Eclair - Children's Book Illustration

I haven't been doing much personal illustration because a lot has been going on in my life the past 6 months. Not the least of which is that I'm now illustrating a children's book series by M. Weidenbenner. The first book is called Eclair Goes to Stella's and it's about a little girl whose parents need to leave her and her sister with their grandmother, Stella, for a while. Clair is super-duper, not-at-all psyched about this and tries everything she can to get out of it. But, Grandma's farm has it's perks, so she may yet be swayed.

It's not finished yet, but when it's available on Amazon I will certainly be posting a link.

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!  

Wedding Poster

Last December I got an interesting illustration request. This neat couple was having their wedding at an old fashioned movie theater and wanted an illustration designed to be a movie poster for their wedding.  It was such a unique and fun idea and I was thrilled to work on it. But I never saw the finished product because the the theater has their own custom printing done.

But yesterday the bride emailed me some photos from the day!

It's so neat to see it, not just printed out, but in the theater's poster window! And with Jessica and Justin too! How cool.

Summer Tastes Delicious

When I was a kid we couldn't wait for "Mr. Frosty's" to open. It was a tiny soft serve stand with those candy eyes for the kid's cones. I'm sure there was nothing special about it, but it was ice-cream.

When I was a teenager UDF (United Dairy Farmer's) was our ice-cream shop of choice. Lucky for impatient teenagers, that delightfulness was open year round.

Now I live not far from some of the most delicious ice-cream ever made. "The Chief" has crazy long lines, but it's well worth it.  And I kind of think it's fun that everyone comes out and hangs around together waiting for their ice-cream cones.

Do you have a favorite ice-cream shop?

What's your favorite flavor? Last year mine was peanut-butter, but this year I'm loving mint-chocolate-chip.

Bunny Love

I'm pretty sure rabbits are without question the cutest animals ever. And not pretend cute like some animals where you see a cartoon and the animal is adorable but in real life it's dripping with snot (yeah, I'm looking at you cow lovers) , but actual adorability.

They're so ultra snuggly and their little noses really do sniff constantly and their eyes are so huge and sweet! I'll take a bunny-rabbit over a dog or cat any day of the week.

When I was little my parents had friends who trained their rabbit to go in a litter box so their bunny could just hop freely around their home! I assume they also rabbit-proofed their wires and what-not, but maybe people smart enough to house train their rabbit are smart enough to teach the same rabbit to only chew on food?

I don't know. All I do know is that when I one day have my own home, I absolutely want to do that.

Goldie Locks

Hand Colored with Ink & Colored Pencil

My latest ooak listing. I hope to have some more up tomorrow. The fact is I have a BUNCH of these in my apartment, I just haven't gotten around to editing the photos yet. They all have bright, colored envelopes to go with them, that have sticky closures (no gross glue taste!) and of course they're all adorable.

I did a show back in December where I had a pretty good crowd of girls standing around carefully trying to select the very best of my business cards to take home. Which was a nice distraction while their mom's were mouthing their orders over the little girl's heads!

But of course the guys weren't as excited. One dad looked at a card similar to this one and said, "It's all about the hair isn't it?" His tone implied he'd rather have his team lose the super bowl every year for the rest of his life than deal with my art on his walls, but his wife seemed interested!

For a Dreamer

"When I dream, on my own

I'm alone but, I ain't lonely

For a dreamer night's the only time of day"

- "Sante Fe", Newsies

This drawing is base on memories of the house I grew up in. I moved my bed so I could sit up and look out the window at the stars whenever I wanted. 

Of course you can't see the stars as brilliantly in the city. So one of my favorite memories is of when I was really little and my parents would wake me and my sister up in the middle of the night and drive us out into the country to look up at the stars, usually when something special like a comet was going to be visible. 

Maybe that's why I love the stars. Maybe because they remind me of how small I am and how big God is. But a few years ago I was out deep in the country again and the stars were so stunning that, even though I was in a really rough patch between college graduation and gainful employment, everything felt right. The stars couldn't be so beautiful for nothing. And it was enough just to stand there and be in awe.

They Call Me Adventure

I love adventure stories. Torture, revenge, giants, monsters,chases, escapes, miracles, true love. And of course I like to think that in the protagonist's place I would be just as butt-kickingly awesome.

The truth is, probably I'd be more like blondie here.
But with less poise.


Bugs gross me out. 
I'm scared of heights. 
I have no upper body strength to speak of. And no skills that would suddenly come in handy were I to be thrust into the middle of a secret government conspiracy.


I want to be capable, independent Marion Ravenwood from Raiders of the Lost Ark, but I'd honestly be whining Wilhelmina in The Temple of Doom. Screaming and crying my way through the entire story with even small children becoming annoyed at my incompetence. 


C'est la vie. That's why I'm an artist.

.

Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes

Even when I was a kid, people - sometimes strangers - would tell me that I ought to draw children's book illustrations. And I wholeheartedly agreed.

When I was 8 I wrote and illustrated a book for my youngest sister. My mom helped me make a hard cover for it out of cardboard and cloth and she stitched in the binding.
Encouraged, I illustrated a bunch more, but those had less impressive staple binding and copy-paper covers.

At the age of 12 I wrote and illustrated another book and submitted it as a 4-H art project at the county fair. I got a blue ribbon and went to the state fair where the judges looked at me as if I had gotten lost.

It's been a long time coming, but I'm proud to present my first ever, full color children's book. It's not technically mine - it's the Amish couple's who published it. I'm just sort of the in-house illustrator. But it's all public domain nursery rhymes and my illustrations, so it feels like mine.

It's 43 pages long, hardcover and is printed on glossy paper with gorgeous, full-bleed color.

You can pick it up in Amish shops in Northern Indiana and you want to order it drop me a line on etsy or facebook  or twitter and I'll get you the contact info for ordering your own copy.

I've got little previews of the illustrations inside here, here and here.

To Write Love On Her Arms

 I was told on an etsy thread that this Friday is To Write Love On Her Arms day (I kind of don't think it is officially since there's nothing on the official TWLOHA site for Friday except a thing at Remuda Ranch) and it seemed like a good theme for some art work.  Clearly I'm still going ultra literal. I'm no good with metaphor.

I've had a lot of friends who have struggled with depression and various addictions. I've struggled with depression myself. Years ago when I first saw a To Write Love On Her Arms t-shirt, I knew immediately, without explanation, what it was about.

Of course I went online to find out more - and at that point there was mostly just a story online about the girl, Renee, who they started To Write Love On Her Arms for - and it was kind of confusing to figure out what TWLOHA was doing exactly. But they've grown since then and I can't help but be impressed with their mission to bring hope to people who can't see any.

And I think that hope grows with the awareness they've raised. One of the things I remember about being a teenager is how even kids who weren't coming from particularly bad situations could struggle with depression. It affects all kinds of people, but if we never talk about it it's just that much harder to deal with.

Though this post is written in support of TWLOHA this blog is not associated with TWLOHA in any way.

Needle in a...

 Sometimes I just have to draw something goofy to break myself out of a rut. When I was a kid I used to draw funny or overly literal illustrations for common sayings (like, a bunch of butterflies chatting at a party - social butterflies), but I decided to just go literal for "Needle in a Haystack"

I did think of another possible illustration for it - have you ever had a Haystack Supper? Around here they serve "haystacks" for fundraisers mostly - it' a bunch of food out in bowls and you pile what you want onto your plate in layers.

We had it at our last office lunch - there were crackers, lettuce, ground beef, nacho cheese, Doritos, pineapple chunks, diced peppers, tomatoes and probably more.

I didn't have all of that mixed together - but other people did.

Mmmmm. Tasty.

Night Light

Now available as an 8x8 print or a 5x5 on request!  I personally love this one, the candle, the wind, the night. Some of my favorite elements of life, so I'm pleased to have incorporated them into a drawing.

Laundry

It's been a few years since I've had to use a Laundromat. Even since I've moved into an apartment without a washer & dryer I've been doing my laundry at the house of a generous friend. But my friend is out of town & someone I don't know is house-sitting.  I could conceivably waltz in there and do my laundry anyway... but I don't know that I'm up for that much awkward.

Fortunately there's a laundromat not far from my home. A few years ago I was driving 30 minutes to do my laundry. I lived in an apartment with no washer/dryer hookup. The landlord conveniently owned a laundromat across the street. There no storage space either and the landlord conveniently owned a u-store-it across the street. These things gave me pause, but the bigger issue was that the dryers in the landlord-owned laundromat burnt people's clothes. Not mine, but my roommate's clothing came back visibly singed. Next closest laundromat? Two towns away. Oh Indiana.

The laundromat is over-priced and wildly inconvenient, even when it's nearby. You can't leave and generally, if you're me, you can't talk to anyone because everyone else is speaking Spanish. Unlesss of course I need to tell anyone, "the princess is crying in the bathroom."  Rosetta Stone = Fail. But, one thing about the laundromat is that it's actually a decent place to sketch, because what else are you going to do?

 

I have never witnessed kids racing in the laundry carts, though there are usually a few of them playing hide'n-go-seek or tag. But if you were a kid, wouldn't you want to play in the laundry carts? My family never did laundry at the laundromat, but I feel fairly certain that my sisters and I would have tried this.

New Cards

I have a new facebook fan page - come check it out! I'm not doing much with it yet, but in the future I hope to have special deals for facebook fans and of course you'll get all the previews first.

I had a return customer make a request and this is the card I drew up for her.
Printed versions of this card can be made by request.

This card is for sale in my shop, a bit different drawing style than my usual, but it's been popular in the past as well, so I thought it was time to offer some more in that style.

Acceptable Addictions

"They're going to hate us, in the beginning, but we'll get 'em in the end. And do you know why?

Because we'll sell them cheap books and legal, addictive stimulants."

 - Tom Hanks as Joe Fox, You've Got Mail   

I have an addiction to reading and coffee. I'll take them individually, but nothing beats the two together. My former roommate and I have a near weekly tradition of going to Barne's & Noble, ordering our favorite drink and reading for as long as our schedules will let us. Or until the shop closes. 

I can also be found most Sundays nursing a double vanilla chai with ghirardelli chocolate and a favorite novel at a local coffee house.

Which is probably why so many of my doodles involve girls sipping mugs of coffee while they enjoy a book.

Lydea

I have an obsession with the work of Patricia McKillip. I was first introduced to her books by a former roommate who encouraged me to read In the Forest of Serre, when I'd run out of Robin McKinley books to devour. I read it in a couple days and was hooked. McKillip has a talent for creating original folk lore, fairy tales that have no roots in our earth's history. It's all vividly detailed, moving, and unexpected.
And there's SO much of it. Twenty-seven novels from 1973 - 2008 and I'm delighted to have only scratched the surface of that collection.

I'm currently almost done with The Shadow of Ombria and as captivated as I am, I had to take time out to draw Lydea, with the late prince's rings tied up in her fiery hair.

The Others

Some artists tell me they don't buy other artist's art, because they make their own.

I will never understand this.

I love other artist's art, they tell different stories and see them through different eyes.

So these are some of my favorite others.

Matilou

Hailing from France Matilou ( Anne Cresci ) sells gorgeous prints of lovely girls in fanciful places.
You can also check out her blog and her flickr feed.

Hillary Bird

Hillary's work is modern and folksy all at once. I love the shapes and colors she uses. I love the fantastic stories she looks in on.

Chanyeevon

YeeVon is a designer & illustrator from Malaysia, living in Australia. I cannot help but be in love with her elegant and mysterious illustrations. The soft and romantic pallet, the lines of the hair.

Kecky

I absolutely adore this New York (?) artist. Her profile says she is a Disney castmember, but her art looks as though she should be animating their classic films. I first discovered her illustrations on Deviant Art and I fell in love.. Brilliant work.

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.