In the above illustration, Morning Walk, I was thinking about an English countryside. When I need inspiration I will go to Pinterest or Instagram and browse pictures. I get a lot of ideas for color palettes and scenery that way. In one particular picture there was a cute stone wall that I just loved. This one in particular was grey, but I’m trying to get away from using too much of a single color. With that in mind I made my wall a rainbow blend of yellow, reddish pink, and emerald with just a touch of grey.
I have always painted a lot of animals into my work. Princess Truly in I am Truly and My Magical Sparkling Curls are chocked full of animals. I like the way that animals and children play off of one another in illustration. But it’s rare that I paint animals by themselves. Usually my focus is more on the children and the animals are secondary. There are some animals like bunnies and bears that are much easier for me to paint. Some of the animals that I have a harder time with are pandas and foxes. I think that we usually avoid the things that we don’t feel like we are good at. I know that I am guilty of trying something once or twice and if it doesn’t work then I give up and move on. One of the things that you will be seeing a lot more of from me are animals by themselves, or with other animals.
