As a child, I was obsessed with drawing princesses and playing with fashion plates. I was equally obsessed with drawing animals wearing different outfits and it’s still one of the things I love to do. I never consulted any actual references, so my animals always came out looking rather wonky, and to this day, I tend to just draw from imagination and not much else. This pirate above is kind of foxy, yes?

One of the things I find frustrating is how hard it is to capture the actual colors and textures of my illustrations when hand-painted. The gouache and opaque watercolors are so much more vibrant in person and no amount of Photoshop tweaking has rendered them close to accurate. Then again, I probably need better Photoshop skills.

One more day until school! How this summer has flown and how thrilling to see my little girl become a first grader!!!