Christmas Tree Farm -- Illustrations for a Children's Magazine

Here are sketches and final illustrations for the December issue of Sparkle magazine -- a children's magazine reaching young girls ages 6 - 10.

The illustrations will run on the far left and far right of a full-page spread, with the story printed in-between the artwork. Illustrations are under-painted in gouache with pastel Prismacolor pencils and ArtStix.

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The Process: Creating a Storefront Mural for the Holidays in Lebanon, PA

Over the weekend I painted a holiday mural on the 7' high storefront windows at the Lebanon Valley Chamber of Commerce. It is part of a downtown awareness project of the Community of Lebanon Association and the Lebanon Valley Council on the Arts. The windows will be photographed and put out on the council's Facebook page for voting next week...and may the most "liked" window win. (Details to come.)

Folks are always interested in seeing "how did you do that?". So, here is a bit about the process.

The Final Windows:

The Challenges on-site:
* Painting in reverse on glass! The final mural has to be readable from the outside, yet painted from the inside.
* Flaking black paint! Working with tempura, school grade paint can be a challenge.
* Tinted windows!...means we had to mix colors lighter than original planned.
* Working around the logo! The chamber logo had to be incorporated since it was already permanently fixed on the storefront glass.

The Good News: two amazing people were there to help me make it happen. Many, many thanks to Cheryl Batdorf, from the Community of Lebanon Association, and Sharon Zook from the Lebanon Valley Council of the Arts, who didn't hesitate to pick up a paint brush.

Sharon Zook from the Lebanon Valley Council on the Arts

The Sketch:










Roughed In: Using a grease pencil, I sketched the mural onto the outside glass to serve as guidelines for everyone painting in reverse from the inside.

More Good News: the holiday parade was in full swing. We had entertainment! See the marching band in the street?!

Almost there...

 

The Final (from the inside):

VOTE! Place your vote by clicking HERE.
 
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Which plate will your apple pie be served on at Christmas?

Which festively fun plate will your apple pie be served on at Christmas?

Also, great for serving Santa's special cookies when he comes down the chimney on Christmas Eve. Find these Kugler-art plates here:

Pastel pine: http://www.zazzle.co...m/pastel_pine_tree_plate-115159395264608827

Santa and hound dog: http://www.zazzle.com/shelby_and_santa_plate-115100657406133462

 

#holidayhomedecor #homedecor #santa #dogs #pine #pinetrees #christmastree #christmaseve #plates #dinnerware

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Snowmen Handstands?...An Acadia Christmas Card

Every year one of my favorite holiday traditions is to create a one-of-a-kind Christmas card for hubby. A summer trip to Maine's Acadia National Park provided the inspiration for this year's card....and gave us both the giggles on Christmas Eve.

 

 

So where do these illustration ideas come from?  Scroll and see.

*  Bubble Rock in Acadia seems like it will topple off the edge at any moment...although it's been sitting on this very spot for ages.

 

 *  Don't ask me why, but hubby and I started doing handstands at the peak of this hike. Crazy us.

 

 

*  The nephew steered clear of our handstand show (I think he thought we were strange), but then did let us take his picture by one of the carriage road signs.

 

Together, all of these experiences were a welcomed inspiration for hubby's special card...and awesome memories from such a beautiful place. (Thanks Miss Paulette!!)

If you enjoyed reading this post, you may also enjoy:

* Wilbur Paints Christmas!
* Wordless Wednesday/YMCA on Cadillac Mountain
* One VERY Loved Bunny

Thanks for stopping by! Here's to an artful 2013. 

Wilbur Paints Christmas

The experience of painting with Wilbur the Sea Lion was entirely amazing. (see previous blog post) Inevitably, an illustration began to churn. And, out came Wilbur painting a Christmas tree.



Wilbur even had a few things to say about it:

Wilbur Talks About His Art from Cheryl Kugler on Vimeo.

To see more about Wilbur, a sea lion who creates abstract paintings at Theater of the Sea in Islamorada, Florida, check out my previous blog post: Wilbur, Sea Lion Artist Extraordinare.

And, one last peek at Wil before you go:



If you enjoyed this post, please check out:
* Painted Violins for the Harrisburg Symphony
* Sebastian and Sylvester: Two Cats Play Amid Cardinals and Roses
* Illustrating a Dog-Gone Cute Christmas Card

Thanks for stopping~

Cheryl

Illustrating A Dog-Gone Cute Christmas Card!

Ta-dah!...presenting "Shelby and Santa"! A dear friend asked me to create an illustration of her dog to include in her Christmas card design this year. I couldn't resist the opportunity.

It may seem an easy task to just put the pencil to paper and out comes the drawing. But, it takes some time to mull over the illustration, jumbling it around in your head for weeks, penciling rough sketches, contemplating it some more, re-sketching....until you finally feel like the illustration is working.

With that said, I thought it would be of interest to post a blog about how this fun illustration came to be.

First, about 20 photos of the adorable canine subject, Shelby, were sent to me as reference material. Here's a peek at two:





After looking at the photos and getting a feel for Shelby's gestures, colors, facial expressions and more, my next step was a bit of mulling over how to approach the illustration.

What should the dog be doing? Is Santa in the sketch? Is she under a Christmas tree? Is she unwrapping a present? sledding? hanging out with snowmen? under the mistletoe?

Then, rough sketches over a few weeks helped me work out a composition that flowed:

Santa holding Shelby in his lap didn't seem to work, but I wanted to portray a warm, friendly interaction between the two of them:

This one seemed too flat and stagnant, but I'm liking the paw/hand idea:



Shelby's face seemed too rigid and the position too stiff:



Hmmmm...now I'm sorta liking this approach. Shelby giving a sweet, backwards glance:



Ahhhh, and now it's got a good flow going. A doggie-pat on the head, and a pet down the back. Who knew that Santa was a dog lover?!



If you enjoyed this post, you may enjoy another one of my creative process posts:

* Mulling over Madison

Merry Christmas to all!
And, as my dear friend noted, be sure to leave a little doggie treat along with the milk and cookies on Christmas Eve....just in case Santa brings Shelby along for the sleigh ride! *woof*