december sketches

It's been a busy month but I had a chance to cafe sketch and it felt wonderful! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year too!

Christmas time is here...

Today's post was a special collaboration. My fiancee drew this charming little boy and I had lots of fun painting him. It was really nice working on this with my darling.

I also wanted to announce the opening of my online shop. Blanquet's Boutique is now open for business! I started up this shop for fun and I hope you will stop by and check it out.

http://www.cafepress.com/blanquet

That's all for today folks...hope you enjoy this illo!

(Painter and Photoshop)

character design blog

I was both surprised and excited when I was approached to be interviewed for Randall Sly's Character Design Blog. There are so many great artists featured here! It really is an incredible blog. It's pretty cool to be the first female featured in it too.

Here's the link: http://eren-blanquet-interview.blogspot.com/

A big thanks to Randall again for the interview!

busy busy...

I haven't posted in a while because I've been a wee bit busy lately. Oh but please enjoy my busy bee!

digital (Painter)

i scream you scream, we all scream...

So I know the weather is getting cold but to me ice cream is good in any weather. Actually it's not really that cold here....just cloudy and kind of cold at night. And in case anyone was wondering the flavor most requested by this young lady is ...chocolate!

Neat-O-Politan ice cream was brought to you by Painter

illustration friday: cold (part 2)

Here's my second post for Illustration Friday with yours truly and her darling featured in it. If anyone is wondering what Wayne and I are building it's a Snow Rex. Snowmen are a dime a dozen...and we think dinosaurs are cool.

digital

doodle

Quick doodle for today...having fun in Painter.

digital

illustration friday: float

One of these days I'm going to actually finish these illos on Friday. Hope you enjoy!

digital

the new face of evil

Here's a poster I made for fun. It's for the children's book I'm currently writing and illustrating. I've been revising designs. My villain has changed a bit and this is his new face. I've been working on this project for a while now and it's so nice to see it all come together...

In other news...

It's so hard for me to keep up with all the cool blogs out there. But lately I have managed to add a few more links in the blog section. There are so many good artists...I get my dose of inspiration from them all.

prismacolor and photoshop

illustration friday: fresh

I haven't posted an illo for Illustration Friday in a while. But I have returned with something "fresh." Working on this illo actually made me go to the kitchen, sniff around for fruit, seize and eat a sweet banana. The fruit was smiling at me, I could not resist.

happy fruit is digital

heads!

I sketched out some girl heads yesterday trying to figure out a design for an upcoming illo. I decided to paint them for fun. I drew these right before my darling and I headed off to see Corpse Bride. Not everyone loved the movie but I have to say I really liked it. Don't really want to spoil it for anyone so I won't say much.

One of these girls was inspired by Cinderella. I saw the digitally restored film last week at the theater. I hadn't seen it in a long time and forgot how cool this movie was! There are so many great scenes with lots of tension as well as comic relief provided by Jaq, Gus and Lucifer. So many cool moments and of course great animation!

these sassy heads were done in Painter

beach blanquet bingo

Summer is supposed to be over but the weather is still nice here in so cal. This illustration was inspired by a recent trip to Laguna Beach with my darling. Although I didn't actually build a castle and he hasn't surfed in years it was still a lovely day. Many thanks to Brian, Garrett and Erich who also inspired me by coming up with the name Beach Blanquet Bingo in our online conversation.

digital

purrrr

Here's a lion I painted from a drawing I did a few weeks ago for my Daniel in the Lions Den project. I added a leaf for good measure. He reminds me of how I need to get myself to the zoo and do some serious animal drawing.


digital

thursday girl

This week I've been drawing the females. I have two versions of this particular girl. One with the pencil lines still visible and this one without. I liked both versions. I usually prefer rough drawings to cleaned up stuff, but I decided to go with this one.








Thursday girl is digital

monday girl

Someone asked me why Monday girl's umbrella is so small. That's because it's her purse.

Monday girl is traditional charcoal

fishees

Today's illustration was inspired by a little girl in my Sunday School class. Sometimes I'll ask the kids what they did over the weekend and they have all kinds of stories to tell. Well this little one told me she saw lots of fish and this is what came to my mind when she said that.

the fishees are digital

illustration friday: reflection

Here's my post for Illustration Friday. The topic is reflection. I came up with a few ideas and settled on this one. The woman looking in the mirror isn't pining for her younger days. She has wrinkles and gray hair but feels young inside, and so that is what she sees.

digital

illo girl

So I don't really do caricatures, but a friend of mine asked if I could do an illustration of her. I guess to the rest of the world that doesn't know this person, this is simply an illustration of a girl.

I definately admire artists who caricature and do it well!

digital

color

Here are some color keys I've been working on for my book. No text, no details, no eyeballs just pure scrumptious color.

digital

mary blair study

I haven't been posting like I should....ahhhhh! That doesn't mean I'm not working on anything though folks. I'm actually working on a color key but it's not post worthy at this point.

So in the meantime enjoy this Mary Blair study that I painted when I first started using gouache. The original image can be found (pg 67) inside the book The Art and Flair of Mary Blair by John Canemaker. It was a concept painting for Disney's "The Little House" (1952). Anyone who knows me knows I'm a big fan of Mary Blair. Her work is awesome and always inspires.

this study was brought to you in gouache

illustration friday: empty

Here's my entry for Illustration Friday. The topic is empty. I had a hard time thinking of something. At first I was going to draw a kid eating all the cookies from a cookie jar leaving it empty. I draw (no pun intended) from my own experiences sometimes.

I wanted to do someting a little different though....a different pov. So I decided to draw a girl looking into an empty cracker box. I don't know if that comes across though. I also decided to leave the original sketch in the painting. I usually don't leave the drawing but I thought it looked kind of cool even if it isn't in perspective.

pencil lines are real, color is digital

my own illustration friday

I had to repost yesterday's blog because the image wasn't clickable.

This Friday's Illustration Friday topic is "empty." Haven't started on an idea yet for that but it will come....

So instead today I'm posting an illustration I was working on for fun. It's supposed to be a girl sketching but I'm not sure if that comes across. It was supposed to be me too but then it kind of evolved into someone else. Although it looks kind of cool I wouldn't call it a success because of the points I mentioned. Oh well....must move foward.

digital

illustration friday: aging

Here's a quick painting and a first post for Illustration Friday. The topic is aging. The first things that came to my mind were: old people, redwoods and mount rushmore (it recently had a "face lift"). But then this morning as I opened up the curtains the sunlight revealed on my desk a sheet of cake drawings I did a couple of weeks ago for my book.

That was my lightbulb moment for today. I thought hey a cake would be great! It's not necessarily something that ages, but more like something that signifies age. Like a cane, or bengay or something. I thought of putting a fire extinguisher beside the cake but decided not to. I don't even know how many candles are on it. I think over 40. Anyhow, I'm glad I stumbled upon illustration friday, this was fun to do.

cake is digital

gouache girl heads

I did some quick sketches of girl heads today. I decided to paint them too. I'd like to start drawing subjects other than girls. I guess it's what I know best, being a girl and all. Oh well, at least I'm painting.

gouache (hence the name gouache girl heads)

sketchies

So here are some sketches I put together from recent cafe sketching trips. I need to start exploring different tools...I want to get better. I recently saw a gallery of Glen Keane sketches and they were amazing. I have a lot of sketches of peoples backs because I don't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. I need to try and capture the image in my head and draw from that. Another thing to get better at....which will hopefully result in better drawings....and me not getting weird looks.

bravo pen used for these folks