Door to Door Miracles

Here's an illustration I completed last week called "Door to door miracles"

It's for a short magazine story, and it's set in Hawaii.  The original illustration actually continues across the top to the second page, but it looks a little funny without the text as you can see: 

Things have been hectic lately, but really good.  My agent Deborah Wolfe Ltd got me my first new client!  I'm pretty excited about that, and looking forward to what the future might bring. 

My current clients are also wonderful and keeping me pretty busy at the moment, which I am always grateful for :) 

Spring is FINALLY in full swing up here in Northern, MI (did I mention we moved?!).  I'm having all kinds of fun trying to snap pictures of all the different birds I'm seeing at the bird feeders.  Blue jays, red breasted grosbeaks, Orioles!  Hummingbirds, cardinals, finches, woodpeckers!  It's pretty great not living in an apartment anymore, and having our own yard.  Lots more work too though!

I'll share some pictures soon.  Until then, thanks for stopping by!

"There was a young woman..."

I just got my samples for this illustration in the mail.  It's always nice getting printed samples, though I'm starting to amass quite the collection!  I wonder what other illustrators do with all of them, donate maybe?  

Shadows in Tenebray Forest spots

The "Shadows In Tenebray Forest" book is now available!

In addition to the cover illustration I was also asked to create three black and white line art illustrations for three of the chapter pages.  

This is of the protagonists Chloe and Tasha meeting with their clients at their "detective agency" 

This one is from a flash back in the story and it takes place in Europe during WWII

Here we see a fallen Chloe.  The image is meant to look a little menacing/scary, like you don't know what's going on.  

I really enjoyed working on these!  I don't get asked to create line art very often (even though these have some shading as well).  It's always nice to mix things up and try something new. 

Life has been really busy right now.  One new update is that I now have my first agent!!

I am excited to now be represented by Deborah Wolfe LTD, who represents the artists of illustrationOnline.com  

My work is already up on their website!  

They represent a wide variety of great talent, I'm proud to be included in the bunch and looking forward to seeing what the future will bring.  

Easter Bunny Cake

Last year my sister-in-law and friend Kate, asked me to put together an Easter bunny cake for her.  I'd never done anything like this before, but she had a recipe/template for me to follow, so I gave it a shot.  I thought now might be a good time to share it in case anyone wants to attempt this this weekend!

Making this was a lot of fun, even though I did end up elaborating quite a bit on the original design.  It had paper ears, a square face, and no hind legs, as an artist I apparently couldn't live with that  

This particular cake was made with angel food cake, but I think any cake would work well.  

One box of cake was baked in two 8" to 9" round pans.  The first circle of cake was cut in half and 'glued' together side by side with icing. This half moon shape forms the body of the bunny.

Then a chunk was cut out of the front a little less than half way in, and about a quarter of the way up.  This cut forms the front legs and gives you the pieces from which to make the head.  You might have to cut them down a bit more to get the right shape, and then position them over the front legs of the bunny to form the head.  Use icing to get everything to stick.  

The next bit is where I got a little bit creative.  I used the second round of cake to cut long pieces for bunny ears, and smaller pieces for the hind legs and tail.  

That's about it!  The cake was then all covered in frosting and coconut (except for the ears, which you might want to cover if you have a darker colored cake).  Taffy candy was used to add the pink to the ears, jelly beans for the eyes and nose, and dyed coconut and gummies for the grass. 

My husband got creative and added some raisinet 'rabbit poop' as well.  It ended up being a nice touch 

 Thanks for checking out my jumbled little 'how to'  

Next time I do something like this I'll take better step by step photos and take notes!  

Elwood Doberman Jr.

This is a cropped portion of a fun rather big project I am currently working on.  I don't usually get commissioned to create a whole books' worth of illustrations for a personal client, but in this case I did, and it is turning out to be a great project to work on.  The story is called "Elwood Doberman Jr." and it is written by Mary Rhee. 

At this stage I have the full book dummy finished and I'll continue with one final sketch at a time, then final color.  This is the first final.  

Here is a peek at the full sketch, the upper right is area for text. 

I'm excited to do more, my client is the sweetest!

In other news, I finally made a business facebook page for myself.  My personal page had become a bit of a mess, as I started it in order to share photos with friends and family, and then it became more of a self-promotion tool, but mixed with my personal photos, and it became awkward to accept friend requests from strangers for that reason.  Now I will have that problem no more :)   Please give it a like if you wish to follow it: www.facebook.com/ElisaChavarri