Stealing People's ideas

Artists steal from each other all the time.

I love looking at other artists work to get ideas. Sometimes I copy part, or all, of a painting or drawing so I can learn how artists better than me do things.  This type of stuff no one sees but me, but it's in my brain somewhere.

Other times I look at other artists just to get inspired. Ask, how do they draw, expressions, wrinkles, shoes, or compose a picture?

PJ Lynch, and artist I am often inspired by, had a really great example on his blog a while back called "Inspired by Dulac".  I really enjoy seeing how he incorporated another artists way of using space into his image.

When I created the Little Match Girl, and Cinderella illustrations I wanted it to be an exercise on using space the way Lisbeth Zwerger does. She creates paintings with beautiful areas of empty space. I really enjoyed working that way and hope I can incorporate more of that in my work in the future. Here is a link to an interview she gave about her art.

How are you inspired by other artists?



The winner of last week's giveaway is...
... Camilla!
(winner was chosen completely at random by drawing numbers from a bowl)
please email me at illustration(at)manelleoliphant(dot)com with your name and mailing address, and I will send you your prize 

So if you didn't win there is one more chance. (once you have won you are no longer eligible to enter again but feel free to spread the word. ;)
Or, if you don't want to wait check out my print shop or card shop to get your own Manelle art right away.

Here is what you can win.

Three illustrated art prints. They are printed on Epson Velvet fin art paper and signed by me.
They are in two sizes one 5.75x8.5 and two 13x8.5 prints.  (not standard frame sizes)

To enter this contest here is what you need to do.

1. Comment below before Midnight MST on January 2, 2012 (p.s Happy New Year)

You can comment anything but if you need a jump start I'd love to hear about ways art inspires you in any way.

2. Tweet or Facebook status a link back to this blog post.

I'll announce the winner next Thursday.
Good luck everyone. 


Love this art? Buy Prints or Cards and Gifts illustrated by Manelle.

Real life people get logged away & giveaway four

Artists get ideas from people in the real world. They do it all the time.

The other day I was sitting my car at a stop light and a man walked across the street in front of me. He had no chin, a giant nose, a skinny neck, and a comb over. He was drowning in his sweat shirt and had this way of walking that reminded me of a pigeon.

It was awesome. 

Since I was driving I couldn't pull out my sketchbook right then, but I logged him away in my brain for ... something later on.

Yesterday I drew him at the movies.

Observation is a great way to get ideas.


The winner of last week's giveaway is...
... J-Dawg!
(winner was chosen completely at random by drawing numbers from a bowl)
please email me at illustration(at)manelleoliphant(dot)com with your name and mailing address, and I will send you your prize 

Now if you didn't win no worries.
There are two more giveaways to go.

If you don't want to wait check out my print shop or card shop to get your own Manelle art right away. (once you have won you are no longer eligible to enter again but feel free to spread the word. ;)

Here is what you can win.

Three illustrated art prints. They are printed on Epson Velvet fin art paper and signed by me.
They are in two sizes one 5.75x8.5 and two 13x8.5 prints.  (not standard frame sizes)

To enter this contest here is what you need to do.

1. Comment below before Midnight MST on December 26, 2011 (p.s. Merry Christmas!)

You can comment anything but if you need a jump start I'd love to hear about any of your people watching experiences, or if there is any art in my portfolio that you would like to see as a print I'd love to hear that too.

2. Tweet or Facebook status a link back to this blog post.

I'll announce the winner next Thursday.
Good luck everyone. 


Love this art? Buy Prints or Cards and Gifts illustrated by Manelle.

Giveaway Three

The winner of this week's giveaway is...
... blue65829
(winner was chosen completely at random by drawing numbers from a bowl)
contact me at illustration(at)manelleoliphant(dot)com with your name and mailing address, and I will send you your prize 

Thanks for all your comments about fairy tales I'm excited to read and maybe illustrate some of them. 

Now if you didn't win, no worries.
There are three more giveaways to go or you can check out my print shop or card shop to get your own Manelle art right away. (once you have won you are no longer eligible to enter again but feel free to spread the word. ;)

Here is what you can win.

Three illustrated art prints. They are printed on Epson Velvet fin art paper and signed by me.
They are in two sizes one 5.75x8.5 and two 13x8.5 prints.  (not standard frame sizes)

To enter this contest here is what you need to do.

1. Comment below before Midnight MST on December 19, 2011
You can comment anything but if you need a jump start I'd love to hear your best way of getting ideas, (here is my post with some thoughts about it) or if there is any art in my portfolio that you would like to see as a print,

2. Tweet or Facebook status a link back to this blog post.

I'll announce the winner next Thursday.
Good luck everyone. 


Love this art? Buy Prints or Cards and Gifts illustrated by Manelle.

Do you know where this idea came from?

Lots of time people want to know where ideas for things like art, music, writing, and the empire state building, come from.

The answer is everywhere.
But that isn't really what you want to know so... I'll tell you how I got the idea for this illustration:

It started  out with me thinking about putting more emotion in my art.

Some artists I think are brilliant at it this and I want to be better.
Pascal Campion and
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (painted "whistler's mother")
are a couple examples.

I also want to be brilliant at it, thus I was pondering on it.
(I think most ideas start with pondering about stuff)

This led me to thinking about trying to paint memories. One of the paintings I did at this time was Girl's Night Out.  Which started from a memory of my and some friends eating out for dinner.

Then one morning I got in my car and saw this:

(I may have been driving and taking pictures at the same time. But I'm fine no accidents or anything close. No worries)

And that is basically it. Snowy misty morning + thinking about memories = girls walking home from school.

And now you know where that idea came from.
The End

Check out my weekly Print Giveaway.
Love this art? Buy Prints or Cards and Gifts illustrated by Manelle.

My Sketchbook Idea Generator + Winners + Giveaway 2

Sometimes I feel like drawing but end up just staring at a blank page.

My solution?

THE SKETCHBOOK IDEA GENERATOR

This idea started at a workshop I attended about a year ago with Priscilla Burris. She had a everyone randomly write down an animal and an emotion which we then had to draw. I got an "ecstatic pig".

I enjoyed the exercise, and after some thought on it I came up with my Sketchbook Idea Generator.
I started out making some lists in a word program under the categories of: Person, Action/Emotion, Time, and Place.
This is what I came up with. (if you want to try it, feel free to print the jpg)

As you can see, some of the people aren't actually people, and things range from general to really specific. I did that on purpose

After that I printed the list, cut the words into little paper pieces and put them in envelopes in the back pocket of my sketchbook.

Now if I'm stumped on what to draw. I just pull out the envelopes, pick some papers randomly out of them, and sketch away.

I usually pick one from the person category, and anywhere from one to all of the other categories, but you can do any combo that you want.

With some of my 20 min sketches this week I've gotten: Edwardian + Cat + Car

Teenage girl + Dragon + a Snowy place

And
Clown + Sad +1700's

I'll be at it on my Sketch blog all month long so check back often to see what other ideas are generated.
You can also give it a whirl yourself. I'd love to hear about your experiences.

Now for the moment you might have been waiting for, last weeks Giveaway winner is:
# 3 Dashbo!
(winner was chosen completely at random by drawing numbers from a bowl)
contact me and I will get you your prize. 

Now if you didn't win, no worries.
There are still four more giveaways to try your typing fingers at or you can check out my print shop or card shop to get your own Manelle art right away. (once you have won you are no longer eligible to enter again)

Here is what you can win.

Three illustrated art prints. They are printed on Epson Velvet fin art paper and signed by me.
They are in two sizes one 5.75x8.5 and two 13x8.5 prints.  (not standard frame sizes)

To enter this contest here is what you need to do.

1. Comment below before Midnight MST on December 12, 2011
Tell me one or all of these things: what your favorite fairy tale is,
or if there is any art in my portfolio that you would like to see as a print,
or if you try out the "generator" I'd love a link to see your sketches.

2. Tweet or Facebook status a link back to this blog post.

I'll announce the winner next Thursday.
Good luck everyone.

Introducing... new stuff, and giving things away.

Hello my friends.
I've been pondering (probably not what you've been pondering pinky) about what to do with my blog, and I've come up with something.

The plan is this:
My new sketch blog is now here on tumblr. I will be posting on it at least 4 times a week until otherwise noted.  My sketch theme for December is "my sketchbook idea generator".

What does that mean you ask? I'll let you know next Thursday, here on Manelle Oliphant Illustration.

In Fact, I will be posting on this blog on every Thursday, also until otherwise noted.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL (I know the all caps are annoying but sometimes I just can't help it)

I also want to introduce to you my new card shop and print shop. And to celebrate the fun I'm having my first ever blog giveaway.

(I kinda love giveaways, even though I've never won anything.)

Here is what you can win.

Yes it's true, three whole signed Manelle Oliphant Illustration prints. They are in two sizes one 5.75x8.5 and two 13x8.5 prints.  (not standard frame sizes, nor are they the new and improved prints you can find in the shop.)

To enter here is what you have to do.
1. Comment on this post before midnight on Monday December 5)
2. Tweet or Facebook status a link to this blog post.

Easy!

Then I'll pick the winner randomly by putting your comment number in a hat. Then we'll have some kind of email get together where in get some into and mail the prints. (awesome!)

I'll announce the winner next Thursday here on this blog.

Ok one more thing.
I just happen to have more than one of those lovely little prints up there so I'm planning on having this give away each week for the next five. So if you keep checking back you have five chances to win. (Why not make it big, we are launching a whole new thing here?)

AND NOW THAT'S ALL for today. Don't forget to check out the shops (cards, prints), my new sketch blog , and start commenting.

New Post, New Poster, Funny Comic

You may have noticed my last post was a while ago.

Yep.

Me too.

We'll my excuse for not posing is that I was busy getting married, buying a house and fixing it up.

(I think it's a pretty good excuse.)

You may have noticed I didn't say moving in my excuse. We are still working on the fixing it up bit, then we'll get to the moving bit. bleh.

But on an art note. Here is a poster I did recently for the Empress Theatre.

and if you want to read the funniest thing I've read all week you can check out some comics my 11 year old sister drew.

My favorite is "Kistafer Cumulas". The the "Three Musket-teers" is also great.

Sketches

I just wanted to post a couple sketches from my book. I usually don't post things like this because I feel like no one will really want to see them. Then I saw this post on Andreas Deja's blog and felt inspired to share a couple of my "just sketches". The dumb thing is I love looking at sketches on other people's blogs. It's more favorite than the finished illustrations in most cases.

Ok It's an ebook!

Hello blog readers and all people of planet earth.

Some of you have been asking if I am going to publish Melwick.

The answer:
Yes, yes I am. as an ebook.

You can now get it from Barns and Noble and Amazon.

I updated some of the illustrations and text and made it more e reader friendly but it' still the same story you can read here. Buy and download your copy today!

Melwick The End

THE END
Previous Page -- Back to Beginning


Here it is. The last Melwick page. To say I learned a lot about this process is an understatement. Right now my plan is to do some more Blog A Stories sometime after my wedding.  I think I'll be a lot better at it next go round.

In the mean time keep your eye out for this and some other stories I've illustrated to come out as an ebook. I'm planning on doing a little tweaking to Melwick before I release it, to help finish it off and make it better for you. I also have another ebook soon to hit the digital shelves.

Hope you liked the story.

Melwick Page 27

Here is the penultimate Melwick page.

Previous Page -- Next Page

Melwick Page 26

Previous Page -- Next Page

Melwick Page 25

Previous Page -- Next Page

Melwick Page 24

 Previous Page -- Next Page

Bet some of you wondered if I was really going to get this done today. Well, yes, yes I am, and here you go. Thanks for indulging my break. There are a lot of things to get done. But I believe I can safely say that from now until the end of the story I will have a new page every Tuesday, no battle.

Melwick Page 23

Previous Page -- Next Page

Here is the new Melwick page.
So I just realized online the resolution isn't good enough for  you to read the papers flying out of Wizard Ren's pocket. So FYI they are all spells to mess up good ol' Melwick including "Spell 2, Castle Blockage" and "Spell 3 Melwick's Downfall"

Gerber is holding the castle blocking spell.

Hope you like it.

Manelle

Melwick Page 22

Here is the new Melwick page. Hope it was worth the wait. ;)


Previous Page -- Next Page

Melwick page 22 Preview

This is a preview of the next page. It's coming along great, but taking it's time. I have to meet other deadlines this week so watch for the whole beautiful painted page next Tuesday.

Melwick page 21

Previous Page -- Next Page

If you are wondering where Gerber came from check the last page again. :) Although it might be too small to see on the computer at the low resolution. Sorry if that's the case.

P.S. I'm getting Married. Yea!

Wizard Melwick page 20

Previous Page -- Next Page

Here is the next Melwick page. I'm getting excited for next week's page as well. We are about to the climax. I hope it's climactic. I've learned a ton and think I will probably try a new story after Melwick is done, but do a better job of it.
Anyway, enjoy today.

Sketchbook Marathon (toy)

Last night I had a little time, and a sketchbook that's almost full. Here are two things you need to know at this point. 1. For some reason I feel the need to fill up a sketchbook all the way before I move onto the next one. 2. The sketchbook I'm using now I don't like very much.

So, I had time and about 12 pages left, and I decided to have a little sketchbook marathon to fill up the empty pages.

Well, I didn't get all the pages full. In fact I only did three sketches. I had way too much fun with the watercolors. Here they are, the first sketch (which I actually drew second) is for this weeks Illustration Friday theme "toy".

Melwick page 19

Previous Page -- Next Page
Here is out angry king and court. He ended up looking a little like that monkey ninja from that one movie. You know the one with Jackie Chan and the kid from Sky High. But than I gave him a mustache and changed his hair color. I think he is a little better now. Poor Melwick.

On a totally different note, here is a quote that I like.

"The work of a master reeks not of the sweat of the brow – suggests no effort – and is finished from its beginning." James Abbot McNeill Whistler

Sometimes I forget why I really wanted to be an illustrator. Usually it's when I'm so worried about living (eat, sleep, pay for stuff, etc) I stop actually doing it. It's those time I get worried about the deadline and what not then don't enjoy the work. But when I get in the right mode. Work is easy fun and fast. The deadline doesn't matter. It turns out great.

That's I remember why I do it.
Normally I produce good work, (I hope) in those moments I produce great work.

What are some things you all do to get in that zone more often?

Melwick page 18

It's the middle of the night. Lame of me. But here is Melwick. Not so lame of me.
Previous Page -- Next Page

Wizard Melwick page 17 and Reminiscing

Previous Page -- Next Page

I was listening to The Grey King by Susan Cooper and I got to feeling a little nostalgic about some of the other books I enjoyed as a child but haven't read recently. Of course besides Susan cooper I loved Trina Schart Hyman's beautiful illustrations. I used to check out her books from the library by the bucket load and then just stare at them.

One of my other absolute favorite childhood authors is Lloyd Alexander. I found this on YouTube today and it reminded me of how much I love his books. It took me a great long time to get through the Prydain Cronicles the first time, but really loved them. After those I read everyone of his books I could get my hands on. My eighth grade Halloween costume was a Town Cat, and I remember being in college and still getting excited about new books he had coming out.

It's good to be reminded of some of these things that inspired me to create art, and books for children.

Wizard Melwick page 16

Previous Page -- Next Page

Wizard Melwick page 15

Here you go, Wednesday as promised. it's not even the middle of the night yet for me. Sweet!

Previous Page -- Next Page

City Girl and a blog award

It's Tuesday and that means that I'm supposed to post Melwick. He's going to be up tomorrow. Sorry for the delay. To hold you over until then here is another illustration I just finished and wanted to share.

This image is also the newest update on my newly updated website. I'd love to hear what you think about it. (meaning the website, but you can tell me what you think of the image as well)

And, last week I received this:

 Which was super nice of PZ desigs to find my blog and award it to me. I am finally finding time to pass it on. But first I have to tell you all seven things about me. Here we go:

1. In the very near future you may see me dressed up like Tinkerbell at a birthday party near you (if you live in Utah). I'm working on the ol' costume and will soon be attending parties as Tinkerbell.

2. Cooking is my new favorite Hobby. I just made some awesome bread and can't wait to eat it for dinner tonight.

3. Jeeves and Whooster is a really funny show. Doctor Who is my favorite show.

4. Going off of that last one, I have a crush on BBC drama's.

5. I didn't think I would like Twitter, but I really do. I've been a tweeter for a couple months now, and I have been avoiding Facebook as much as possible. It sucks away your time if your not careful.

6. I'm currently reading Linchpin. It's fantastic. My favorite of Seth Godin's books (that I've read) so far. I just have to apply it to life now... and I will so there.

7. I believe families can be together forever.

Ok, there are some things about me.
Now here are some of my favorite creative blogs for you to look at, and for me to pass on the award to:
Illustrators
Sherry Meidell
Shawna Tenney
Sam Ricks
Nasan Hardcastle

Food
ErikEats

Home Decor
Color Me Happy

ok so that's not 15 but, and I do follow a lot more than 15 awesome blogs but... well that's all I'm posting for you.  Have a great day!

If one of those blogs is yours and you want to accept the award this is what you do:

1. Put a picture of the Stylish Blogger Award in your blog.
2. Thank and link back to the person who awarded it to you.
3. Share 7 things about yourself.
4. Pass this award to 15 other creative bloggers!

Layer

The thought process on this week's illustration Friday theme, "layer":

Sunday morning I drove somewhere, and the weather was bleak, and totally gorgeous.
I got to see this,

 and this,

and um, yep that is me taking photos with my phone, from my car, while driving. I admit it. But as far as I know in Utah I can only get pulled over for texting and driving so no big deal right? (that is a slightly sarcastic comment, just in case you were wondering)

Anyway, I knew there was an illustration in this bleak gorgeous day, and that it had to be done with watercolors. So I created one. (that's what you see at the top)
Here is a close up of the image.

I apparently am not the first one to use this take on "layer". Last night I saw Abagial Halpin's lovely interpretation of the theme as I was finishing mine up. I guess great minds think similar... or both she and I live in places with snow at the moment, and we have to wear layers to keep warm. It could be either one of those reasons.

Wizard Melwick page 14

Previous Page -- Next Page

Girl's Night Out

Or Illustration Friday- Sweater
Really I have been working on this for a little while (not just this week) but one of those girls is wearing a sweater, so I'm posting it for Illustration Friday. I'm planning on using it for one of my next mailers.  I'd love to hear what you think about it.

Also I'm pondering the thought of opening my own online shop where you can buy some of my prints, or original paintings, maybe cards and the like. Do you think that would go over well? I can't decide.

Oh, and don't forget to check out my little blog story book about a confused but very famous wizard.

Wizard Melwick page 13

Previous Page -- Next Page

Wizard Melwick page 12

Previous Page -- Next Page

Wizard Melwick page 11

Previous Page -- Next Page

Wizard Melwick page 10

I love letting the watercolor do what it wants. I think it worked well in this piece.

Previous Page -- Next Page