Thursday, April 24, 2014

Susanna Hill Illustrator Contest!!!

I always enjoy Susanna Hill's contests, but I am by far the most excited for this particular contest!  You can read the rules for the contest here.  

For my entry I chose to illustrate a cover for Lauri Meyer's story "The Princess and the Stinky Cheese." You can read the story here.  It's a hilarious retelling of the Princess and the Pea so if you have a minute you should totally go over and read it.

This is my official entry made with water colors and ink.



Originally I was going to enter this illustration using paper cut outs.  


But then I decided to experiment with the exact same illustration using photoshop.


Yesterday at the very last minute I decided that I wanted to redo the illustration one last time, because I felt that it called for more action and facial expressions.  So I spilled my watercolors and sharpies out on the kitchen table and got to work.  I like each illustration for different reasons, but I think the watercolor version tells the story best.  I hope the judges agree!

26 comments:

  1. Hi Heather,
    Love your Princess and stinky cheese. It looks really stinky :)

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    1. Thanks Catherine! I really loved your princess as well.

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  2. The cut outs look great but the draw illustration gives a greater overview of the story. Well done. :)

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    1. Thanks Cecilia! I'm glad you think so too. It was a hard decision to make.

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  3. This is great, Heather! I love their expressions, and the queen who looks like she's fainting :) Great job. I think you definitely picked the best of your efforts. I really like everything going on in your watercolor/sharpie version!

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    1. Thank you Susanna! I am so very glad you decided to do an illustrators contest. It feels good to put my illustrating skills to the test. I'm glad you like the watercolor version. It was certainly the most fun to create!

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  4. I love the cut out version! It's really cool. The stick is exquisite! I also appreciate the bushiness of her hair, because she's a rattlesnake tracking kind of princess not a coifed-up-do kind of gal. I'm wondering if you had people demonstrate nose pinching to get that finger placement so perfect. Great work!!

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    1. Thank you Lauri! I thought you might appreciate the rugged look on the princess. You gave me some great material to work with. I actually googled "man holding nose" and just looked at a few different images to help me. I did the same for the fainting queen. The internet is a wonderful tool.

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  5. I really like the watercolor, but the others are interesting as well.

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  6. Very cute! Love the stinkiness of it and the expression on the princess's face. Fun how the dog is patiently waiting. Nice job!

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    1. Thank you Cheryl! I tried to make the cheese as stinky looking as I could!

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  7. I love your style, Heather! Fabulous!

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  8. This is fabulous! I love the entry version: it's perfect for the story! Excellent job!- Ellen Injerd

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    1. Thank you Ellen! I'm so glad you think so. I had a lot of fun doing all 3 illustrations.

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  9. Ooh, I like each of the different ones too!

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    1. Thank you Teresa! I just couldn't make up my mind which style to use so I just dabbled in a bunch of different mediums and had fun!

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  10. Great style, Heather :) And the paper cut outs look AMAZING! :D

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    1. Thank you so much! Paper cut outs is probably my favorite style to work with.

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  11. Love this! The dark magenta color theme adds a very nice touch.

    That paper cut approach though - would definitely ROCK! :)

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    1. Thanks Louis! Dark magenta is one of my very favorite colors to use. You're illustrations btw are beautiful!

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  12. I love how you captured everyone's expressions! Really cool, Heather. :)

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    1. Thanks Coleen! The facial expressions is the reason I decided to go with the watercolor instead of the cutout.

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  13. I love your style and your terrific sense of composition, but I din't know you did paper collage too! We'd love to see more . . . I never can see enough of that technique. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Thank you Joanne! The paper collage is a fairly recent technique for me, but it's quickly becoming my favorite! I'm sure you will be seeing more of it in the future.

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