What are You Hiding? Middle Grade Illustration

I decided to try my hand again with another monochromatic drawing, in blue this week, following the #colour_collective color prompt, Pewter Blue. I had fun playing with Procreate 4 while creating this one. I'm trying to decide if I like the messy look and line work, but overall I'm happy with this as a middle grade illustration.

Can you see the dragon?

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved

On another note, check out my guest post, Draw What You Know and Know More by Drawing, over at Dani Duck Artist Obscure as part of the Smart Dummies contest this month. Hopefully there's some helpful tips there about researching and drawing. There's also a prize available from Bryony Supper. Go check it out.

Silly Squirrel Chasing Dog

While transferring old files from disks to a new backup drive, I rediscovered several old dummy books and a variety of sketches for various projects. One project in particular I had a lot of fun going over again. I've had this picture book idea, My Dog is Crazy, bouncing around for many, many years and it has gone through various drafts, rewrites, dummy books, critiques, submissions and around and around and around. It's had some interest from editors, but not enough to make it past the final hurdles to get bought. So, it has sat in wait for a while. I just may try to tackle it again.

This illustration came from a sketch from an early dummy book which I still loved when I found it, so I painted it. Once again, #colour_collective provided the nudge I needed with the color Vert Pré.

Samantha Rose Edwards tried to hold Marvel, really she did, but Marvel is crazy. Zip-zooming, splish-splashing, squirrel-chasing crazy! 

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved

Getting Illustrator Recognition

About standing up for ourselves as artists

Every so often I do a google search for various things: my name, my design company name, and my book titles. Yesterday I did a search for the book I illustrated for Pelican Publishing, The Mermaid's Gift by Claudia Cangilla McAdam. I came across something interesting and wanted to let you know how it played out. I found a fun website selling my book. There's a wonderful review of the book and a nice ending note about how beautiful the illustrations are. But... my name was nowhere to be found.

This is a problem I've noticed around the web on various sites and social media. Often times illustrators don't get the credit they deserve whether its for illustrated books, posters, packaging etc. Being an introvert, it's not easy for me to speak up. So, part of my campaign to make sure illustrators are getting recognition is:

Be Bold and Brave

©Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved

So, I contacted the website and politely pointed out the problem and informed them that illustrators, especially for picture books, need to get credit as well. Guess what? They responded. They added my name! Yay! The last paragraph of a beautiful description and review now reads:

This gorgeous picture book beautifully illustrated by Traci Van Wagoner is an inspiring  gift for all ages!

I'm sending a shout out to Isabella Centofanti at Italian Children's Market for not only carrying my book, but also doing the right thing.
Thank you!

Always keep in mind, it can't hurt to ask.

Have you noticed an overall lack of illustrators getting credit? Any other illustrators out there notice this problem? Have you done anything to help get illustrator credit? Artists unite.

The Mermaid's Gift, Pelican Publishing, 2015

 "The Mermaid's Gift stands out among the many versions of this tale for its showing (not preaching) of the very qualities we hope to instill in our children: love, courage, faith, and perseverance."
Italian Children's Market



More posts about The Mermaid's Gift.
See sketches, process and more.

Click "Books" to find additional links for purchasing the book

Balloon Lift Off 7: Castle in the Clouds

Up, up, up into the wild blue yonder to the castle in the clouds. The red balloons keep flying. Hold on little girl, hold on! Keep up, puppy, the best you can.

I hope my painting and this adventure will uplift your spirits in troubling times. Keep on dreaming.

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved

Balloon Lift Off: 6 Balloon Crossing

In case you've been missing the balloon adventures, here's another one for fun, Balloon Crossing. The color inspiration was Buttercup. I keep debating about how much noodling to do on these. I like the loose and energetic feel, but I also like to noodle things -- sometimes too much. That's one of the reasons I'm really loving painting on the iPad. I create most of these paintings with my finger first, and then I bring in the Apple Pencil when I want more detail. My art has loosened up a lot and I think feels more fresh.

Where do you think the balloons will take the girl and her dog next?

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved

Shocking Pink Fairy Tale Queen

I don't usually paint with such a shocking color, such as pink and stinky, but #colour_collective inspired yet another break from my color palette with Shocking Pink, although I do love to use purple and that worked well with the pink.

This color really took me back to my early days of toy design in toy school at FIT with all the girly toys and, of course, Barbie. I spent a lot of time combing the isles of toy stores back then, and it never failed, you turn a corner and -- BAM!-- an entire row of nothing but shocking pink plastic girly toys everywhere and most of it perfumed. Thus, pink and stinky.

These characters came from sketches for one of my picture book projects. I think I like them, so you'll most likely see more of them in some form or another. Shocking pink may not be the right colors for them for the story, but it was fun here.

Since I've been spending a lot of time exploring color this year with these weekly challenges, I might as well ask, what's your favorite color? Or colour?

© 2017 Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved