Let's get the Imagination Nurons Connecting!

For this year's Christmas Card, I decided to create an illustration that might make one ask why is there a unicorn with it's horn lopped off and pitched in the snow?
Well, if you do think that, perhaps you could share what you think the story's all about here in the comments!
Have fun!

Wishing everyone the best for the holidays!!
~Pat Ann~

Quick! Post!

I haven't posted in a while!

I'm back in the animation side of my career and enjoying a wonderful storyboard gig. Can't say much because it's a brand new show which will be airing on Canadian television later on next year!
Well my new contract is very time consuming as well as very digital. The software I'm using is called ToonBoom's Storyboard Pro and if you are not familiar with the program, the artist uses a tablet to draw. No more sticky notes taped onto a story board page.
I love working in Storyboard Pro but because the process requires 10 to 12 hours per day to work on, I find it hard to make time for simple sketchbook drawing or to work on my graphic novel.
I'm going to figure out what I can do to make a little time here or there to work on my stuff somehow. In the meantime however, I'm posting 3 doodles that I did a wee while ago. They were pinned to one of my bulletin boards where I could see them on a regular basis. I don't know what I want to do with them yet.
Posting them online might get someone to pipe up with an idea though!

Soul Art Studio

Although I have yet to physically visit Soul Art Studio, (there is really no excuse for me, it's located here in Hamilton, Ontario!) I feel very much apart of the Soul Art experience thanks to the wonderful newsletters that owner, Laura Hollick sends out via email every Sunday.
Laura is an amazing artist! Her imagination is boundless and she uses it to creatively inspire others!
So if you want to feel that inspirational muse tapping on your shoulder, head on over to www.laurahollick.com. You'll be glad that you did!
Here's a taste of what you see over at Laura's site:


Om Shanti
~Pat Ann~

Faeriecon 2009

I'm ready for Faeriecon this weekend! If you're in Baltimore, come and visit our booth! http://www.faeriecon.com

Coming Thru!

Here is Tiger Tooth in colour. I've changed the name to 'Coming Thru!' thanks to the DeviantArt contributor: =dkl78594 .
Now I must sit down in a quiet space and write up a synopsis to a story about a neanderthal boy and his pet smilodon that stewed while I was working on this illustration.

Om Shanti
~Pat Ann~

Tiger Tooth

I'm working on spiffing up my portfolio. It's been over a year since I have updated it with personal work.
So here's one that I'm in the middle of. It's the under drawing to a digital piece that I'm reluctantly calling 'Tiger Tooth.' I really don't know what to name it. I not keen on the title, the name sort of came out of nowhere.
Perhaps one of my viewers could give me a name. I would greatly appreciate it!

Om Shanti
~Pat Ann~

Sketchee-Doodle No.2

The next installment from my dusty old sketchbooks!

Francis and Red-Shanks

An Illustration of Francis & Red-Shanks. I think this might be apart of the cover for Sky Dive!

To Find A Wonder

This is a book cover that (hopefully) will be wrapping Jennifer Carson's book, "To Find A Wonder."
(Out and about in book stores this time next year!)

The Latin text will change to Jennifer's English synopsis.

Venus Transit

I was asked to donate something to Venus Transit Festival for a Door Prize. I wanted to something new and special since the theme was on feminine creativity.
This is what I did.

New Stuff up on Etsy!

Just letting everyone know that there is new stuff on the Whisper Willow Etsy Shop!
(And everything is under $200.00 smackers!)
Here's just some of the drawings I got up there!
If you want to see more, just head on over to my website and hit the for sale link!
www.pat-ann.squarespace.com

Om Shanti
~Pat Ann~

Wee lil' Fae

Another posting from my collection of doodles!

These little Fairy girls were originally designed for a pewter company with the idea of making tooth fairy medallions. They wanted older looking girls so these ones were rejected.

I thought they were worth keeping and perhaps one day they'll be in an illustration or perhaps they'll become a polymer sculpture!

One day!
If you want to see the 'chosen' fairies click on my client's website: http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.440236/sc.7/category.5862/.f
And don't just look at what I contributed, take a look at their whole catalog! Their designs in pewter are beautiful.

Om Shanti
~Pat Ann~

Character Designs

One of my goals this year is to have two story pitches ready for publisher's viewing. Here are some rough character designs and doodles from one of them. A wordless picture book (Except for the first page of the book, there is a sentence there.)

My goal for this picture book is to keep it a wordless. Not as easy as it seems!

Om Shanti

~Pat Ann~

The Singing Unicorn

Back in 2005, doodled up a wee sketch of a gypsy styled girl giving a Unicorn a singing lesson.
I liked it, posted it on various websites and then forgot about it.
Then a few days ago, I received an email from Quarto Publishing asking me to contribute to one of their fantasy 'how to' books and since they already have a rather large file of my personal work on hand, I assumed that they were hoping I would contribute something fresh.
Fresh?
I really don't have anything that is brand new from my personal portfolio. I've been working on nothing but NDA work for the past 2 years and even though I partially own some of it, that artwork is not old enough to released to another publishing house.
I really want to push my own thoughts anyway. So I rummaged through my doodles online when came across that singing unicorn.

Even though the line work is not 'neat and tidy' it was a good candidate for colour and though the sketch was sold a while ago, I had scanned it in a 300dpi and saved that scan in my external hard drive.
Yay!

So into Photoshop and Painter it went. Now I own Painter 9 and Photoshop 7. Definitely not the latest edition of both programs but I find that Photoshop 7 is all I really need for the time being. However, I do really need to upgrade to Painter 11. Nine just doesn't respect Photoshop and colourmatching is practically non existent between the two. I've been told that Painter 11 has solved that problem so I guess that an upgrade is next on my wish list(after a new video card on my art computer).
Well here's the finished Photoshop version:

I do like this piece, but it lacks the crispness that I see in other digital artists' work that I enjoy viewing. Actually all my digital colour work lacks crispness and I feel compelled to try to only work in Photoshop to see what I can achieve.
If I don't like it, then I'll go back and just be satisfied with the way I digitally work now.

It's worth a try.

Om Shanti
~Pat Ann~

http://www.cafepress.com/whisperwillow

Sketchee-Doodle No.1

Twenty Four pages from one of my Mindless Musings Sketchbooks.




Om Shanti
~Pat Ann~