given to our entire Illustration department, the winner could end up doing one of their covers. That would be amazing! So I entered.

Book:
I finally have all 16 spreads laid out in comps and made into a miniature dummy book. I also have a huge stack of un-used thumbnail sketches and discarded comp sketches for each spread, but that is not the exciting part. We shall see how many more times I decide to tweak the composition and how closely my "type placement" will fit when actual type is inserted. Artwork will be coming soon!

Valentine's Day:
I feel as though I should do something for the up and coming Single's Awareness Day, more commonly known a Valentine's Day. The trick will be finding time to do this and still complete all of my other work in an attempt to keep my GPA high. No "senior-itice" yet! Hopefully there will be art related to the fun holiday soon as well!

New Children's Book!

It's time to start back up with art projects! This time I am going to write and illustrate a second children's book about a Husky pup torn between the homey lifestyle of his mom and the lifestyle of his dad who lives wild in the woods. Still in the planning process, but it is coming along!
My apologies for the lack of any art up until now, an unexpected full-time job dropped in my lap over break, and while it was wonderful, it took away most of my time and energy.

More work will be posted soon!

Shakespear and Puck

For my final in Type and Image I designed a double page spread for my favorite of Puck's speeches from the play A Midsummer Night's Dream. As it is a magical play with faeries and the mysterious night, I attempted to create a magical feeling that takes place during the darkest hours of the day.
Done digitally in Adobe Photoshop and InDesign CS4 and CS5.

Belated Birthday Card

This is a belated birthday card for a dear friend of mine. She loved the style in which I did the portrait of Ginny the dog for the Colors Magazine in Italy, so I attempted to simulate the same style in this card.
"I missed you and your birthday! Welcome home, and happy belated birthday!"

Sleepaway Camp

This illustration can be seen in What's Up Annapolis with the feature article about sleepaway camp. The article focuses on how to determine whether a child is ready for sleepaway camp and how to support them while they are away. Often having something of sentimental value, such as a stuffed animal or a blanket, brings comfort, and reading letters of excitement from parents helps to create excitement about events in the camp.

Oyster Roast!

The real gold is found inside the delicious oysters!
A sketch for an oyster roast, done in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

Panda Parade!

Inspired by the Japanese candies "Koala March" and "Hello Panda", I created a new product and the package design for "Panda Parade." It's both cute and delicious!


Created digitally in Photoshop and InDesign CS4.

Coffee Bag Design

There is nothing like some hot coffee in the winter season to warm your body and soul!
I designed an illustration that could go on a bag or other merchandise of a Coffee Shop inspired by the artistic style of Starbucks. I also experimented with incorporating a variety of textures into my digital art.

Birthday and Holiday Cards

If given the option of buying birthday cards or making them, I much prefer the latter, and as I am an illustrator I see no reason not to! This was a birthday card for a very close friend of mine.

These are two of this year's holiday cards that I was commissioned to do. The front and back of each can be seen respectively. All were done completely digitally in Photoshop CS4.

Card 1

Card 2

I have been commissioned to do 1-2 more and those will be up shortly!