traylorillo » sketches

Folk Tales

admin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 01:47:21 +0000

I recently finished an illustration for an African folk tale called the Lion and the Hare. Hare, in African lore, is a trickster and in this particular story, he manages to convince the large, but easily outsmarted, Lion not to eat him. I’m sharing my process, again in this illustration, starting with the initial concept [...]

The menagerie next door…

admin — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:14:36 +0000

It might seem odd to have a taxidermist next door but for me, an artist, it’s a great source of animal reference. My neighbor, the taxidermist, is also nice enough to allow me to come over and draw from his menagerie and that’s where I found myself a few days ago. My two kids and [...]

a mini milestone

admin — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 04:04:53 +0000

It may not seem like a lot so some, but I finished off one of the three sketchbooks I’ve had in progress since about 2005. It is a major milestone to me. This unassuming little, black book was started in 2005, finished in 2010. I have three sketchbooks at the moment, that I keep in [...]

Sketchy…

admin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 09:24:19 +0000

I thought I would share the initial sketch that sparked the notion of the winter illustration. It lay dormant in my sketchbook for a long time but I was able to use it for something bigger. Draw something every day, kiddies, you never know when you’ll use it. No Related Post

New Illustration (sketch to final)

admin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:14:07 +0000

I have a relative carte blanche for these covers, but I try to fit the zeitgeist of the season in a children's illustration style theme. This winter, we've been watching the 2010 Winter Olympics play out in Canada with it's inspiring stories and feats of athletic strength and grace.

Illustration Process (pt 2)

admin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:58:18 +0000

As you might remember, I promised you a peek at the final illustration I was working on for the SCBWI. Well, here it is. If it weren’t well past my bedtime, I might be compelled to write some more about it. That will have to wait until later. This is what the artwork looks in [...]

Illustration Process

admin — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:06:10 +0000

I wanted to share a bit of an inside peek at my illustration process for a recent piece I did for the SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Newsletter Cover. The image is a fall theme. I chose this vignette of a little mouse couple relaxing on a cold autumn afternoon by their fireplace. This is the very first [...]

Artrage experiment

admin — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 05:53:35 +0000

Just my first cut at using the software Artrage to digitally “paint” one of my drawings. I kinda like it. It was hard adjusting to the radically different interface (I’m used to Photoshop…love CS3!) but hey, it had some features that I couldn’t get in the beloved CS3. This was a drawing I did [...]

IF Topic: Tales and Legends

admin — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 15:58:28 +0000

Eliza Dolittle is a character that has always fascinated me. I read the play, Pygmalion (George Bernard Shaw) in middle school and it was years until I saw Audrey Hepburn (one of my favs) play Eliza in the musical, My Fair Lady. I love the undercurrent idea in the story of Pygmalion that happiness isn’t [...]

Kipling’s Princess

admin — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 21:32:54 +0000

Perhaps this might be Mowgli’s love interest in the Jungle Book. I do so love Kipling and read all of his stories as a young child. I remember feeling the terror inspired by Shere Khan, the tiger nemesis of all the jungle. I do love a good story and Mr. Kipling had a way with [...]