More doggy sketches on this sunny day. Currently my illustration process alternates each day from “I love it” to “I hate it all and I cannot draw shit..!” I suppose that is normal? Either way, I decided to push trough and get all the pages done by the end of this month. So watch this space.
As you might guess from the sketches, Mouse´s favourite past time beside eating and running around is napping. I mean, dogs sleep 12-14 hours per day. I am pretty much envious at this point as I have been sleep deprived for a month.
I have been pretty much drawing dog after dog, exploring different poses and especially sleeping positions. Dogs can look too funny while sleeping.
I was stuck with my book dummy and some of the spot illustrations I wanted to add. So now I have a huge number of sketches from which I will pick my favourite ones.
Actually it’s supposed to be character sketches for the same dog 🙂 I mentioned previously a book I am working on. So this is it. The original idea started 2 years ago with the first sketches, and it has been brewing ever since. As I am not a writer it took me a bit to put the story together and to have it professionally edited.
Since getting into illustration, I realized that for many illustrators it’s a race to the bottom with some authors not willing to pay more than dumping prices. So I decided I would rather do my own stories and illustrate them. I know that marketing will be the hardest part, but I will deal with that later.
Anyhow, since I started working on this book I have been coming up with multiple other story ideas, so there will be no shortage of ideas to explore once I am done with it.
Inspiration for the story is Mausi (Mouse, yep, what started as a nick name when she was little became her actual name.), my sister’s adorable Labrador. She is gentle, loveable, cheeky and a bit gaga at times, especially when it comes to water and sticks.
Ok, last greeting card design for now. At least for today. I somehow feel like making more cards, but I guess I should stop the procrastination and keep working on my children’s book!
Are there any other card designs you would like to see? What’s your favourite animal?
If you need a last minute Valentine’s day card you can find it here in my Etsy shop as printable download!
Happy Valentine’s Day or Friends Day as the Finns call it! 🙂
Happ
Another design attempt. This is really fun.
Are you looking for a last minute Valentine’s day card? Maybe for the capybara lover in your life?
You can get the card here in my new Etsy shop as digital download.
I decided to set up an Etsy shop for printable wall art and cards and have been having fun the past week in coming up with designs. I think it is also a way of procrastination from the task at hand, which is getting my illustrations done for my latest book project. I still haven´t managed to posted about it…. Maybe tomorrow.
Anyhow, I have been having fun learning more about photoshop and designer and mock ups, so it is not all wasted time. Apparently Valentine’s day is just around the corner and I thought I experiment with that. Here is one for the honey badger in your life! What do you think?
You find the download in my shop here.
Needed something to distract me from my actual work plan, so I messed around with my capybara drawing and Affinity photo and voila! Meet the Capybara queen Brenda 🙂
Now back to work…
Perfect weather for it today finally!
Snow, sunshine and good music. Perfect Sunday 🙂
Is it a coincidence that I keep drawing animals drinking coffee?
Coming your way…
It’s been a while since I drew a honey badger. After what feels like days of sleep deprivation, I feel like drinking coffee is not enough anymore… Give me that bucket!
The plan for today looks like this! SLedding!
Followed by the pool. It’s only in Iceland where the outdoor pools are packed when it is snowing. Best time to soak in the hot water when it is freezing out there. And to watch children´s play in swimsuits in the snow.
Have a great week!
That’s me, waddling out into the snow today. We are back to winter wonderland after 2 days of snowfall and no one who cleaned the roads…
Happy Sunday everyone!
We are having the best snowstorm ever right now and we ran out of coffee. I guess I have no other option than to venture out…. See ya!
More capybaras are about to come. So much fun inking them!
My notebook of ideas is filling up. Since the beginning of the year I had a million creative ideas in addition to the ones that have been piling up for years. The only issue is lack of time. So I have been utilizing every free minute this past week to work on the current project but also start new ones… I really need to get better at focusing.
Anyway, I just wanted to do a warm up sketch today before getting started on my book illustrations, but then ended up doing capybaras, as I missed their entertaining pokerfaces. Here is a behind the scenes.
What situation would you like to see the capybara in?
And it didn´t even snow that much overnight. But with the lack of total winter service in Reykjavik, people drive like they have never seen snow before and everything turns into a challenge. Quite remarkable.
Different winter, same story…
For all the dog people out there, I have been drawing dogs all weekend. Well, actually the same dog over an over again. Character design for my new book! I will be giving you a sneak peak soon, so watch this space.
Meanwhile I am still enjoying these two. The sun came finally back to Reykjavik but so came the wind and it feels like – 24 degrees Celsius out there…
Melanie Franz 