Run Gus Run

I love when I plop down to snap some shots from his perspective, this little boy runs straight for me with a huge grin on his face.

<3 p="">

xo

nessa dee

Narwhal

There's still time to get this guy before Christmas! He's for sale at Cherry Tree Creative in Taylor, TX, along with a whole collection of vintage and handmade items. They stay open late on the third Thursday of every month, which happens to be tomorrow!

Are you ready for Christmas?

I'm not...yet.

xo

nessa dee

Be Happy

Playing around with handmade text in photoshop.

xo

nessa dee

Experimenting

I'm a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to illustration.  I like to get my hands dirty. I like physically creating textures, layering paint, and making messes. I like the imperfections and happy accidents that I discover in the process. When digital illustration became more mainstream, I shied away from the idea partly because I didn't like the flat look of digital art, but mostly because I was technologically ignorant. This day and age, though, it's hard to tell digital art from traditional, and over the years I've become aware of the benefits of painting digitally as digital processes have slowly been seeping into my artwork. I mostly use Photoshop to touch up my illustrations and tweak colors, and just knowing I can "fix" something in Photoshop has eased my mind just a bit.

As my Photoshop skills are improving, I decided to experiment with an upcoming project. I am doing the whole project digitally. It's a big stretch for me because I'm still a dummy when it comes to computers, but I have my trusty friends Google and YouTube to guide me along the way. Here's a sneak peek:

I have to admit, I'm love, love, loving digital! I know I still have so, so much to learn, but I'm excited about the progress I've made in such a short amount of time, and am looking forward to learning more.

 I won't be giving up my traditional methods anytime soon, though. As much as I'm loving exploring this new [to me] medium, I miss getting my hands dirty.

xo 

nessa dee 

A Sneeze...

Making this year's Tomie dePaola Award entry was a lot of fun. The prompt was to illustrate the following poem:

A sneeze

Is a breeze

In 

Your

Nose.

I decided to go with an elephant sneezing on a cast of cute characters. This is the final entry:

The piece itself is three dimensional. The elephant's skin was created with tissue paper, and each little child was made separately and attached to the background using painter's tape. The balloon string is embroidery thread, and I love the effect it gives. 

The winner of this contest will be chosen in January by Tomie dePaola himself, and the prize is a trip to the SCBWI Winter Conference in NYC. While I have my fingers crossed, I know that even if I don't win, I still have a piece for my portfolio that I'm quite fond of.

xo

nessa dee

On the outside [grain bins edition]...

I held my breath...

until about this point...

On the inside...

On the inside, looking out...

xo

nessa dee