Illustrations tell a story. Here is Mouse making proclamation about the coming king on the turtle tower.

This is the back for a promotional postcard I’m creating. You can read about the beginning of this piece here. When I create a postcard, my intention is three-fold. First to create an image with a story that will make the viewer wonder what’s happening. Second is to show that I can keep character consistency and a story line strong from one image to the next. Plus, third, t show that I can work in either color or black and white. Mouse making proclamation is the black and white version of this postcard.

I designed the image itself to wrap around the areas where the text will appear, where the address will be written and to adhere to postal regulations regarding which areas must be kept clear for processing. Knowing how to allow for text and other requirements is also something in a good illustrator’s arsenal.

I painted the mouse in watercolor which I mixed a gray-toned color from two tube colors that I also planned to use on the full color side.

Painting gray-toned images is much easier than painting color images because you only have to concern yourself with the value structure.

Something I am still striving to improve in my color work is the bounce light that adds a much deeper dimensional feeling to the images. Color is hard. I’ve been painting in color for decades and the more I learn, the more I realize I have left to learn.

I wish there was an artist in my town who could mentor me, much like the intensive mentoring I received at IMC in 2012. My art skill and understanding leveled up after that long week intensive. It was the BEST thing I have ever done to improve my art education. I can’t wait till I can save up the funds to do something like that again.