An Update and a Peek at my Process

Hello All!
It's been a loooooong time since I updated my blog because I have been keeping really busy! I have been working on two sets of wedding invitations, one of which is done, the other is about half way done. I am starting to design yet another set, and working on some commissions and some personal projects. I also am still doing some graphic design work for a home linens company. So I've been keeping super busy!
That being said, I thought it was about time I did another post about my process. This fall, I had a commission to paint a piece as a wedding gift. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but I was really happy with the result!

First, I started with the reference the client gave me for the project. They had already been to the wedding, so they had taken pictures of the bouquets for me.

The reference. There wasn't much to go off of, but I did at least have an idea for color

From there, I made some REALLY rough sketches to send to the client. I knew the client very well, so I knew she'd be able to work from these. I also offered to send her clearer sketches, but she got a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do. From these rough sketches, I did a final sketch, then transferred it to watercolor paper to paint! I love my lightbox, it has made my life so much easier. (And the best part? It was a garage sale find!)

Before I start painting, I always do a rough color composition in photoshop to give myself a general map for the painting:

As you can see, I just put the general colors in, outlining two of the flowers at the top and giving them shadows so I know that the direction I want to take the painting in will work

Then it's time to start the painting!

I have all my paints ready, my brushes, and the painting taped onto my drafting table. I also work with my sketch next to me so I know where the shadows and hi-lights need to go. The color comp I leave up on my computer screen to follow.

I paint these like a paint by number. (Did any one else love these as a kid?) First I painted the light grey background. Then, I mix the shadow, base color, and hi-light for a flower. (I typically use gouache to paint all my pieces). Then I start with all the hi-lights of a certain color, than the midtone, then finish with the shadows. After I have done this for all the flowers, I do the white outlines:

As you can see, I paint it color by color until all my guidelines are filled in! It's a very exact way of painting, but it works really well for me. It's also really fun to see the painting come together piece by piece!

The finished painting with the original sketch. Time to take the tape off!

Here is the finished piece:

I loved painting this piece because the colors were so fun! The client was happy, and I believe the bride was too!
If you would like to commission a piece for a wedding, contact me via my etsy store or at anne@anneappert.com.

Also, a reminder that you can now follow me on facebook and on instagram! (anneappertillustration)

Now, back to work on everything else I have to do!

Another Wedding Project

This is another belated post, but while I am working on my calendar, I thought I would get you ready for more flowers. Also, since this project was a gift and I know the person now has it, I feel comfortable blogging about it.
The wedding thing seems to be taking off for me. This summer, I did a project for a friend that also had to do with weddings (on top of all the wedding invitations I made!).  She loved the paintings I did for my 2013 calendar, and asked if I could do a painting for her to give as a wedding present to a friend. Of course I said yes. At first I was just going to do a flower painting for her, but then came up with what I thought was a brilliant idea: I would draw the date of her wedding, with the flowers forming the dates, like a trellis of sorts. My friend loved this idea so I went ahead and sent her some sketches.The bride's favorite flowers are johnny jump ups (or at least this is what I was told) and her bridesmaid dresses were a lovely lilac color, so this formed the basis for the painting.
 This was a much bigger painting then I had done for awhile, so I miscalculated the time it would take me but I was very happy with the result.

The colors!

starting to paint the flowers

it was a slow process

halfway there!

flowers are done!

stems done

numbers and letters done, now just the leaves

now to outline everything

finished! time to take the tape off

the finished painting (the colors are a little bit more accurate in the other pictures.)

The leaves make up their wedding date and their monogram.
Although a pain in the neck at times (and I do mean that literally, I must hold my head in the same position for a long time when I paint),  this was a good project, and another that I hope to put on my etsy store for people to see and order their own versions. (I am currently working on a similar project which I hope to post in the next couple of weeks) I thought this was such a nice way to remember such a beautiful and important day!
And now, back to feverishly painting my calendar!

Happy New Year! A quick recap of 2012 and some resolutions

Happy January! "January Snowdrops" from my 2013 calendar. buy it here 8x10 or here 5x7

Happy New Year everyone! I hope your holidays were filled with family, love, and laughter.
2012 was a good year for me with my art. I put together a portfolio, created a new website, updated here more than previously, designed a logo, designed a tattoo (2 of my first paying jobs as an illustrator!), designed wedding invitations for one of my best friends and my sister (you'll have to wait until July to see them!), FINISHED a big project I created for myself (my 2013 calendar), started an etsy store, and sold all the calendars I had printed, plus some prints of my paintings.
I am very excited to start 2013. I have so many ideas that my fingers are itching to complete. I am hoping that 2013 holds so many more accomplishments for me as an illustrator than 2012, that I can't even recount them all here at the end of the year!

Of course,  the new year comes with new resolutions for my art career. I am sharing them here with you so that I know I have people counting on me to complete them. Here they are:
1. draw everyday
2. create more work
3. start contacting publishers with book ideas
4. update my blog, website, and etsy regularly
5. experiment with showing my work on other social media platforms
6. Have fun doing whatever I end up doing
Trying to keep it somewhat short and simple so I can keep track of my goals. Of course, knowing the way I work, I am going to end up creating outlines of all the stuff I want to do and get overwhelmed.

My goal for this week is to finish some valentine's day designs I am working on, do illustration friday tomorrow, and start some of my other projects. I'll keep you all posted. :)

I really am excited for 2013. I think it will be a good year for me as an artist. I hope those of you who read this blog will continue to follow me as I grow as an artist this year and my portfolio grows!
Happy New Year again!

the front of my 2013 calendar. I don't have more printed; however, I will be offering them until February 1st. Send me a message on etsy or put a calendar in your cart,  if you want one!

Just a Quick Update...

Hello all.
It's been a long time since I posted anything here so I am not sure anyone who isn't on facebook even reads this anymore.
However, I am writing to say, I'm back!
With Hurricane Sandy I was out of power for a week and a half and then with transportation stress and painting like crazy, I haven't really had time to post.
I have good news though. I have finally opened my etsy store and am selling a 2013 calendar and prints!
click here or on the link to the left of the page to see it.
I was super happy with how these came out, after going through some printing panic. And the pictures aren't so bad themselves. I will update tomorrow with pictures, but for now check it out on etsy.
I personally think it would make a great Christmas present for that impossible person on your list.
Enjoy!

October Marigolds

Hey all!
just a quick update before I get back to painting. (I have A LOT of work to do).
Here is the painting for October of my calendar. Marigolds are the flower for October, and we happen to have a lot of lovely marigolds in our yard, so I was able to get lots of great reference. The birthstone for October is opal, which I ran into problems with. Since I have been painting SO graphically, I wasn't sure how to do opal, since it is iridescent. However, after talking to my sister who happens to have an October birthday, she said a lot of people use rose quartz as the birthstone for October. Because opal does have some pink in it, I thought this was a good compromise for the painting.
What do you think?

 

 Now on to August!

Illustration Friday: Mirror

I took a break from what I should be doing (my calendar) to illustrate this week's Illustration Friday topic since I really REALLY wanted to. This is an illustration of me and my sister (much younger of course!) I tried adding a little colored pencil to the illustration this time as opposed to only using gouache. Let me know what you think! (I, of course, am the left handed one, and in yellow)

"Elizabeth and Anne had always been told they were mirror-image twins. They, however, didn't really care as long as it meant they always had someone to play with"

March Daffodils

It's been a long time since i posted anything here. I have been in a creative funk for awhile, feeling uninspired, and unmotivated. Finally, I felt the need to do something creative again and was able to get a painting done. Somehow, I need to find a way to push through these funks when they happen so I can still paint. Really, once I start, I remember how much I really do love this, no matter how frustrating or tedious a painting can be.
Anyway, I decided to steal an idea from one of my good friends and do a calendar for 2013. (my friend Paule, you can see her awesome work here) . In many google searches, I found lists in various places of monthly flowers. Similar to birthstones, there is apparently a flower for each month. No site seems to agree on what they are, so I just picked my favorite ones for each month.
Every spring I am a maniac with a camera and take tons of pictures of flowers when they first bloom. Because of this I had some great photographs of daffodils. Therefore, for March, I went with daffodils. The birthstone for March is aquamarine so I went with a blue background for the piece.
Here is an abbreviated overview of my process for this painting.

First I picked the photographs.  I like to use reference when working on a flower painting so I used this photograph combined with another. I played with moving the flowers closer and flipping them around and came up with a composition

  

Then I do a rendered drawing to understand shadows and highlights.

 

Then I trace the drawing making the shadows and everything into shapes.

 

From here I do a color comp in photoshop. It's fun because it is kind of like coloring in a coloring book. I usually simplify the shapes at this point of the project. When I am satisfied with the colors, I transfer the drawing to a piece of hot-pressed watercolor paper and start painting.

painting the background first

progress report

And here is the finished product

The scan came out a bit brighter than the actually painting, but I kind of liked it. Daffodils are such bright cheerful flowers it made sense. I realized while painting that my process has become like a paint by number I create for myself. It was a fun realization, and makes me think that those years of doing paint by numbers did not go to waste (just kidding). Sometimes, it does get a little tedious, and I do need to figure out a faster process, but for now, it does work for me so maybe I will just try to get faster.
Enjoy!

Another Rainy Day

As I mentioned in my last post, the weather here is blah. We actually had a beautiful weekend, full of sun and warm weather; a perfect way to spend Mother's day weekend. I painted a picture of pansies for my mom as a gift, since pansies are her favorite flower. Unfortunately, I can't get the colors to scan right so you will have to be patient before I post that.
So here we are again, with it raining buckets outside. everything is wet and gray and gross. I actually don't mind rainy days; I love the gentle staccato of the rain against the leaves, the glisten of the water against the grass, the feeling that you either need to get a lot done indoors or snuggle up with blankets and a cup of tea. . .I really do love rainy days. However, I like rainy days few and far between. This constant gloom not only literally gives me a headache, it makes me feel depressed and antsy (not at the same time, obviously).

It also, as I mentioned in my previous post, has been coming up in my art. Here is the last of the rainy day pictures I had mentioned. (although, most certainly not the last one I paint!) Hopefully, it will give you some joy on this miserable day. It is meant to be a fun piece. Enjoy!

A mother bird tries to keep her babies dry in the rain. I wouldn't want to be the one on the end!

Rainy Day Magic

The weather here has been kind of blah the last couple of days. I realize this may be coming out in the pieces I have been doing recently. This piece is the third piece I have done recently that I have painted that has to do with rainy days. (I haven't posted one of them yet but it will be posted soon!)

I don't know if this actually has to do with the fact that the weather has been blah or the fact that I loved rainy days as a kid. Me and my sister would always go outside and play in the rain, stomping in the puddles in our driveway. Unlike my illustration here, we did not wear rain boots. I wanted to capture the fun of puddle stopping with the magic of having an imagination as a child, where really anything is possible (maybe even falling leaves turning into goldfish?)
I used the flat style I have been using recently with some more textures in the background and in the puddle. I don't know if I love the result yet or not; however, this is a piece that has been on my mind for a long time now, and has been sitting on my hard drive as a color comp for almost as long, so I decided it was time to give it a go and try and paint it.
Hope you like it!

Illustration Friday: Jump

I am really happy to be doing Illustration Friday for the 3rd week in a row. I know I keep submitting my take on the topics last minute, but hey, I am still getting them in right?
This week's word was jump. I decided to redo a piece that I did last summer for promotional material. I wasn't happy with he outcome then so I wanted to try and redo it. The colors here are a bit brighter than the painting itself; I don't usually paint with fluorescent colors. I think I need to play with my scanner a little more and try to adjust the colors better in photoshop.

Rosie loved to jump really high on her pogo stick

What do you think?

Illustration Friday: Heights

Hooray! I am doing Illustration Friday for the second week in a row. It helped that this week's theme fit in with a project I was already working on. I am also happy to be getting it done before Thursday at ten.

As a kid I always loved flying kites. Once a year, my street use to have a day where all the little kids would go to the end of the street (we lived on a cul-de-sac and there was a field there) and run around, getting our kites up in the air and seeing how high they could go. Of course they got tangled often, but as long as you could untangle them, that was part of the fun of it.

Hope you like it!

Illustration Friday: Puzzled

This is totally last minute, but I FINALLY did Illustration Friday again! The word for this week was puzzled. Since two of my sisters are totally obsessed with pandas, they were the first thing I thought of for this piece. So, I did a red panda (yes they really do look like red raccoons) looking at a giant panda (what most people think of when they think of pandas.) I thought it could be a cute and original idea. What do you think?

But I'm a panda!

Promotional Materials: Business Cards

So I have decided to put up the paintings I did for my business cards as promised in my last post. It was time for a new set. I may or may not use all of them, what do you think?

Spring: New Beginnings

I love that Spring has finally come! I get so discouraged by the winter, being cold all the time, gray skies. . . it just gets depressing and is very much not a motivating season for me. But Spring! I love all the flowers, especially at this time of year, so many of them are yellow! My family knows I am OBSESSED with this color. It's just such a cheerful and hopeful color! Soon, I hope to do some more flower paintings like the poppy painting in my last post (and yes, many of them will probably be yellow). I took a lot of reference pictures yesterday, so hopefully those paintings will be popping up here soon!

Any way, I am hoping that with this new season in the air, I can start a new season of creativity. I am hoping to get much more done, which of course I will share here. I thought a good way to start would be with some new promotional materials. I have started working on some paintings I hope to use for business cards, and I think they are coming out nicely. They are a bit more representative of what I want to do than my last bunch was, which is a good and needed change. I have painted three of them already, and will share them all with you eventually. For now, this is the one I just finished.

 

The colors didn't scan perfectly which I have to figure out. The orange is lighter than it shows up here. The rest are almost accurate. If anyone has any suggestions about getting accurate scans, I am all ears!

Now, I am going to go enjoy this lovely weather. Maybe I will get some more reference pictures, maybe I will bring my sketchbook out and draw. However, I think I will most likely lay in the sun and soak up the inspiration nature and Spring always share.

If you are in the New York area, go outside! enjoy this beautiful day. 

 

Illustration Friday: Round

Hello Again. I am very excited to post my first picture for Illustration Friday (even if it is almost in time for the next word).

"The mouse pushed the round ball of yarn out of the basket to distract the cat chasing him and his fellow mice"

The word for this week was round. when brainstorming ideas of things that are round, I thought of balls of yarn. As many of my family members knit or crochet, this seemed like a good subject. I thought then, well how to make this interesting? and re-did a quick sketch I did a couple years ago that I called "Hide and Seek." For this picture, I used gouache, a watercolor brushtip pen (for the lines) and some digital collage. It isn't perfect but I thought the result was nice.

Persephone and the Pomegranate

Hey Everybody!

It's been awhile but I've been keeping busy. Here is a piece I did for school. We had to do a piece about adversity/adversaries, and I chose to illustrate Persephone and the Pomegranate from Greek Mythology. I did it with gouache, and the leaves and branches are collaged.