Tower Princess Sketch

I was chatting with a friend yesterday and discussing the potential for dire boredom during church business meetings. I always bring my sketch book though, so I assured him I would be entertained even if a discussion of the budget failed to hold my full attention.

He suggested I sketch a princess drawing her own rope out of the tower and I loved that idea. So I spent the entire meeting sketching and inking this picture. I'm really excited about it and I couldn't wait till it was colored in to share!  

Curly Girls

These were just little practice doodles for an illustration of the little girl with the little curl in the middle of her forehead. The one on the left is minorly based on a girl in an old cocoa advertisement  and the one on the right is somewhat based off Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.

I just love the ruffled collar and apron on this girl. And her sweet face, which I can't really duplicate in my style of drawing.
 But I didn't want her to have just plain braids, I really wanted to emphasize the curly hair, so looked to Dorothy's style (from about the same era) for how to do those curls.

God Is Bigger Than You Think

Check out my flickr stream to see a bigger, better version of this.

This piece started out as a sketch during youth group, I often do fun things with the message titles and since we were talking about how huge the universe is I added this little girl with her telescope.
I never intended the background to be so grungy - but I just kept adding textures. Almost entirely from Bittbox though the stars are from JoannaStar on Deviant Art.

Hopefully I'll have this available as an 8x10 print in my etsy shop soon.

All Images are property of Melody DuVal, please do not use in any way without permission.

For my day job I do a lot of period illustrations (1930s-1940s mostly). I have (on loan) a battered primer from the 30s that I use to get an idea of the clothing and I also rely on  blogs dedicated to old advertisements and photos. Beauty Is A Thing of the Past has all kinds of great photos from hair dressers magazines that are fantastic in figuring out how to style hair. And Found In Mom's Basement is a terrific source of vintage advertising. I've learned a lot doing these illustrations.

I've also done a ton of Amish illustrations. If you're ever up in Shipshewana, IN you can look out for the Childhood Chuckles, Farmyard Funnies & Thoughts with Thelma book series. The first two are collections of stories sent in by (mostly) Amish people and the Thelma series is a series of stories by a local Amish wife and mother who lives on a diary farm.

All of this is great fun and I adore it. But sometimes you just want to draw something modern.

This Little Piggy

Some rejected illustrations, they were hoping for nudist pigs

Upgrade?

Signs your computer is too slow. When you have time to sketch and ink multiple characters while you're waiting for your real work to finish saving.

I didn't put a lot into coloring these, clearly, but I thought a little color might be nice after so many pencil sketches.

Quick Sketches

Drawing the people around you always elicits a certain amount of paranoia. People know you sketch. They know you sketch people. They also know you've glanced at them no fewer than ten times in the past 60 seconds.

Fortunately there are some settings when, no matter how positive they are they're being sketched - they just can't do anything about it. Classes. Ceremonies. Waiting Rooms. They can't leave. Confronting you is awkward. Tada! Sketch subject!

Jack Horner

A preliminary sketch. I try to do some research on the nursery rhymes before I draw them, but the main point of all that I found on Jack Horner is that people have enjoyed reading about him for more than two centuries.

Art As Expression

I do a lot of drawing and while a small portion ends up in my etsy shop as finished art, I thought it would be fun to have a place to put some of my fun doodles and cartoons.




I have a lot of pent up frustration from waiting in grocery store lines.