ShadowBird: The Work of P.A. Lewis

More Hapenny Illos! Now go out there and buy the book!!!

2011-11-14T10:50:00.001-05:00

I have had a great time illustrating Hapenny Magick and I'm looking forward to see this book come to life. The Kickstarter deadline hasn't arrived yet so there is still some time to contribute to this middle grade book. The story is beautifully character driven and I hope that I've captured that in my character designs.

Etsy Upload!!!!

2011-11-07T16:34:00.002-05:00

I just put up the latest under drawings on Etsy (in time for that Holiday too!) I put up work that I really like too!!!! :(

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LewisiaDreaming?ref=si_shop

Hop on over and take a peek!

The Hapenny Pitch is now Live!!!

2011-10-19T16:48:00.000-04:00

Please take a peek at the Hapenny Pitch on Kickstarter! Pugalicious Press did an amazing job in it's creation!

Here's the promo video!!!!!

Anybody wanna hire me!?! :D

2011-09-29T01:00:00.001-04:00

Looking for full time work either in Storyboarding or Concept Design! Therefore I just freshened up my online CV: www.coroflot.com/pat_ann

Results from a Brain Storming Session

So click on the pic and head on over to my Cirriculum Vitae!!!!!

Maewyn & Gelbane

2011-09-22T20:33:00.000-04:00

Posted are Character Designs for Maewyn and Gelbane from Hapenny Magick. Also, are the designs for Leif and two sweet little squirrels that show up in the middle of the book!

Enjoy!

Farm life for a Hapenny!

2011-09-13T20:03:00.002-04:00

I'm working on some concept designs for a book pitch on Kickstarter.

The story is titled 'Hapenny Magick' and it's an adventure story about a young Hapenny named Maewyn who comes to realize her gift. I'm not going to say much more about the story since Jennifer Carson, the author has done a beautiful job doing so on her blog. Besides, I have some preliminary work posted there anyway!!

I'll just stick to posting more artwork here!!
The first is a concept design for Mae's farm house and barn.

and here is a quick sketch of Gelbane (not a verynice character):

A New Web Site

2011-09-11T22:44:00.001-04:00

I've changed web site providers and I need to wait 20 days to get my domain name from the old one. So in the meantime. Here's my new website. It's not final yet but I like it 1000 times over the old one. Please feel free to critique. There are some glitches still.

http://www.wix.com/purpleraccoondog/pat-ann

Etsy Drawings

2011-09-03T20:52:00.001-04:00

I have two amazing gigs on the drafting board right at this moment. Both are middle grade novels filled with imagination and I hope that my illustrations will be up to par.

But before I get into posting works in progress and such from them, I thought I would upload the three little drawings I just did to replenish my Etsy Site.

And this is something I did quite a few years ago. It was lost and forgotten. One of those Artist Trading Card thingies.

~P~

This is for Eric!

2011-04-20T14:33:00.000-04:00

I had to shelved my graphic novel for the time being so I could help a friend with hers and grab a few clients in order to pay bills.
Fortunately, the clients that have hired me, have given me blogging rights on the artwork that I will be working on. So I will have stuff to show. :)
So in the meantime, I have found a piece of work that I still don't know how to finish.
-And here she is........

Thanks to everyone of you for your patience!

Sicko!

2011-03-04T12:11:00.000-05:00

I've been under the weather on and off for the past couple of months. Being sick is a nasty thing and getting caught with clients is no fun either. Fortunately, the clients I have at the moment are quite accomdating and I'm very grateful for that.
So while I'm catching up on business, the blog posts will be quiet for a bit.

I'll start posting again as soon as I get a strong hold on my back log!

:)
~Pat Ann~

Just a quickie!

2011-02-04T11:34:00.000-05:00

Here's the main character to the 'other' graphic novel I'm slowly working on, Lorenzo. (and a secondary character, Sir Fauxgadil)

Forgotten Archives Entry 3!

2011-02-01T11:31:00.000-05:00

Going further back in time with these, under drawings and studies! The elephant one and the donkey Christmas Card one are beckoning me to re-paint them! (the originals are long gone! :( )

'Cider' in Colour!

2011-01-26T19:54:00.000-05:00

I haven't painted in a while. Most of the jobs (Actually all of them!) I had last year were on the black and white line work side of things. So now I find myself working for a client with a full colour kids book and I'm itching to get back into the world of colour pencils, watercolour and such!
To make sure that my skills are not rusty when I start the final, colourful artwork, I thought I would play with an old favorite; coloured pencils, mineral spirits and vellum. The drawing that I chose was a sketch that I did in the autumn of last year called 'Cider.' A fox and a rabbit enjoying a nice pint of homemade hard cider together.
The trick is that the drawing was done in Wolf Carbon Pencil and I wanted to colour the original. Which I did and although I do like it, probably won't do that again. Even though I kept the mineral spirits away from the pencil line, the job would be much easier if I just laser copied the pencil line onto the vellum, coloured it in and then, with the Wolf Carbon Pencil, go over the finish piece.
Here it is:

;)

The Forgotten Archives. Entry #2.

2011-01-21T13:13:00.000-05:00

More stuff that is at least 5 years old!

'The Egg'

(from that never ending series of ShadowBird Girls)

The rough drawing to "Wanna Take a Ride?"

The finished artwork can be seen here:

http://betta-girl.deviantart.com/art/Wanna-take-a-ride-13779201

The underdrawing to "Wee Chandra & Friend"

This image was apart of a series of faery art that I was thinking on licensing. I only finished one from that series (there were 5), 'Lovely Lillian.'

Recent Doodles

2011-01-19T09:55:00.000-05:00

I do a lot of drawing that has no background idea. They just come out right then and there. (Actually, I think I do that more than anything else. Perhaps I should call the sketchbook that I'm planning on publishing this year "Spontaneity!")
These are not finished for a reason. I would like to finish them with colour. So I just pin them on my board till I get the inspiration to add colour to them.

'Tailgater'

'Night Watch'

'The Bribe'

Artwork for Sale!

2011-01-18T10:55:00.000-05:00

I just posted two images on Ebay for auction.

If you want to take peek at the auction, here are the links...

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300516499046&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_500wt_950

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300516491690&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_500wt_950

And here's the two illustrations up on Ebay:

Pipsqueak

'Peace' as Light as a Feather

The Forgotten Archives. Entry# 1.

2011-01-14T10:49:00.001-05:00

I was going through some of my old drawings last night looking for ShadowBird related work. I have been swamped with client projects lately and really felt the need to touch base with my personal work and what I hope one day will be my brand. This is the work that truly comes from my heart, an often neglected organ in the face of all this recent freelance activity.
There will be more but for now I will leave you with these: The beginning to the 'Forgotten Drawings Archive.'

"Beeba"

"Breeze"

"Flora"

Nellie McClung

2011-01-06T14:53:00.000-05:00

Last year I was asked to illustrate 3 books for Owlkids middle grade readers, 'The Canadian Flyers Series.'
I finished the first book about Nellie McClung (a hero to the women's rights movement here in Canada) last year and right now I'm working the second one about the high north.
Even though I'm not all that pleased with the results of this book, there is something in them that's worth posting.

I'm itching to work on an animal story! What do I have to do to get art directors and editors to notice my animal illustrations?!

Season's Greetings!

2010-12-20T11:32:00.000-05:00

Sky Dive Francis Escape Part 2

2010-10-22T23:37:00.001-04:00

Over ten years ago, I came up with the idea about those Shadow Birds and a 14 year girl whose life is saved by one. I thought it would be fun if I storyboarded the odd chapter (I originally wanted to turn this story into a graphic novel and I may still do that). This board is about the girl's escape from her kidnappers. It's a long board and still isn't finished. However I thought I would post what I have completed.
And by the way, the girl's name is Francis. Her Shadow Bird's name is Redshanks.
Enjoy!

Sky Dive Francis Escape Part 2

View more presentations from pat_ann.

Little Bear

2010-10-08T19:44:00.000-04:00

As some of may know, I worked as a storyboard artist for a TV show called Little Bear. (The Maurice Sendack one!) It was a gig I truly loved and here is an excerpt from an episode called "Little Bear and the Baby."

Enjoy-

My Handbag Sketchbook

2010-09-19T13:12:00.000-04:00

I have a tiny sketchbook that I keep in my handbag. It's so small that I keep a 3 point mech pencil with it so I can do (what I think) a half decent drawing with it. I posted 3 images with 6 pages from that wee sketchbook. (I actually have smaller sketchbooks that fans have given me at conventions! When this one is full, I'll try those ones!)

Larry told me to post this sketch to my Blog!

2010-09-18T20:05:00.000-04:00

So here we go. Did it today in my sketchbook.

Cider!

2010-08-29T22:44:00.000-04:00

Okay, I haven't posted any artwork, sketches, doodles in a while because of non-disclosure agreements for the past year! Well, very soon I'll have one month to fill with nothing but my own work (and some small commissions to finish.) So, that means I'll be posting artwork again! Here's a drawing that I did for the CTN Expo sketchbook and some prep doodles for it.

Jennifer Carson

2010-07-05T21:02:00.002-04:00

I have a great friend who lives in New Hampshire named Jennifer Carson who is an amazing children's writer! I illustrated one of her books named 'To Find A Wonder' the cover of which I posted earlier.
Jennifer keeps a blog on writing and if you click on the link: http://jennifercarson.wordpress.com/ you will find a site filled with story inspiration.
You won't be disappointed!

Not so long ago, Jennifer asked me if I could whip up a couple of character designs for a book that she is writing at the moment for visual inspiration.

I happily obliged and this is what we came up with:

The Night of Life Drawing.

2010-06-24T10:14:00.000-04:00

Larry & I went to our last life drawing workshop for the season and instead of bringing a huge pad of newsprint, I just brought my 9" x 12" sketch book.
I must admit I had a great night drawing a fantastic model. Ended up with 4 portfolio pieces.
-If you are one of my FaceBook Friends looking at this, then I apologize for repeating myself! :)

Concept Design

2010-06-10T10:18:00.000-04:00

I'm going to be posting some character designs from one of my graphic novels: 'Abe and Haab Airlines.'
This book is in the preliminary stages so when I get to the actual page layout, I will be posting them too hoping to get critiques from established comic book artists.

So... Introducing.... Abe and Haab. And their aircraft: 'Bird.'
(Haab is the Tarsier holding the rope.)

Albatross Act

2010-05-17T19:04:00.003-04:00

After 10 months, I finally finished this!!

Memory

2010-05-17T19:02:00.001-04:00

Yesterday morning, I was listening to a discussion about the future of the American wild mustang. As I was listening, I became inspired to doodle and here's the results. I haven't drawn horses from memory in ages!!

Mindless March!

2010-03-15T19:05:00.008-04:00

There are times when I sketch, I do so with no incentive to achieve anything other than to scribble in a sketchbook. When I do this, ninety percent of these mindless doodles go nowhere and are not what I would consider worth anything. However sometimes, a doodle comes up that is worth pursuing and I will take it, clean it up and colour it in.
There is one of those little semi-precious stones amongst the rubble that I have attached with this blog post.
Can you guess which one I'm going to take further?

Tuesday, March Ninth, Two Thousand and Ten!

2010-03-09T18:44:00.002-05:00

While I was working at the library this afternoon, I looked up from my laptop to look out the window and watch a three crows chase another crow around the library's back garden. They were flying so fast and weaving around the conifers so quickly that I thought to my self the one being chased is going to fly into one of the library windows.
So, as soon as I thought that, sure enough, that crow bashed head first into one of the windows! Fortunately, the crow only received ruffled feathers and probably hurt corvidae pride because it flew away.
And I will try not to premonish while watching birds in flight! :o

One more thing! Even though this happened on the weekend, I am now an official member of CTN! It's a great site full to the brim with magnificent artists! So please, pop on over there and check out Creative Talent Network dot com!!

The King and his Advisor.

2010-02-15T17:07:00.002-05:00

Well so far, I would say this one is finished. Perhaps someday, I'll take a look at this one and decide to add colour, but for now I'm going to enjoy the simple tones caused by the dodge and burn tool from Photoshop!

BTW: the background was a creative commons image found here at Creative Closeup.

2010-02-14T15:17:00.000-05:00

Happy St.Valentine's Day to all my ShadowBird Fans!

Doodles, Pencil Work and a Wee Test

2010-02-05T13:57:00.012-05:00

Being in-between gigs can give me great opportunities to push the boundaries of my skills. Some of you may already know that I go bonkers over beautiful artwork where colour comes secondary to drawing's elegance. However, if the colour looks poorly planned, it can upstage line and ruin the whole message.

I apply this philosophy to my own work and doing so keeps me on my toes with constant improvement.

Right now I'm intrigued by combining coloured pencil with odorless mineral spirits and using that technique with limited watercolour. I have already worked up a wee test doodle using coloured pencil, odorless mineral spirits and felt tip pen(the little bird above), but I want to try it with pencil under a light watercolour wash. So I doodled up the two below for a second and a third test and if this works, I'll use this technique with the finished drawing at the bottom!

So wish me luck!!!!

~p~

New Look, New Attitude!!!!!

2010-02-03T14:19:00.007-05:00

For the last couple of years, I have been navigating the world wide web without control. I see something online that I think I should be apart of (or a something suggested by someone), I jump aboard without plans! I have this thought that whatever site or blog that I create or join, doing so will help me network the ShadowBird/Sagawood idea. Not to mention my commercial art career.

Well, all this has done, is keep me from the things I love to do such as visual story writing, painting and just being plain creative! I was spending too much time mucking about online and not accomplishing much in reality. Thinking that spreading oneself all over the online artworld is a good idea is certainly........ Not a good idea!

So I'm cutting back! Keeping this blog up to date will be my focus for the time being. Once that has become a habit, I'll head on over to some of the other sites that I have signed with and un-sign myself. Not all of them but the ones that really don't relate to what I do or to the people who are interested.

Now here are some sketchbook and work in progress drawings fresh from the scanner!

Ciao Bellas and Bellos!

Oh yeah! I changed the look of my blog! It's more me! Flowery and faded (only in a vintage sort of way).

Let's get the Imagination Nurons Connecting!

2009-12-23T19:53:00.002-05:00

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!

2009-12-15T12:43:00.005-05:00

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

2009-11-16T23:12:00.001-05:00

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

2009-11-04T21:34:00.002-05:00

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

Coming Thru!

2009-07-07T11:14:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-30T20:04:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-17T13:33:00.014-04:00

The next installment from my dusty old sketchbooks!

Francis and Red-Shanks

2009-06-10T17:51:00.002-04:00

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

To Find A Wonder

2009-06-10T16:49:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-10T16:42:00.001-04:00

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!

2009-06-02T20:51:00.007-04:00

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

2009-05-21T08:46:00.007-04:00

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

2009-05-20T21:38:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-22T14:16:00.000-04:00

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

2009-04-17T14:10:00.011-04:00

Twenty Four pages from one of my Mindless Musings Sketchbooks.

Om Shanti
~Pat Ann~

The Law of Attraction!

2008-03-22T08:30:00.009-04:00

A few years ago, I ask the Great Void to make me busy!

Now I'm asking it to give me a break!!

For two years now, I've had my plate full without a single day to claim for my own work. I manage a couple of hours here and there to doodle down an idea, work in my sketchbook or design a simple ACEO card, but not enough juicy time to really finish an intricately composed piece of work.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm very happy that I'm this busy and having art directors seek me out for stuff that I really enjoy doing, but I whenever I look at unfinished ideas pinned to my cork board, I start wishing that I could afford the time to stop working on my client's work and finish one of doodles.

I really do miss working on my own stuff.

So this blog was created to help me kick my behind and finish works that are long over due. My plan for this task is to post images of the work in progress. Hoping that getting comments and suggestions will intrigue me to force the time into my schedule personal work in.

So I'll start with this one:

"She Travelled by Catfish" was an idea that came up years ago. I never finished it until I got an email by a buyer wanting me to finish it.
Well I did and it turned out horrible! (This is the under drawing). So she asked me to do it over and she'll wait for it. Well, she's still waiting.
So I'll re-tweak the under drawing and digitally paint it.
I think..........

I'll keep you posted!

Om Shanti Everyone!
~Pat Ann~