A Special Announcement for 2016!!

For the past few weeks, I've mentioned that I have an announcement to make about my art goals for 2016 and now the time has finally come to share! Are you ready? This year, I will be working with my dear friend Lauren to create a children's book!! :-D

Today, I wanted to give you a quick introduction to our story's two main characters; Pixie and Yeti (as we are calling them now).

As you can see, they're a friendly pair. ^_^

I'll be sharing more about Pixie and Yeti, the story, and other project stuff throughout this year. Since I've never written/illustrated a children's book before, I know I'll have A LOT of learning to do and I'm planning to share my journey and discoveries here. 

This book will most likely be my main focus, art-wise, this year. Ideally, I'd like to have it done and ready to share by early next year. I'm not sure if that's a realistic goal or not, but we'll see. I'm planning on sharing weekly updates on how the project is going. In order to make room for that, I'll be grouping skill-building and sketchbook art into one post at the end of each month. 

Also, I now have a fancy-pants Facebook page, so if you're interested in following this project and my other art adventures, you can head over there are and like the page, etc. Here's the link. Feel free to share any questions or thoughts there and I'll do my best to answer them. 

Whew! That was a lot of info. Thanks for sticking with me to the end! I'm really nervous/terrified to start such a massive project, but I'm also very excited. This should be a crazy year! ^_^

onward and upward,

Bethany

Christmas Illustration '15

Very excited to share my Christmas illustration with you guys!! ^_^ I've been working on it for the better part of the month and it has definitely gone through all the usual art project phases, from "yes, this thing is going to look awesome!" to the "oh no, I totally ruined it!" Over all, I think it turned out really well and I like that it has the Christmas vibe without being too obvious. And who doesn't like a group of forest creatures hanging out with their yeti friend around the fire at night?

Anyway, this is my last blog post for the year. I'll be taking Christmas and New Year's off and starting up again on January 7th with an important art announcement for 2016, so stay tuned for that! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, New Year's, holiday season, etc!

onward and upward,

Bethany

December '15 sketchbook

So, this month's sketchbook sketches are somewhat lacking in variety, but I can't really be grumpy about getting to draw foxes, owls and squirrels. I've been practicing woodland creatures a lot lately in preparation for my upcoming Christmas illustration and decided to give some of the studies a bit of pen and watercolor to polish them up. Enjoy! ^_^

onward and upward,

Bethany

December '15 Skill Building: Animals

It's always a challenge to find time for skill building during the holiday season. As soon as Thanksgiving hits, life departs from normal routines till January! I feel like these drawings count less as great art and more as "Yay, I actually made something today!", which I guess matters, in and of itself. I will be sharing sketchbook stuff next week and I have a Christmas illustration planned for the 17th. Then I'll be taking the rest of December off and blogging again in January 2016! 

onward and upward,

Bethany

November-October '15 sketchbook

Since the last two months have been crazy, I opted to do one sketchbook post for both October and November. Also, I'm posting this one week ahead of schedule because I'm taking next week (Thanksgiving) off. I hope everyone has a lovely holiday (if you're celebrating it) and I'll be back again in December! ^_^

onward and upward,

Bethany

November '15 Skill building: Poses

It never fails, I stop working on a particular skill set for awhile and I come back to it feeling rusty. :-/ Oh well, that's what skill building is for, right?

onward and upward,

Bethany

Inktober '15: Finishing up

Here are the last three drawings from Inktober this year! Thank you everyone for your kind words and encouragement! ^_^ I'm really glad I pushed myself to do a character design challenge and that so many people got joy out of seeing my work. It was a crazy/great month and I am eagerly looking forward to future projects. Stay tuned!

onward and upward,

Bethany