How to use this Page

This piece is adorable. I could easily see it in a book of animal-themed fairy tales. I hope that little rabbit gets away! Nice work.

this is really lovely Kim

Beautiful and sentimental. Hopeful! A nice contrast to the devastation that is happening there.

lovely illustration~!

this is so sweet and warm and cozy~!<3

I love, love, love this! Such a gentle hand and the colors are perfect. Thanks for sharing!

I love this, too. I thought about something similar but with an animal on top but then I drew something else which I'm going to paint tonight and will share later. I'm always late for IF. ;)

In these blog there are several things which can be possible it can be one of the sweet and harm these all are looking very perfect to know about it.
Pet Meds

great illustration

NICE!

This is one of my favorite tales & you've done a great job with it!

So sweet and so soft :)
I love the patterns on all the layers. Your watercolortechnic is very good!
Pernilla Dufwenberg

Beautiful. Like the idea of layering torn paper.

Everytime I see this I like it more Kim!

I love this. The colors are great and I like all the different textures and patterns you have in the mattresses.

awwww, you're so sweet Becky, I really love yours.

Very n ice Kim, delicate, flowing, the reds are really vibrant, great diagonal with the rabbit head kite trailing bows etc - the windows in the trees are a nice touch.

An animal small (eg squirrel) placed down the b ottom rhs looking up would add a secondary interest, complete the base of the triangle and add a slight visual counterpoint to the strong diagonal formed by the kite.

The diagonal counterpoint would be implied by the squirrel's line if sight.

Oh the water colour wtare marks which have lifted the pigment in the bluish areas are lovely

I agree with Andrew, the only think I can add is that you might take the opacity of the pattern on the tan leaves down a notch or two, it is a little too much contrast and causes your eye to focus there. I really like it though.

I do find that my eyes go back and forth between the leaves in the tree top and the red kite. I agree with Andrew, to add a little critter at the base to help draw the eye down...then I Mr. Bunny would get more "air time."

Love the colors...that blue is my favorite :)

This is great color and movement. I could see a little more color on the grass area. Maybe another animal would do it. Not sure but you might not need it. The red in this area has a nice feel.

Thanks for the great feedback. adding another little creature is an excellent idea.

cute deer Kim, we've been stuck in the house for days due to snow and ice.

Lovely deer! I love this so much.

Simply beautiful. I'm inspired! Thank you.

What a lovely style!

Mmmmmmm, I just looove butter tarts! I think I will have to bake these one night after the kiddies are off to bed(due to the eggs and butter) and hide them in the back of the fridge just for me-tee hee

I really love your maple leaves!!

These sound delicious! Love the colors, a nice touch of warm and cool. And compositionally, this works very well for me. It's readable and marked with those little details I love. Very nicely done!

The illustration for this is warming. I love your presentation of this. Your images are perfect with the text. Nice work.

wonderful colors

Love this..!!!

This is so super cute!!! I love the scarves on the birds!

This is an old song but good. Of course, here it is spring in the Southern Hemisphere, but it certainly seems to still winter.

No Deposit Poker

sweet, I really like this!

That is just adorable :)
great style!

Nice one Kim! I just love that shade of Cerelean blue too!! The collage adds such a unique element to your work. Overall I really like this piece, nice colours too, and I like the softness you have achieved. I am wondering if the boy is standing on a balcony or in a balloon(due to the basket weave pattern). Would it be possible to put a white glow behind your stars? I like the effect you did in the blue background, is that from salt?

Thanks for the comments on my illo., I will try out some things and post a revision.

And big Congrats on the book! I visited your blog yesterday, and left you a comment- way to go!!!. That is so exciting!!

Ab-so-lu-lu gorgeous! Love your cup.

sweet illustration, I'm off to visit your blog now

This is soft and sweet. I love it. Very creative little cup. :) I was wondering the same thing.. Where is he? Very cute idea. Your color in this is wonderful.

Hey well this is full of joy - it's how things should be eh? I like the whole feeling of this work. And the idea behind it. Interesting the contrast of textures tween the stars and the sky

Hi, thanks everyone. Yes I was sort of thinking the same thing when I was doing the basket weave pattern of 'where is he' but then I sort of like that it is left to the imagination.

Thanks for all your comments!

sweet, I love it

looks great! I love the richness of your colours.

Its wonderful Kim, very zen like, the watercolour clouds are just so light and wafting! The joy of scrolled up tissues?

I'm doing the "love-it" dance over here! GREAT illo!

Kim, this is bright and beautiful, lovely

Hello Kim! What a fabulous and wonderful illustration. I really love those fantastic colors. Welcome to WAWE. I look forward to seeing more of your delicious work!!! Have a great week.

Hi Kim, this is very beautiful! I love the colors!

Ditto, I love the colors.

hi Lil Kim, I know your lovely work already - I live in Australia. I'm not going to the LA SCBWI conference but will be at the Sydney one in September & also at CYA in Brisbane. Are you going to either of those?

Wow beathiful,
I will contribute to Kelly Light's Ripple blog too, but I can´t decide the colors...

hello to you too ^_^

love it, the colors are wonderful

I really like the colours, they pop nicely...and the texture on the fish looks great. It almost looks like the yin-yang symbol. I also really like the water and the murky oil below it looks great.

Heh, I was going for yin and yang as well. Nice use of complementaries, very vibrant. Maybe you could use the yin and yang concept to add a bit more symmetry but still keep it dynamic?

Merry Christmas and a prosperous, creative new year!

Wow! That's great. Every time I read of someone landing an illustration job or their manuscript has been accepted I feel as if it were me going through all the excitement. I'm just beginning my career as an children's writer/illustrator and have yet to be published (I have yet to send out my first manuscripts and dummies) but I enjoy going through the experience with others so thanks for sharing success.

...and I'll be following along

great news, kim! very exciting! congrats congrats congrats!!

Simply awesome! Looking forward to hearing about the process :)

Cheers!

love your site & this site inspired me to create Watercolor Wednesdays. We a group of 25 artists working & creating children's book illustrations in watercolor. We would love for your group to link to us & we could do the same for you: www.watercolorwednesdays.blogspot.com
I enjoy visiting your site!
Linda

This is fabulous but I thought the birthday was May 3rd not April. Mine is coming, guess it will be a late birthday greeting.Just got back from Cuba and am flooded. Great trip but taking a vacation is gigantically stressful to the self-employed!

I'm going to go with the May 3rd date if that is okay with everyone.

oops, don't know why I had it down as April 19th! Oh well at least I am early for once! Cuba sounds amazing - would love to hear all about it...

Beautiful image, Lil Kim!

Awesome image, Lil Kim! Painting on the text, what a clever touch. Looks great!

Wonderful.

Had taken a look at your blog and thought I had posted a comment but it is not there. Always find it interesting to see people's process. You work very much like I do.

Found it interesting, you mentioned somewhere about not wanting to lose the spontaneousness and energy in your images. I think a lot of people struggle with that especially when they work their sketches over and over like we do. Do you have any hints on how to hold onto that to the final version.

One illustrator told me she sketched directly onto her paper each time she made a revision (yikes!!). Working digitally it is a little different. I am starting to work from a rough sketch and drawing the line on screen, not sure if it is working for me. Still thinking about scanning a finished line image? Any ideas?

Hi:

You have been busy. I like your little kids. The little girl Meg is my favorite. I am wondering if Hamish looks to girlish with his eyelashes. I know boys have long ones too as my cousin (boy one) has some beautiful long eye lashes.

Becky

Congratulations on the new book project! I am going to keep up with your blog on this. I am trying blogging my current book (www.freddysday.blogspot.com). I was originally thinking of working it through with a school group but my time line is very tight so not sure if that will happen. I had thought that maybe I could pose questions about it and get their answers? Did the blog thing with my Raisin Buns book but ran out of time to blog. I don't do well when it comes to blogging.

I think you characters are great, I got who they were right away, especially Alice. Looking forward to see the progression and how you work through a book. Good luck.

Congratulations Kim! The book project sounds very exciting, and it looks like your off to a wonderful start. Love these characters, they're personalities are really shining through already.

The only little thing I might suggest is taking another look at Thomas. Because of his thin stature and his overalls being more fit, he appears somewhat more delicate than the description. Maybe the eyelashes, too, as Becky mentioned. I think a few minor changes would make him more rough-and-tumbly, ready to play in the dirt ; )

This is great so far, can't wait to see the developments of your project.
-Sarah

thanks Sarah that is a very good obversation and I'll incorporate that into my next sketch!

Congratulations on your new project! I think that is a great idea to show your progress on your blog. I like all you characters your descriptions fix the sketches. They are cute.

Sure thing Kim! Glad you found it helpful. What an awesome project this is going to be, looking forward to seeing more!

Sarah

Oh I love your stripey sock bird. It does look like he can make your dreams come true.

Becky
www.pooka-art.com
www.illustratingforchildren.blogspot.com

This is so different, I didn't even realize it was you at first. looking forward to see where you go this year with you illustration. Great start.

LOVE the color!

This illo looks great. I love it! I love the feathers on the red bird and it's socks. All the best to you too.

I like the colors you have choosen for the girl. Maybe you could try a different color for the background, a different shade of green perhaps. Nice pattern in the backfround. The headphones really say teenager. Great hair.

Think you are right about the switch in image. Liked the other, particularly its busyness but think this is better for the age group. Also agree with you about the color, looks better in b&w. Water might look better with more blue and maybe purple. I would also like to see more stuff in the water, love the texture, love the hair.

good luck.

I love the notes in the girls hair. Great idea. I wonder if you could make the bacground a blue/green mix and then have some show through the hair area.

I really like this one. Good job.

Becky

I love your style, so fun and creative. The hair is wonderful, and the notes intertwined was a very clever idea. I also like the b&w version better, your cool background patterns seem to stand out more in this version. Putting the girl at an angle was very smart, making the composition dynamic and interesting.

This will fit in great with that age group. You have made the image hip with her flowing hair and her listening to her tunes. I like how it turned out in b/w and in color.

This should be interesting. Like this rough sketch. The lighting is going to be the success or failure of this piece. Keep the contrast high and I think you can get fairly dark in this (maybe even in subject matter). I would also think about the age group a little, 10-14 is getting pretty sophisticated, so don't get too cute with your characters.

Good luck, this will be a challenge. Looking forward to seeing the end result as you always pull things off. This one will be no different.

This piece has a great composition - there is a beautiful flow of elements. I love the jelly fish as spot lights!

I agree with Hildarose that this is a sophisticated audience and you'll want to make sure to add colour and texture in a way that will correspond to this age group. Maybe even add some cool aviator shades to the octopus as he is the main focus. It'll make him look more 'cool' in a more 'teen-focused' way... if that makes any sense...hehe :) Just a thought!

Great work so far!

Hi:

This piece has a lot going on. I like it. I really like the two fish in front. They look really nice. You could also have the top part of the design lighter as it would be going up to the sky but I wouldn't put to much as if this is on the bottom, there wouldn't be to much light but it would make have more depth to the design.

I am looking forward to seeing the finished piece in color.

Becky

Composition looks good. Love the fish in the hat and shades

Boy, that can be a hard age to illustrate for. You have a great start with the idea for a laser light show. It's going to be a challenge to do in black and white. I agree less light on the bottom. Your composition with the fish on the bottom and how you are working up toward the eel works very well. I'm excited to see your work in this in color. Make it pop!

Thanks for your comments everyone - I've decided, based on your comments re. age group, but also because I think this won't work so well in B&W, and also because I'm running out of time (!) and this is quite a detailed piece that deserves lots of time to do properly, that I will save this one to finish at a later date. Maybe I'll do it for my folio for NY.

I've got another idea for the anthology which I'll show you shortly (right after I move house!!) x

I really like this. It makes me feel cool and refreshed.

I know what you mean about the outlining. I was doing that alot as I do like pen and ink but then it got to me so I have been trying to work without my pen too. It is a challenge after you have used pen and ink for so long.

I do like how you have this design. It is soft and cool looking. I like the pole too as that is a good point of interest. It makes you look at where polar bear is going.

Becky

I really like it too! It's simple, calm,and interesting. The bear is obviously curious of the pole and the pole seems to be animated to me. It's leaning toward the bear as if it's encouraging it to come closer. The illustration has a nice flow to it because the bear sends the viewer's eyes to the right, while the pole sends them back to the left. Also, the size difference between the bear and pole creates a great deal of interest. I wouldn't change a thing.

This image makes me think of cold peppermint from the candy cane striped pole and that striking blue background.

You know me, I like the added collage-y bits. I also agree with the above comments and think this is a sweet illustration in its simplicity. The added sketchy outlining adds the right punch.

I think this is quite fun! The tongues sticking out is a great touch. Maybe the shadow might need to be darker-maybe greyish? I am not sure because I really like it. The yellow and the placement of the cat really works for me. I say run with it and submit it. Cheers!

I absolutley love this. What a great idea. I like the color choices you have made. The violets and the yellow work well together. I think it is a go. Maybe you have been looking at it to long. Sometimes I do that and after putting it away for a day, I like my design better.

Becky

I love the prespective. The palette works well also. Go for it and submit it.

I think this ROCKS! Great image, lil' Kim!

Thanks guys!! Always so good to have other perspectives - I think you're right Becky, I've been looking at it for too long. You tend to lose objectivity don't you.
OK, I'll submit it!
Cheers
kim x

Hi Kim:

Yes, I seem to always start thinking that my design is to rough or not done enough or whatever and when I start doing that, I know I need to put it away for a bit and look at it with fresh eyes in a day or so. Then, if anything is wrong, it jumps right out at me.
:)
Becky