Lil Riders - Jesse And Jake

LilRiders - Jesse And Jake
Watercolor, Pen And Some Digital Enhancement

I've been playing with a short story idea I call Lil Riders. It's basically about people riding on ordinary animals that are giant size and they race each other.  These are the main characters (Jesse) and her pig friend (Jake).  This idea was inspired  by seeing my 15 month old daughter riding a rocking pig (like a little rocking horse but with a pig instead).



 I had a easier time painting this one out. But I did have a mess up with the pig's ear and had to fix with some white gauche. My wife (whose also an artist) reminded me not to piddle,play, or putter in which I think I did all three especially the putter part.  Lesson Learned. I have to be more confident with the strokes and have to leave them alone even if its wrong, watercolor is very unforgiving. I would also like to mention that after reading a wonderful watercolor article and watching a couple tutorial videos at create38.com I felt really geared up to go and paint. And I encourage everyone whose starting out in watercolor to go visit. That girl definitely knows her stuff.

 I think watercolor and pen is going to be the right combo for me.  Drawing has always been my strong suit and I really like how it combined here with the color.  So there you go.  My plan is hopefully is to finish out this illustrated story and get it published. Well See.  Here is some of the process below.

Pig Studies

Pencil Drawing 

Watercolor

And some of the other Animals I had in mind were
            * Elaine and a Crocodile (protagonist)
            * White haired boy with a White Rabbit
            * Red Head Girl with a Rooster
            * Peacock
            * Frog
            * Tortoise
            * Giraffe

The initial idea was to draw a racing scene with all the riders and animals racing but I decided to explore the characters a bit more and break them out into separate paintings. Stay tuned more to come soon. Thanks!