My Watercolor Process

Hi guys! As I've posted on my facebook and tumblr, I have recently completed my latest spread from my Snow White and Rose Red project. This one will be the opening spread of the book. Since I post images a bit more often and quicker on my tumblr, I like to use my blogger here to speak a bit more expansively about my pieces. So for this painting, I decided I would take photos throughout so I could share a bit of my process when I'm doing a watercolor painting.

I hope this was something enjoyable to see, and if so, perhaps I'll do more posts like this with my other methods as well?

I have one more spread of this to bring to completion this weekend, and I'm really looking forward to it. It is of the scene when the bear is revealed to be the prince! I also have a fair amount more of my Wish Academy project to complete for next Thursday, so I look forward to sharing that as well! Until then, best wishes!

~Josh

Wish Academy!

My first semester of graduate school at MICA is rapidly drawing to a close, and my stress levels are rising equally as rapidly. In just eight short days I have my mid-year review! I'm really looking forward to it, but my goodness, this program may just lead to an early need for botox! haha! Anyway, I can't wait to share the rest of my Snow White and Rose Red project with you all, but until then I have some further developed imagery for my fairy godmother project that I have decided to to title "Wish Academy"! There will be more to share regarding them as well within the coming days so stay tuned. 

Also be sure to follow me on tumblr! And until next time, best wishes!

~Josh

Warm Wishes

This set of images was created for a line of greeting cards and prints I will be selling at the MICA art market this year. I will also be selling the set on my etsy shop with my Princess Primer book around this time next week. There will be another post with information on that then. I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving! I'm currently visiting home in Louisiana, so my web presence may be a bit MIA for a couple of days, but I will be in touch soon. Until then, best wishes! 

~Josh

A visit from Leonard Marcus

I am so excited to be finally going to print on my Princess Etiquette book tomorrow! Once they are all assembled and ready for purchase, I will be sure to post a link to my shop here on the blog, as well as on my facebook, tumblr and twitter! The above image was illustrated as the cover for the book, which by the way, the full title is Princess Primer: 12 easy steps to becoming a proper princess. 

As I am coming to a close on the production of this project, I'm really excited to keep moving forward with my other endeavors at the moment. Below is a finished spread for the Snow White and Rose Red book dummy I am working on. I plan to complete one, possibly two more spreads and a few ink drawings and leave the rest in sketch form. I also have the Fairy Godmother Academy going on and a line of winter greeting cards and stationary that will also be available in about two weeks. 

In other news, we had an absolutely amazing guest today at the MICA Illustration Practice MFA program today! The acclaimed children's book historian Leonard Marcus came to speak with all of us as a part of our critical seminar with Stephanie Plunkett (shown below) and Joyce Schiller of the Norman Rockwell Museum. It was such a pleasure to hear about one of my favorite subjects from such an authority on children's literature. 

Every day, I find myself more and more pleased to have selected MICA for my graduate studies. There are so many amazing opportunities here! I feel that I have already grown so much and my first semester has still not even come to completion. I'm really looking forward to what the next year and a half holds in store! Until next time then, best wishes!

~Josh

NYC and things!

Hello all! I'm just getting back from a whirlwind trip from NYC, and while exhausting, I had a fabulous time! Although I have to say, I wasn't quite prepared for the snow storm that came with the Nor'easter. Southern Belles aren't used to that kind of weather, haha. I survived though!

I attended the Big Talk Symposium for the American Photography and Illustration annuals, and of course the American Illustration party the following night. I had a blast and met some really great fellow illustrators. I'm really looking forward to heading back to the city soon! Until then though, it is work, work, work. My Princess Etiquette book will be going for sale extremely soon. I'm having to decide whether or not I want to print it myself though or have it outsourced, so as soon as that is settled, I'll post it on my shop. Also, if you're not following me on Tumblr, you should do so. I update imagery a bit more quickly there. Until next time, here are some photos from my trip!

It was kind of like being in Narnia! 

The American Illustration Party!

The wonderful Maily Degnan and I! 

Fairy Godmother Project

So amidst wrapping up my Princess Etiquette book and moving to finals on my Snow White and Rose Red project, I've started concepting my next undertaking. These are very early, rough watercolor sketches of potential characters in a project for advanced concept art. The project involves young fairy girls studying to become fairy godmothers, and I have to say, I'm very excited about it! I've always wanted to do my own group of magical girls, and this has sort of unintentionally evolved into just that. I have to say, I'm really looking forward to exploring this concept over the next several weeks and seeing where it goes.

In other news, my Princess Etiquette book will be available for purchase likely by the end of the coming weekend, so stay tuned for that! This semester of graduate school wraps up in about five weeks, so with that, there will be a lot of imagery to share with you all within the coming weeks. Until then, stay warm and best wishes!

~Josh

Princesses and Glamazons

So as I posted a week or so ago, I'm currently working on a small booklet of "princess etiquette". Above are the finished character designs for the book, excluding only the "naughty princess" who will be completed later in the week. I don't think she will be appearing in this particular book due to story constraints, but these are definitely characters I plan to keep on the back-burner for future projects as well!

Expect more Snow White and Rose Red images within the next week or so, and the Princess Etiquette book will be available for purchase in about two to three weeks. In the meant time, I thought I'd share a little something I did for fun on a scrap piece of hot press paper I had lying around. I couldn't just waste it, so why not paint my favorite tribute?

Happy Hunger Games!

~Josh

Moving right along

I can't believe it's already mid-October! I feel like about half of my blog entries start with something about how I can't believe what time of year it already is, haha, but it's a genuine sentiment. It's amazing how time flies by. Everything is moving along smoothly though here in Baltimore. The princess etiquette book is coming together nicely, and I've worked out how I will be depicting Snow White and Rose Red. I still have not decided which spreads to bring to completion, but I will have before the next few days are over. In the mean time though, I thought I'd share a couple of studies I've done in preparation for the book! 

Until next time, best wishes!

~Josh

Princess Book Preview

I just thought I'd share some of my watercolor studies of characters for my upcoming princess etiquette book! Hope everyone is having a great Windsday! (I hope at least of few of you guys caught the Winnie the Pooh reference ;) )

Best Wishes!

~Josh

Fall fun in Baltimore!

Hello everyone! I'm so excited to finally be experiencing a true fall, although, I have to admit it is a bit cold for me haha. Fall here is literally like December and January in Louisiana and Savannah. Of course, I don't have to worry too much about the cold as I'm locked away in my studio working away! I have some great projects going on that I'm really excited about and I just wanted to post to give you a peak at what is going on.

This is my initial storyboard/rough sketch phase of my 32 page children's book I am illustrating of the story of Snow White and Rose Red. I'm also in the very early stages of a secondary children's book project about princess etiquette that you will see a lot more of in the coming weeks.

I also wanted to share my experience this weekend with Robbi and Matthew from Idiots Books Publishing. This amazing couple came to MICA this past weekend to give a workshop to the Illustration Practice MFA students and to help us launch our own book projects.

They are a writer and illustrator duo that self publish their own books and were such an inspiration as well as full of great advice. Be sure to check out their site and the books that they have done! They've also just started a small children's book press which I can not get enough of, Bobbledy Books! They have done some of the most hilarious children's books I have ever read, and I recommend them to both adults and children alike. My personal favorite was The Girl with Frogs in her Ears.

Anyway, I'm excited to finally be at a point where I'm moving into creating some finished artwork for my book projects and I can't wait to share them with you guys over the next couple of months!For now though, I thought I might leave you with some silly sketches for a personal piece I'm working on, designing myself as a Puella Magi from Madoka Magica. If you are a fan of anime or magical girls and have yet to see the show, I definitely recommend checking it out!

Until next time, best wishes! 

~Josh

New Business Cards

So, I've been working on my rebranding quite a bit lately, and I came up with this image for the back of my new business cards. Through creating this though, I was -for the first time in history, and by some small miracle- able to actually ink well with a brush! I was so excited, and this is definitely something I plan to continue to employ! I really like the way the cockatoo turned out, and if this is just the beginning, I really can't wait to see how my inking improves over the next few months not that I've unlocked this tool. If anyone has any tips or feedback on the inking process, I would absolutely love to hear from you! 

Until next time guys! =) 

Baltimore, Y'all!

Hey guys! It's been a while since my last post and I apologize! My summer was absolutely jam packed and hectic with preparing for my move to Baltimore and teaching back and forth every day between two cities. I'm now all moved in and getting into the swing of things here at MICA. I have to say I absolutely love it! For any of you guys out there considering getting your MFA in Illustration, I sincerely recommend looking here.

I'm afraid I don't have many pieces to share with you all yet, but I'll leave you with some previews of upcoming projects early this fall as well as some sketches. Until next time, best wishes!

Shine for all to see!

For this past challenge at the Square Carousel Collective, we were asked to illustrate one of our favorite childhood shows or cartoons. Initially I had drawn out this image for Sailor Moon, because really she was the biggest influences on me in that time. However, I really wanted to pull my watercolors out and my style is far too bright for the image I was planning and I just wasn't pleased with the direction it was going. So in keeping with the theme, I thought more about the project. Really, the magical girl genre as whole has always been a key inspiration for me, and the one who started it all when I was like three years old was Rainbow Brite! And who better to paint bright and fun than the girl who brings color to us all?

Sweet Nothings Really... and Some News!

Hello all! I hope that the beginning of spring is treating you all well! I apologize for the small hiatus on the blog, February and March have been just insane! I got everything sorted out with grad school, and I'm pleased to announce that I will be attending my top choice, MICA, to receive my MFA in Illustration Practice. I am BEYOND excited! I also had the most amazing opportunity to spend a week in Los Angelas and attend the world premiere of The Hunger Games, which if you follow this blog you know I'm obsessed with!

Other than that though, my lessons have just been insane at the gallery here in Louisina. I went from teaching a couple times a month to almost every day! That meant taking focus off of illustration for a bit and completing dozens of acrylic paintings and demos for my students. While of course that is fun, I have missed my preferred outlet of illustration! In that period though, I wasn't entirely absent from the illustration world and continued to participate in the Square Carousel Collective and I have two pieces from that to share with you today. The first being the most recent, in which we participated in What I Wore. The latter was for St. Patricks Day to celebrate the holiday that is so popular in our Alma Mater's city: Savannah, Ga. We each designed a float or character for our own little parade since we had to miss the big one this year.

What I Wore

St. Patty's Day Parade: Runaway Leprechaun

After we all completed our parade characters, the illustrator who selected the challenge, Molly Wilson put together a compilation of the whole parade! 

With things now settled and organized for all of my lessons, I'm really looking forward to cranking out the images that have been filling my sketchbooks in the forms of sketches and comps! I can't wait to share them with you all. Until next time, best wishes!

So Much for the Cake

A recent challenge at the Square Carousel Illustration Collective was to create an illustration inspired by one of your favorite movies. While it was a tough decision, I eventually went with one of the movies that inspires me most visually. I really wanted to try out some hand lettering because I have such admiration for artists who are able to do it well. I definitely hope to explore it more in the future!

Tan Lines

Just a little something whipped up for the character sketch blog Glitter and Graphite run by Blythe Russo and myself. I think I like the look of my digital illustrations more in the end, but I still have so much fun with watercolors! Enjoy =)

So, I saw this fashion blog recently and a couple of the images inspired me to depict my District 1 ensemble for the Opening Ceremonies of the Hunger Games. For those unfamiliar with the Hunger Games, after the tributes are selected(to compete in a televised fight to the death), they are showed off to the Capitol during the parade of the Opening Ceremonies and are all garbed in really outlandish outfits that are representative of their District. District 1 is the luxury items district. 

The concept behind the outfit is to resemble a white diamond, so the tributes’ bodies would be painted white, and there would be structural, prismatic shaped translucent fabrics containing fiberoptic material that would wrap around the figure to create the effect of a jagged, jewel-like texture. 

Also I thought you might like to see some of the process work for the piece below. 

Also, Blythe Russo and I have some time again to pick back up on our character sketch blog Glitter and Graphite! As our welcome back post, we each depicted our favorite Harry Potter characters. It was a close call for me, but I think it had to be Fleur Delacour. Goblet of Fire is my favorite of the books, and not to sound superficial, but I relate a lot to her in the books. I also identify with certain aspects of Hermione and Luna, but I think in the end, Fleur is who i have to hand it to, haha. 

Keep an eye out for this next weeks post with the goal to design a mermaid character. This has actually inspired me for a small project that I'm looking forward to sharing with you guys, but I'm going to have to keep it under wraps a bit longer! In the mean time, I hope everyone is having a wonderful new year and you haven't given up on those resolutions yet! 

Happy New Year!

I just wanted to take a moment and wish all of you guys a happy new year! I know that I for one am excited for all of the prospects this new year holds! I haven't set my resolution in stone yet, but it definitely involves keeping up with my sketchbook more and not just working on so many finished illustrations. I got a little bogged down on the idea of creating as many portfolio pieces for a while, but I read an interesting article recently about how not everything you do needs to be a finished or portfolio piece. It helped remind me that there needs to be more of a balance between sketching and finished pieces. The case used to be that I pretty much ONLY sketched all day, every day and never finished any solid illustrations, haha! Then when I reversed the process and was only creating to make finished works, I think I sort of put myself in an unintentional block by limiting what I was allowing myself to do.

Anyway, with those thoughts in mind as I move forward into the next year of artistic growth, I look forward to seeing where my work goes! Expect a lot more sketches to be popping up here and there and more blog updates. I'm holding myself to updating at least once a week this year, because it also forces me to be sure I'm generating work! With that, I bring you the first watercolor sketch of the year, another depiction of Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a tad obsessed with the books ;)