I drew this Victorian lady in my sketchbook in pencil, then brought it into Photoshop to color it and add prints to the fabric. Original no-name character.
Tag Archives: illustration
Anne concept
I’ve long had an Anne Boleyn graphic novel stuck in my head for a while. I keep debating if I want to attempt to be serious (in which case, who will buy it according to publishers), or sell out and make it really sexy…which would also be way fun to draw.
Anyway, Anne concept…ballpoint pen in my sketchpad.
poor Jorah…
I had to draw this A Clash of Kings scene after weeks of hunky Iain Glen’s performances on A Game of Thrones. I can literally see him burying his undying love painfully every time he’s about to speak to Dany. It’s marvelous.
This, however, is book Jorah. Jorah in his stocky, dark, hairy fineness. Poor Jorah. As if to pour salt in his wounds, in the books Qartheen gowns left one breast exposed. A man can only last so long.
Concept and characters © George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series and HBO’s A Game of Thrones.
children’s books: to stylize or not stylize.
Sometimes I have a problem with being a little too literal. I did a sample for a publisher recently that took me more time than I would have liked and in the end had an illustration that was bright and engaging, but perhaps not exactly for children. The character in it was a girl who in fact wasn’t a character at all. Instead, she was a real girl that perhaps kids could identify with but not necessarily get into reading about and aspire to be. Design fail.
Likewise, clients often want something they constantly refer to as “cartooney” which I take to mean they want something stylized and less realistic. My personal work can’t really be referred to as cartooney, but I love other illustrator’s more stylized approaches and have recently vowed to take notice as I think my work for clients would greatly benefit from it! A few months ago I did this rough for a client. The colors are basically thrown in since it is just a rough and all wrong and the perspective is totally messed up, but I really like the base drawing and approach. I have a brand new client and the word “cartooney” is being thrown around and I feel inspired!
fashion sketches and flats
My actual training is in fashion design work. Designing is all well and good…every fashion designer dreams of having the freedom to creatively put together a line of clothing. Unfortunately, EVERY fashion designer dreams of this. So, naturally, opportunities of this degree are rather scarce.
It’s hard to find gigs even doing the drawing presentation, but that definitely is a fun part of the job, and not everyone who goes to school for FD has this type of skill. Here are some examples.
Pickett’s Trail! new book out!
Last year I was working on a set of 13 illustrations for a Western novel called Pickett’s Trail. The author is named Jon Lantz, but sadly the book was published posthumously by his uncle, Ron Lantz, who is a delight to work with. Ron and I are collaborating on some other projects as well.
The book is now available on his publisher’s website as well as Amazon.com.
Here’s a peek at some of the illustrations:
All images © Jon R. Lantz.
Angelinas
I had a project to do a beautiful fashion sketch for A Pea in the Pod, the designer maternity label, in 2006. The object was to depict Angelina Jolie in a A Pea in the Pod gown during her first pregnancy and the illustration was intended for WWD (Women’s Wear Daily, aka the fashion newspaper Bible). I won’t be showing the final sketches done for Pea, since they own them, but during the process of creating it, I really wanted to depict Jolie’s face with a lot of accuracy. So, I did a series of sketches of her from found images, and had a lot of fun in the process.
The first did not come out perfect, but I expected that.
After working a little, I really loved the sketchiness of this illustration. It really looked like Jolie, but maintained a stylistic approach.
After producing this much more photo-realistic illustration, I felt ready to tackle the real deal.
Please remember all of the work belongs to me, and the rights to it as well. I am most likely okay with it being used as long as you email me and ask permission, while giving me details on how my work will be used. Please be courteous! You can easily reach me at courtneytrowbridge@gmail.com.
Courtney Trowbridge 