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.





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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.