Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Stoney lane Basketry

So for those of you who ever look or follow my blog I'm sure you've noticed the holiday card's I have been working on. This past weekend I ended up selling a few at Stoney Lane Basketry at a Holiday Open House. They have amazing crafts, quilts, baskets and so many other cute things. They have decided to continue to sell holiday themed goods the first three weekends of December. So for anyone who lives in RI and is interested ether ask me for details or check out the facebook link I attached.

I also added some sign's to help sell my card's. More typography practice! Oh! I am also selling my holiday card's in my new Etsy store. I'll eventually add the link to my blog. I still want to add a few more items first.




Monday, November 12, 2012

Typography: Apple Pie

In the last year or so I have made a huge effort to find my style and become more skilled with my mediums of choice. Now I feel like it's time to move onto a greatly avoided topic. Typography. I love it and would love to be skilled and more knowledgable about it but it's a love/hate relationship. I don't have the greatest patience for it but I feel like it would benefit my work greatly. So to better my skills and refresh my memories with illustrator I decided to make a project out of it. I would like to get ether a single project or three smaller ones in a week. Hopefully I can make a total of 40-50 different practices by february-ish.

I would love any constructive criticism or opinions on any of these. It's greatly appreciated and hopefully my work will get stronger as times goes on. First project is something im more comfortable with. I just played with the words apple pie. Also sorry for all the chaos! I'd show each one separately but I like the circle. Lesson learned for next time!


Thursday, November 8, 2012

Holiday Card's

Here's two more holiday cards I've been working on. I'm still fooling around with a few other ideas so im really not sure what illustrations i'll actually use. When I get up to ten I'll probably ask opinions on what 5 I should sell in a set. For these guy's I made a mouse making snowmen out of powdered donuts and a turkey dinner. I love making people hungry!


Friday, November 2, 2012

New Moon Girls "The Chosen One"

I wasn't expecting to post today but im very happy to share this! New Moon Girl just released their November/December issue which means I can finally share a illustration I made with them! It was a little out of my element but im very proud of myself for the outcome. Enjoy! :)





Thursday, November 1, 2012

Late Halloween Rant

I know....it's been a while since I last posted anything new. All my work has been put off for the last week or so. Between being sick with some weird throat virus and this random hurricane. It's just been a mess all around. So for halloween I originally planned to show my foodie drawings with some recipes. I just didn't have the time to finish everything. I did use illustration friday as a warm up for things to come. The word was haunt. The scariest thing in the world thats bound to be haunted or possessed is a doll. Well...thats my logic anyways...



Friday, October 19, 2012

Sky

A quick post for Illustration Friday. I made these as a christmas card's but I thought they went well with this weeks word. The word is Sky. The sky is very pretty this time of year.


Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Hot Chocolate Bath

Since im working on all kinds of projects I thought this week would be a good time to participate in Illustration Friday. The word is water and I wanted to do something with a bubble bath. I thought a ginger bread taking a bath in hot chocolate would do. I only use water in my hot chocolate so technically it count's. I also added a few desserts I made for birthdays.



Monday, October 8, 2012

Post Card or Recipe?

So I think my attempt at a fall post card quickly turned into another recipe. It came out alright but im a bit sick of baking and the concept that follows. I don't really like it but for no good reason. I think it's just time to move onto other things. I will have another attempt at a post card I just need to figure out what it is. My biggest issue is good reference photos. Well I suppose I'll eventually get used to that problem.


Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Post Card Rough

I waited till later tonight to show this because I went completely detail crazy. I took a photo and the sketch was done in no darker then a 4h pencil so I hope you can all see it. At first I was going to make something apple related and somehow I ended up with them baking pumpkin cinnamon rolls.

Hopefully it will turn out good and I can have the finished up by next Tuesday.



Monday, September 24, 2012

I dream of Cheesecake

Since I have to wake up early for work tomorrow I thought it might be better to post tonight. I'm also sick of seeing old posts on my blog. So to start off the fall season I'll show you this portrait and watercolors. While painting a bunch of mini cheesecakes a couple asked me to illustrate a portrait of their daughter. Since they weren't specific I combined the two! I don't mind it too much and I actually enjoyed collaging this one :)

Also I will get a new blog banner up. Im working on something big and it wont be done for another two weeks.



Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Back To School

So a group of illustrators and I have joined in illustrating a theme every now and then. This month it was school supplies/back to school. For me it ended up being a handful of studies. One is a turtle carrying supplies and then I have a girl too shy to enter the cafetaria and finally a few lunch box paintings. Later this week check out my friends blogs to see their take on it, Alexa Bosy, Alexandria Compo, Chris Harrington, and Samantha Weyant.

I think I haven't been able to do any finished illustrations lately cause my latest book has really been weighing heavily on my mind. My next posts will consist of tear sheets, post cards, and my next book.




Saturday, August 25, 2012

Cereal Part 3 & Steak

These will be the last of my cereal paintings for the moment. I did want to add more healthy ones but my time was running a bit short. I've noticed sugary cereals are much easier to paint while healthier one's look more simplistic but the pattern's and shape's are very tedious. The steak was a small painting I finished for a friend's birthday card.

My next project will take a lot of hours to finish and a quick deadline. Hopefully I can finish all I want to! Oh and something im very proud of, I finally bought my first grammar book. It's called "Woe Is I". Hopefully this will push me towards better writing. And thank you to all the people who read my blog with patience.



Sunday, August 19, 2012

Cereal Part 2

So today we have captain crunch, coco puffs, trix, fruity pebbles, honeycombs and cinnamon toast crunch. My next post will be healthier cereals.


Saturday, August 18, 2012

Cereal Part 1

Every now and then I go into a art depression and everything I make is awful. What I learned from this is to just suck it up and make bad thing after bad thing. I once had a teacher who would say "Every person has 10,000 bad paintings in them. So when you make one its a good thing cause you have one less in you." When I do get stuck in this cycle I go back to what I love and know and work my way back up from there. This time the cure ended up being cereal. I really love cereal (its my favorite food!)

It took so long to draw and paint such tedious cereal pieces that im going to post as I finish every few so expect more. For now here's lucky charms, cookie crisp, smacks, and count chocula.


Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Spiders and Friends

A common discussion amongst friends nowadays seems to be people who actually peruse their degrees after graduation. There are different categories of people. The one's who have a job in their field and are too busy to make new work, people who work a dozen jobs and also paint like crazy, and the people who kinda hang in limbo and work just to get by. I do have a pretty large group of friends that are still eager to learn and push foreword by helping each other. This post is about a concept we picked to set a deadline for each other and really compare styles and hopefully gain more followers from it. For this project we decided to use a spider in a illustration.

Here's mine for now but later i might add theres just to compare differences. I also collaged a bunch for practice so just click the name and it will bring you to their blog. obviously there more people still working out there but for now here's a small group.







Chris Harrington

Alexandria Compo

Alexa Bosy



Samantha Weyant



Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Riva!

Im trying desperately to get back into my tuesday post routine and my work is just piling! So for this week enjoy this cute lil card I made for my friend and amazing graphic designer, Riva Powers.


Sunday, July 29, 2012

Art Is Hard

Today I wanted to rant a little about what I do. I remember years ago I felt so hopeless with myself. I was without a style and quite honestly like most artists I wasn't born with a talent superior to any other person. Art is difficult for everyone in all sorts of ways. My roommate's at the time collaged their own little logo that said "art is hard". It amused me to see it everyday. It was reassuring to read it and even more so that my incredibly talented friends struggled as much as I did. Here's a poorly lit photo of it in our sophomore dorm.



















Every now and then I do have to remind myself that im supposed to fail and not everything will turn out ok. I've avoided collaging for this reason. I used to have the same problem with watercolor but practicing daily has made me arrogent. I also need to remember that as much as I love watercolor i am no longer a watercolorist. Every illustration I've done is only 75% at most. They all have collage you just gotta look. This past weekend I tried forcing my abilities out with no real luck. Everything seems mediocre, rushed, even sloppy. 

Its funny in a way. I always thought finding your style was the difficult part but in reality I was given a style that is too advanced in what im capable of. Here are a few pieces that hid from me. The spider was a twin piece to my wolf. The very first of their kind when I was a junior in school. The others all done within the year. My friend chris done yesterday.

I'll still be collaging away. I wont be happy about it but I guess it's all a learning experience one way or another.




Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Dinosaur Studies

Its tuesday again and that means a new post! I will get back into the swing of things. I like having some type of routine. It really helps me push myself. This week I started making dinosaur sketchs to get ideas for another kids mural im painting this summer. I wasn't too sure where to start or if i could even draw dinosaurs. So these are really just studies. The main concept/image will probably change as I go. I still need a better idea of size, subject matter, specific dino's, and color. I tried leaving out the scary dinosaurs just because this is for a toddler and hes just about to hit the nightmare stage. 


Monday, July 16, 2012

New Website

So I know its been a while since I last posted and I never finished my weekly project. Things have been super chaotic. I've accidentally become a member of society with a handful of crazy friends and a multitude of random jobs to get my loans paid. Life is interesting to say the least...

After years of getting my style together and rebuilding my portfolio I thought it was finally time to get my website together. The new one can be seen at heathersisson.com

Oh and here's my new logo! It will probably change a million times in the next year.


Saturday, July 7, 2012

Dar 6: Crab Party

Aha! You thought I wasn't going to post today didn't you? Well...it may be the end of the night but it's still soon enough. Thankfully the next one will be the last one for this little project. Even then I still have Tuesdays post to think about. It makes me wonder why I put myself through so much pain...

To get back on the topic, today's post is a painting I finished to go with all my ice cream paintings/sketchs. Its a little weird. A bunch of crabs worshiping ice cream on the beach. Overall I think I like it but I need to put it in the corner and not look at it for a while to really decide. To be a real cheater I thought it also made a great illustration friday. The word is suspend. Technically those crabs are suspending ice cream over flames...


Friday, July 6, 2012

Day 5: The Work Space

So between being sick followed by laziness and self pity I have fallen out of my routine a bit. But I do plan to finish posting for the week! At least seven posts and then starting again with my weekly tuesday one. So I thought for now it would be a better idea to show my workspace while im finishing things up for other posts. I hate to have an unfinished post and even this is killing me!

Let me start by saying I need a desk. I have taken over the dinning room table and no matter how much I clean, things just reappear the following morning. I have also received quite the collection of donated magazines. I have a million under my bed and a bunch I havent even opened yet that are waiting for me. Next week i'll be collaging portraits like a fiend!

Lastly, a photo of all the SCBWI magazines I've managed to collect so far. They have been so helpful in inspiring me to continue the good fight. Some I do need to get rid of so if any book illustrators are interested I can put them aside for you. Just as a warning im totally cutting a few of the covers and keeping them for myself.


My workspace!
















Some artwork I have been working on or trying to finish. In a moment of boredom I made two of my friends into paper dolls.
















My collections of Magazines!



Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Day 4: July 4th

I think everyone should have a pretty good guess what todays post will be about. Im always slightly stumped by what to post on independence day. Everything seems so typical I suppose. So i broke it down into things I like. First off I love sparkles, fireworks, BBQ's and desserts! I won't do much today due to recovering from the stomach flu but I do plan on running around on the beach with sparkles all weekend long.

My 4th of july dessert ended up being a quick submission to TDAC. I'm trying very hard to face my difficulties with typography. Still not liking my work very much but I do see baby steps of improvement.







Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Day 3: Ice Cream Observations

So a few weeks ago I decided to start making ice cream practice paintings. Basically it turned into trying to paint every mr. softy ice cream I could think of. At one point I had to stop and tell myself it was too much! Out of that I attempted to make two different patterns with ice cream and I did a few sketch's. A bit ice cream obsessive but it was great practice.

I do have a illustration to go with these but I wont post it till later this week. It ended up being much larger then planned. Also its a weird concept and im hoping it turns out well.