Dandelion Sky

Just started a new summer promo/personal piece. I'm calling it 'Dandelion Sky' ...inspired a bit by Miyazaki movies, a bit by Ray Bradbury's book Dandelion Wine, and a whole lot by the feel of summer!

Much more to go: but I like the way it's shaping up!

(As you can see I also decided, after coloring the initial sketch, that this would make a really nice wide-format wallpaper.)

DnD Eladrin Shaman Druid =)

I am into many many fantasy things.... I draw fantasy scenes for a living, I read fantasy books, watch fantasy movies, yet I have never played D&D. Well, a group of our good friends (including fellow fantasy artist Cynthia Sheppard) have decided to change that.

With my good fiancé, Chris, nominated as DM, we are about to embark on an epic quest of dice, math (shudder >_<) and epic story.... And, of course, fine beverages and cheeses.

After careful thought I decided to go with a an elf of the Eladrin race. Something about looking all pretty and mysterious and being able to teleport around. As for class I am technically playing a Shaman(ess) but that is only because it seems to work more the way I envision a Druid. I'm much more into getting all buffy and healy on my group than rending things and splattering blood. And I get a kitty companion! =)

Anyhow, in my excitement (and badness) I chose to do a piece for myself today, a portrait of my character:

Daily Sketch - Foggy Mirror + Meadow

Today's Daily Sketch Words:

Foggy Mirror and Meadow

Time: 45min
Program: Colors! (on Nintendo DSi)

Daily Sketch - Symbol of Life + Rust

So I've been meaning to get myself into a new habit for quite some time. Or should I say back into the practice of quick "daily" sketches. This morning I curled up on the couch and made a start =)

The topics come from two separate grab bags of phrases and words I made up some time ago. The idea is that I blindly draw one of each and use those to spark the color sketch.

Today's Daily Sketch Words:

Symbol of Life and Rust

Time: 45min
Program: Colors! (on Nintendo DSi)

William and the Witch

So my little fingers have been flying around the ol' Wacom... Below are some recent projects: the first a WIP character portrait for author Tom Tancin (of Time Warrior fame).

The second is a quick black & white interior illustration for fantasy author Mark Milbrath. This is the first of a series of images for his upcoming book Pumpkin Tales (working title). The particular story I've illustrated is called "Matilda's Ingredients" -about a witch, three orphan girls, and a mysterious cat.

The Snow Queen Returns

Today I took a break from characters designs and worked a bit more on the Snow Queen piece. As I was not pleased with the painting step I ended on last time, I scrapped it and started from the rough sketch. From there I made multiple layers of clean line art for each part of the image. After that I blocked in solid colors for each object (each on their own layer). The next step is going to be to get more local color into each part and to start on shading and adding dimension.

Stardust in My Eye

I just came home from the local theater where I saw Stardust. I loved it! I think it shines best (he he) in the relationship between Yvaine (Claire Danes) and Tristan (Charlie Cox). Tristan's character was just so boyishly cute and hilarious. Hugable, very hugable. And Claire as Yvaine is just awesome. Such chemistry between them. I'll admit at the very beginning I was a little apprehensive, but by the end I had been charmed completely. The humor throughout was quite lovely, especially the whole dead princes thing and the tough-guy *cough* Captain. One of the most sophisticatedly humorous movies I've seen in a looong time. I love the way that they did the whole star thing. Awww...

The Little Things II

Urgggg, so tedious. I think one more day should do it, as far as the initial blending pass. Then I'll be tweaking stuff and adding final details.

Sweet Progress

My next cover commission is still in progress (being edited) so I've had a bit more down time than I expected. So I decided to use my time "wisely" and work on my picture book idea.

I now have a (roughly) 2,000 word story (hopefully, I can further tighten and shorten in the next revision).

On the illustration side. I made a series of tiny thumbnails so sloppy that only I could decipher them in my sketchbook (with a real pen, no less!)

For the past week I've been working to make these into more readable roughs, and also to work out a potential layout. I really like the idea of using mostly spreads, with the first and last images being single-side images.

Here is what I've come up with so-far:



The BIG version (with the actually legable text is here, warning 2.5 MB):

http://www.ldiehl.com/wip/bookdummy_wip.jpg

A Secret About Stories

I am now in the process of paring down my just written children's book manuscript, which is about 1,000 words "too long." Must... lose... description.... Or something like that.

I went to my local books-a-million today looking for Writing With Pictures: How to Write and Illustrate Children's Books by Uri Shulevitz and, of course, they didn't have it. Looks like I'll be ordering that one from Amazon. I hate buying books that I can't flip through first.

So what is this secret? It's not my secret, but a fine jewel of advice from an experienced Author/Illustrator Barbara Helen Berger. She is best know for her book Grandfather Twilight, which I really want to get my hands on.

The site uses frames so it is a little hard to link to. But here is the frameless page:


http://bhberger.com/children/features/secret_stories.htm?ok

And here is the link to her main site: (The "secret" I'm talking about is under features> secrets>

http://bhberger.com

At any rate, I'm very happy I discovered it. The idea of working from the pictures to tell the story seems the easiest way for me. A big thank-you to Barbara!