Balloon Lift Off 8: The Haunted House on the Hill

The Red Balloons Keep on Flying

It's been a while since I painted more of the red balloon series. I couldn't pass up doing something spooky this week in honor of Halloween with a color scheme prompted by colour_collective and the color Ash.

The last in the red balloons series showed the girl floating toward a castle in the clouds and now she's coming back down and floating over a haunted house on a hill with a jack-o-lantern and a ghost. Eek! Her pup looks up at her from the middle of the island. Will he ever catch up with her? Will she ever come back down? Where will those balloons take her next?

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved

Thanks again for joining in the adventure. You can now get Balloon Lift Off paintings 1-3 in my online store as posters, prints, cards and more! Check it out. I'll be putting more up for sale soon, so be sure to follow along and keep up on all the latest.

Cute Cheetah Family in the Jungle

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved

Children's Illustration 

I was going through some old files to see what struck my fancy for this week's paint play with the color Midnight Green for #colour_collective
and these little cheetahs jumped out out me, begging me to paint them. I mean, just look at those eyes. How could I resist?

I had so much fun creating this adorable cheetah family in Photoshop with some fun brushes and my signature style texture. The characters came from some sketches I did while designing an animal racing game for a client

Thanks for stopping by, I hope my painting brings some smiles and perhaps some illustration work as well.





Don't forget to subscribe or follow me to keep up on the latest news, paintings, behinds the scenes peeks, and the occasional art tip. If you're interested in getting my art on posters, cards or more, please visit my Zazzle store TVW Creations or my new RedBubble store.

And please check out my children's illustrator and author website for all my latest work. I have recently updated it so it's all fancy and brand spankin' new! Check it out. Thanks!

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

Balloon Lift Off 3: Swept Away

The red balloons are still flying.

This week I was inspired to continue with my Balloon Lift Off series with Swept Away inspired by #colour_collective weekly color Vert Réséda as the background color, which screamed ocean to me. Once again, the color inspired the art and the balloons won't let me go, so this is what happened:

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, all rights reserved

Will she ever land? What will she see in her travels? How will her dog keep up if she is swept out to sea? Stay tuned, I'm sure there will be more of their story unfolding here. Have an adventurous weekend everybody!

Balloon Lift Off 2: Up, Up and Away

I had so much fun with the red balloon painting I did last week for #colour_collective and had a big positive response to it,  I decided to do another painting in continuation of the balloon lift off story.

Up, up and away she goes! Where she lands, nobody knows!

I shared an earlier (not quite done) version of this piece on twitter and instagram since I had other work to finish and wanted to get it up on time to share with the rest of the @colour_collective community. I've noticed that the art I create on the iPad is brighter than when I share it online. So I brightened it up and added a lighter sky and more highlights to this version. Color consistency in our digital world is tricky.

Stay tuned, I may just share more of this girl's (and her puppy's) journey. In fact, I'd love to hear your suggestions and thoughts on where she might land and what she sees along the way. Enjoy the balloon ride.

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, Up, Up and Away

Summer Nights and Ice Cream

I had a ton of fun this week painting this piece with inspiration from colour_collective, Pantone 292 C. For my b-day I got a new iPad (just in time too since my old iPad 2 went kaflooey), so this week my paint play has been more involved and I got a bit more detailed as I played with the Apple Pencil vs. finger painting. I still used my finger to paint a lot of this, but with the pencil I was able to get more detailed and target my brush strokes more accurately, not to mention the pressure sensitivity. Some of the brushes and for certain parts of the painting, I still much preferred the direct approach of painting with my finger. It's been a fun experimenting. Much more experimentation to come. I hope you enjoy my process.

© 2017 Traci Van Wagoner

Stomp

I had some fun playing with Procreate on my old iPad painting with my finger and created this for Illustration Friday Stomp. I'm enjoying working on a looser style of art, plus I have to admit that last week I found a bunch of new brushes I hadn't played with before in the program. Have some fun today!

© 2017 Traci Van Wagoner

Coming Soon!

The Mermaid's Gift
Written by Claudia Cangilla McAdam
Illustrated by Traci Van Wagoner
Publisher: Pelican Publishing Company
ISBN: 978-1455621088

Available for preorder at:
Barnes and Noble
Pelican Publishing
Amazon


Book Trailer

Good News -- The Mermaid's Gift

I am thrilled to share the news that I have been contracted by Pelican Publishing to illustrate a new picture book, The Mermaid's Gift by Claudia Cangilla McAdams. I'm very excited to be involved in helping to bring this story to life. Here is a sneak peek for you.

The Mermaid's Gift is a legend of a hungry village who received the gift of lace from a mermaid.


The woman of the village of Burano use the mermaid's gift as a pattern to create their famous and beautiful lace.


I've really enjoyed picking up a pencil again to sketch out this book. I usually sketch in ink, but for this book, I want a more realistic feel with moody undertones and pencil worked best. I am looking forward to painting. I will be painting these in Photoshop with my own paper, textures, and brushes. I love being able to use my traditional media training to paint on the computer. Stay tuned to see the progress of this book which is due out in the fall of 2015.

It's been a bit quiet around here since I've been busy as all get out illustrating another children's book. Yay! I had a blast illustrating Anything Can Happen in Mrs. Whynot's Room by Jayne Peters. It will be published by Puddle Duck Publishing this fall. In the meantime, enjoy the cover illustration. I hope you like.

Children's Illustrator

Breaking news!

I finally broke down and paid for another place to get my work seen online at childrensillustrators.com/TraciVanWagoner. I'm keeping my fingers crossed (which makes typing and drawing a bit hard at times) that it brings in some fun children's illustration projects. I love to draw and paint, and I always enjoy having the opportunity to put my talents and experience to good use entertaining and educating children of all ages.

If you'd like to hire me to bring your ideas, characters, or story to life, I'd love to hear from you.
Email me at: tracivanwagoner(at)icloud.com