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Sanae Ishida

A crafty little atelier in a grey city

Anthropomorphic animals

September 4, 2012

 

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!!!

Filed in: gouache, illustration, watercolor • by sanae • Leave a Comment

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I just realized that this week marks 10 years sinc I just realized that this week marks 10 years since my first craft book Sewing Happiness was published. I’ve sewn literally thousands of garments and other textile projects in the last decade! I included a Sashiko primer in the book, and I’m delighted that this humble Japanese embroidery practice has stood the test of time - if anything, I’ve noticed that there’s an ever growing enthusiasm for hand stitching. Fun news: I’ll be teaching a virtual Sashiko workshop for @tatterbluelibrary on Thursday, April 30th at noon ET. Link in profile! Would love to see you there! 💙💙💙💙💙
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