Chubby Broccoli: 2008

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

grandma and grandpa go to the grocery store

This is a sketch I've been working on for a while. I started painting it on the weekend but it's no where near done yet.

©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

This will be my last post until the new year as the hubby and I are now on holidays. Merry Christmas everyone!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

bundled kid - painted

Remember this sketch? I finally got around to painting it yesterday.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

winter boy / angry girl

I've been pretty busy this week with Christmas suppers and potluck lunches which is why I didn't have a chance to scan and post anything until today. Here's some of the sketches I did this past week:

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Collected Characters - raffle donation

©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

I took the day off on Friday from my day job where I work as a graphic designer. I spent that day as well as Saturday and today working on a piece I'm donating to a raffle. I said I'd donate something months ago but haven't been able to decide what to paint. I've been really into drawing these characters for the last few months so on Thursday I decided to draw/paint a collection of them. I finished them in a minimal way that I've been interested in lately.

I bought a simple pine frame and stained it dark walnut. Here's the final product:

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Lady with purse

Friday, December 12, 2008

Motivation

Thursday, December 11, 2008

More Birds

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Tuesday night sketch group - two birds

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Bubble

Monday, December 8, 2008

The painting that almost killed me

©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

If you follow my blog you've seen this image before. I posted the sketch way back when, and I made some silkscreen prints of it this past summer. You probably can't tell, but I have been working on this version, the painted version, for over a year. The textures that were originally on the paper are hidden under many layers of different coloured paint. If you look closely you might see a bit of the orange-pink base that I started with. I was never happy with the way the image looked so I kept adding more paint, trying to get it perfect. I just now decided that it's done - mostly because it's time for it to be done - I'm tired of thinking about it. The obsession ends today.

I made it for my friend Jammer. I hope he likes it.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Illustration Friday - similar

Friday, December 5, 2008

Figure Drawering

I didn't have time to post any art this week - but I did go figure drawing on Tuesday so I thought I'd put up a few drawings from that. The model is one I've drawn before and I love drawing her because she's so curvy. I like the exaggeration in the hips of the middle drawing.

To the students who just took my class:

I had meant to pass around a paper for the people in my class to write their e-mail addresses on (if they wanted to) for the purpose of the students being able to keep in touch and have a community of aspiring children's book illustrators. A few people had expressed a desire to do this. I, however, forgot to do it and now that the class has wrapped up, it's too late. If any of my students happen to read this entry, Lisa Thompson has asked me to pass along the following message:

"Lisa Thompson was hoping to keep in touch with members of our Children's Book Illustration class. She has a facebook group set-up that can act as a forum for sharing ideas, success or just for keeping in touch. If you have any desire to join her facebook group and stay connected with other class members, please contact: lisa@thompsonhome.com"

Big thank you to Mike Kerr & Renata Liwska

I taught my last class for this semester yesterday evening. I thought it would be nice to do something casual since no one ever really wants to do any work on the last day. I arranged to have Renata Liwska and Mike Kerr come in to do a talk. Renata ended up being sick so Mike presented both of their work to the class. It was really great and informative. Thanks so much to Mike and Renata. You can check out their on-line portfolios here.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

blog banner

I'd like to illustrate my own blog banner so I've been sketching out a few ideas for that lately. I've settled on an idea but I'm still working out the drawing. This lady is on the rejected pile - she doesn't quite look the way i want her to.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

cover girl

Monday, November 24, 2008

smelly sock

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Uncle Fred is 37 years old and lives in grandma's basement

Monday, November 17, 2008

Uptown Girl

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Awkward Girl

Friday, November 14, 2008

sketchbook - character studies

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Tuesday night sketch group

Monday, November 10, 2008

sketchbook - assorted characters

Sunday, November 9, 2008

bundled kid

It snowed in Calgary this week.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

sketch for melia's portrait

This is a sketch for a portrait I've been commissioned to do of a little girl named Melia. Her parents really liked my Nature Girl piece and wanted something similar.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Brio Magazine - Never Say Amen

Friday, October 31, 2008

sketchbook: coffee break

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Sketchbook - girl sitting/guy making face

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

My Cookie - painted 2 ways

I was off from my day job all last week so I spent a lot of time in my studio. I wanted to play around with the way that I create finished illustrations. I especially wanted to try not using heavy black line the way I usually do. Here are 2 ways that I painted the image 'My Cookie.'

Sunday, October 19, 2008

creepy girl

Friday, October 17, 2008

sad boy

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Tuesday night sketch group - a couple characters

I did these last night...

Monday, October 13, 2008

Little girl with her dad

Saturday, October 11, 2008

old man

Thursday, October 9, 2008

twins

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

old lady

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Red Cross Poster - final design

Over the weekend, the designer sent me the final version of the poster with all the text. Here it is:

Monday, October 6, 2008

Baby potatoes

My husband had bought a bag of potatoes from the Hutterites in the spring and the few we hadn't eaten by July were soft and sprouting. It was way past the time to be planting potatoes, but I stuck them in the ground anyway rather than compost them. There were 4 of them and they grew. On Sunday I dug them up. Most of the potatoes were really small, but one was actually a pretty decent size. I can't wait to eat them - garden potatoes are so good.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

The drummer and the bass player

I was at the Wonderland: Fall into Madness show at The Gateway on Saturday night. One of the bands that performed was Sally Hardesty. All of the members were quite entertaining, even as audience members during the other acts. I managed to remember 2 of them well enough to draw from memory. Although they didn't really look like this, I still like how the sketch turned out.

©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

I actually won the door prize that night - 2 tickets to Gwar. I'm going with the hubby - should make for an interesting night :)

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

More sketchbook characters

I did these drawings while on a business trip in Whistler, BC, last week.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Dario as a little boy

This is how I imagine my husband was as a little boy.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Sketchbook fun - 3 characters

Sunday, September 28, 2008

illustration for poster

This illustration is for a poster that I was working on a little while ago. I didn't do the design for it and haven't seen it yet with the text. I'll post it once I do.

©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

The thing about this project that was really great for me creatively, is that it brought me back to the kind of drawing that I used to love to do. Over the years I've slowly gotten away from the more free style of drawing that I used to do as a student, which is also the type of drawing that I tend to do for children's stuff. In my sketches for this poster - and there were a lot of sketches - I was drawing many children and I haven't drawn human children in a long time. Instead of focussing on proportion, I was just having fun with facial expression, different sized eyes, elongated limbs... It was great. Here's some of my process sketches for this poster - they're pretty rough but I think the little girl is cute:

©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

Although I think in time this way of drawing will dominate, for now I don't think it's appropriate for all of the illustration projects that I work on. I'll just be using it for drawings meant for children.

Since finishing this project I have been so inspired and excited. I've been working steadily in my sketchbook, more than I have ever before. Not everything I've drawn is good, but I've been experimenting and really enjoying the process. I've been drawing lots of characters which I'll be posting in the days to come.