New Work

I've been working like crazy in my studio, lately. Unfortunately, I can't show the book I've been working on just yet. I do, however, have a little something to show you. I recently entered a contest and was forced to get a little creative with my illustrations. Since my scanner's not working, I ended up making sketches, taking pictures of them with my phone, and emailing them to myself. I then colored everything in Photoshop. Here's one of six panels I did for the contest:

Like I've mentioned before, digital illustration is not my strong suit, but I am really happy with the result of these latest illustrations. I will show you the whole storyboard eventually. At the moment, though, I am working on a manuscript for these characters, so I don't want to reveal too much!

Enjoy the weekend!

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