A Glimpse Into the Eye of an Artist, FREEBIES & Thank You's

Well hello bloggy friends!! I am so excited at how many responses I am getting for the giveaway...I am so excited to find out who will win!!! I am still working on a few projects, but I had a pretty hard day. I really wish that hurt didn't cause so much anger sometimes...I really do not like the feeling of being really sad, but sad with a wall, which = anger...boo. I decided to do a little therapy, so what better therapy than some critter art (-;

Mercer Mayer's Critter has quite the personality so I thought I would work on him today! Better yet, I took screen snippings  along the way so you can see a little bit of what I do and how my art comes to life (some of it anyway). Many of you have asked what program I use and how I make my art, so I thought to myself...nothing makes me happier than to share & make others happy (okay, well I like to see my sales go up too...that's also a plus...hehehe).

Today I opened up Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended

Here is the link to the Adobe Website for more info...

I am not going to go through this as a tutorial, but just as a little glimpse into a few hours of my art therapy. I have quite a few snapshots, so try to bear with me here...THERE ARE FREEBIES AT THE END...lol


I begin with a large workspace and high resolution so I don't ever have to squint while drawing...bad for my back and my eyes... In some cases, I begin working with shapes to outline the proportions of the character and fool around with perspective before I get nitty gritty...The shapes help guide me as I begin to bring my little critter to life...

Because Little Critter books were some of my favorite growing up, I will draw a critter.... however, I will not be selling this or offering it for free... that would be illegal....hahaha

Next, I just continue working through the details...zooming in at 100% and then zooming back out to 25%. At 100% with 300dpi, you can see ALL your mistakes...something not too great for a bit of a perfectionist...
I just continue to draw, shape, revise, tweak, add, subtract, pull, tug, erase...well, you get the point...until I can begin to delete the shape outlines and work solely with my little critter. Mind you, I did not include every single step I did because that would be ridiculous...AND, you would know how OCD I am...hehehe. The Critter character is quite funny because his big toe is in the opposite direction as a person or a human character's would be. The Critter's small toe is on the inside, making his little body quite unique...Something I really never noticed before...hmmmm

Arms and hands are my ultimate challenge...I HATE HANDS..hehehe sometimes, I opt to give characters just little stubby's or "mitten hands". I will continue to work at it...

Now that I have most of the orignil shape guides out of my way, I can begin to give my Critter some personality. I was looking at the character from "I Just Forgot: by Mercer Mayer.That book has lots of attitude - just the medicine I was needing (-;

Okay, there was quite a bit more that went into the final touches...but I won't bore you with all the details...hehehe

 Here are the FREEBIES!!!! Enjoy!!
 Thank you for following...I feel happier already!!! Please read my Terms of Use before using any of my graphics for personal and/or commercial use.

Oh! Before I go, I want to thank a few bloggers for giving me awards. I have previously passed these on; however, I ALWAYS feel special when someone thinks to honor me with a little award...thank you sooooo much!!

I tried to get instant chat up on my blog today, but Google talk would not work and MEEBO kept logging me out! I will figure it out...any suggestions would be great...I would love the ability to just chat with those of you who are online (-;;