A beautiful day in the Neighborhood

Sharing what happens each fall in New Hampshire....  The past five days have been sun filled, pure blue sky  days.  With the colder nights the leaves lose the normal green and turn into a fantasy of color.

This last one is the view from my studio window.  In some weeks the view will change to one of snow covered branches

At work on new logo and banner...

For the next few weeks I will want to be in a late October mode.  A new banner is here for a few weeks.

I also finished making a new logo that I can use from time to time in all the right places.  This kind of branding can be useful if you create products for sale... or even as an addition on a business card.
Do you have a favorite logo of yours that you use on your work, other than or in addtion to your standard copyright?

Flying Poodles ~ A Christmas Story

The books are in. Flying Poodles, A Christmas Story can be ordered from the website, and soon for your iPad or iPhone.  That is little MAX sitting on top of the stack of signed and numbered books in this limited edition.  This makes a great holiday gift *:)

Written by Karen Morss, the story tells of an emergency, a rescue and the adorable heros who save Christmas Eve for the children of the world.

Coloring pages are coming soon, here is the first in a series that you can download now. Click on the image to download to your computer and print it out or color it right in your computer.

Santa, Rudolph and Max

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY ~ TRANSPORTATION

©Ginger Nielson 2010

Traditional + Digital = TRADIGITAL

There is no question that some publishers frown upon what they call “digitized” artwork.   The truth is, digital painting is far from digitized.  To digitize an image refers more to taking a photo bringing it into a computer.  Sampling at various intervals occurs in the computer via scanning or direct input.  That word - digitized -  has all kinds of negative suggestion as it applys to art.  Far too easily it can be misinterpreted to mean all digital illustration is somehow computer generated and not a very different and original artform.

Digitizing is a far cry from “digital painting.”  The term digital painting simply refers  to the fact that the painting is taking place in the computer.  Digital painting has the ability to free the illustrator from having to redo an entire painting just to correct one color or element. Newer high end computer software can mimic the brush strokes for hundreds of brushes, pens, pencils, pastels and all forms of paint.

I will often sketch with pencil or pen because it gives me the freedom to do very large renderings.  Those can be reduced in the computer to the size needed by my editors.

This is a watercolor study for the digital painting below.   Usually I don't go this far, but I wanted to get a feel of the colors and technique I would use when I transferred to the computer for the final painting. As a study it was good, and I was able to incorporate it into the main painting. 

Digital painting is no less creative than traditional.  Colors, design, point of view and composition are all elements of digital painting.  When combined with traditional sketches and even watercolor washes or beginnings, the finished work can have a quality that is impossible to get in any other way.  The colors can be controlled and kept constant through pages and pages of illustrations.  You won’t run out of paint.
Paintings that you have completed traditionally can easily be scanned or photographed and incorporated into the digital work.

This is the final painting done with digital painting programs.  Here I have the freedom to paint in layers and not disturb elements under one another.  But it is still original artwork.


In some cases a digital illustration can take longer than a traditional one.  Both methods should be respected and when they are combined the same is true.


All kinds of traditional methods can be combined with digital painting:  cut paper, collage, clay sculpture, bas relief, even folded paper art can be incorporated.

I use the term TRADIGITAL  to describe my work; it is  basically another form of painting, one which conveys the essence of any story for which I am hired to illustrate.


I will say this, however. The use of too many of the tweaks that are available in the digital software programs can ruin the freshness and originality of the work. One has to be careful of not using too many  of the fancy plugins to enhance the work.  Good art is good art in whatever method the artist uses.

Fishy stuff

I am working on scenes for a larger illustration and need to depict some sea creatures that are more my own than those that truthfully exist.  There are real fish that are similar, but to set these fish into the tone of my story I need to give them a story book look.   It has taken several hours to get these two into place, but I am happy with them and they seem to like being where they are in the story.

The larger fish is based on a really interesting creature. The sarcastic  Fringehead is quite a bit more fearsome and uglier, but such a character. If you get a chance to watch a video of one of these fish I think you will see what I mean.  The purpley guy is a saltfish, or at least my version of same.

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY ~ BENEATH

I need to recycle this week because I loved the subject and this illustration

 makes me wish I could do the same and it is so much fun to share.

Next to being able to fly I think I would love to be able to breathe beneath the waves.

©Ginger Nielson