Windy voyage

This illustration is the result of me playing with a new kind of oil pastels I just came across. Pretty fun! They look like rouge make-up containers, and have make-up utensils within the same box: little smear sponges. Love those paints! And I kind of love the illustration too, I wonder what story it has behind it?

These are my first steps in children illustration, feedback welcome!

Pencil, oil pastel on cardboard

Scared Rabbit

Except for the paints (I accidentally got the cheap kind of gouache!), this was fun! I don't know how I came up with this illustration idea, but I sure feel bad for the scared rabbit now.

These are my first steps in children illustration! Comments are welcome! (As with all other posts too of course)

Pencil, Gouache, Ink.

IF - Garden

Here's my submission for this week's Illustration Friday theme "garden".
It's an older piece, but it fits the topic!

Oil Self-Portrait in Corel Painter

Corel Painter offers so many brushes, it's near endless. I've decided to try a new field: oil paints. Here are step-by-step visuals of a self-portrait I created. I don't do self-portraits commercially, there are artists specialized in that. But it was an interesting experiment, to familiarize myself with the oil paints in Corel Painter!

I used only 3 brushes: wet brush, dry brush, and grainy blender. If you hold the pen down while using wet or dry brush, you can use them for blending too.

Step 1:
Using a photo as reference (try quick clone, you can blend it in and out), I lay down the basics.


Step 2:
In this case, I decided to change the colors, and I worked out the color areas some more.


Step 3:
Starting to add a backround with a large brush.


Step 4:
I made the background more loose, making sure I keep large hand movements. This gives the image more movement and makes it more interesting. I also added more details: the eye had much more subtlety than the rest of the image. I therefore decided to add some fine brush strokes of similar quality on other areas of the painting, to make it more harmonious and interesting. I also adjusted the color areas in the neck and face, adding more rose-pink tones. This not only picked up the background color (which would be a natural light-reflection, and making the overall image more harmonious), but it gave the skin a warmer, softer color.


Step 5:
Usually I use Photoshop to adjust colors. It has a wider and more professional choice of adjustment tools. In this case, I tried using a tool from painter to make the colors more vibrant. Effect - equalize gave me a stronger saturation, so I think I'm happy with this result.
This would be my final painting.

how to keep projects coming

I found this inspiring link on BODO (business of design online). For anyone who is bored and doesn't have client requests coming in... here's inspiration that will get you going again!

Posted by: Neil Tortorella
Staying Afloat In A Tanked Economy

I got interviewed

The graphicdesignblog.co.uk asked me to contribute tips and tricks on freelancing. You can check out my interview here:

graphicdesignblog.co.uk/freelancer-focus-25th-january-2008/

It's a pretty cool site, it contains many more useful resources for designers. Have fun!

I've been tagged...

Frizz from Illustrator Group Soup tagged me! She asks me to tell 5 things about myself here, and then to tag another person in another blog. Hmmmmmm.

ONE
I loooove potatoes – for anyone who doesn't know yet. I could live off just veggies, cheese and potatoes. Actually I have, over longer periods of time. THAT's the original reason for my business and blog name – no fancy deep meaning behind the name "PotatoMammaDesign.com". Sorry to disappoint you :-)

TWO
My friends know me a mile away by my laugh. At one of my last jobs, the cleaning woman would hear me laugh all the way down to the parking garage, and that's when I had my office in the second floor. Second floor in the European sense, meaning we don't count the exit level as a floor, you walk up 2 levels and THAT'S the second floor. That's either impressive or embarrassing, HAHA.

THREE
Yes I'm Swiss, but no, I don't ski very well. When I was a teenager it grew too embarrassing for me to ski because I never got the sexy hip swing down and remained scared I'd cross the tips of the skis and fall. I can snowboard, but not very well either, grin.

FOUR
No, I'm not a lesbian, even though I do prefer to illustrate women. Women are just cool and elegant – so easy to draw them in style. How do you do that with a guy? Lol.

FIVE
One of my dreams is to become rich and live in a house with my sweetie pie with view on the ocean, a great window front, and a porch with a jacuzzi with sea view! Very modest, I know.

Let's see... I'll tag Michelle Lana!

PotatoMammaDesign in custom52 contest

Custom52.com is featuring a card deck contest for illustrators. The illustrators who get the most votes for their card submission(s) will be published, plus they'll win a set for themselves!

Winners are evaluated by voting right now. I also submitted for this round.
If you like my designs, I'll appreciate your vote! :-)


Retro Beauty
by: Astrid Mueller, PotatoMammaDesign



Zoe
by: Astrid Mueller, PotatoMammaDesign

See all custom52 designs in the contest here

For all you illustrators out there who will participate, I wish you best of luck!

found a christmas card contest, win 2000 $

Check this out: submit an illustration or holiday photo, and win 2000$. Just saw this when browsing the really cool moo products.

Got stickers?!! Yess!

Details on the holiday contest here.

Good luck!
Astrid

PS: I have nothing to do with the contest, I'm just forwarding the information to anyone interested.

Illustration Friday "Halloween"

This is a Halloween picture I started for the german magazine LAURA, then played with it on my own time and added the watercolor mood and touch. Happy Halloween!

new illustration technique

Here's a new technique I developed for a customer in Sweden, with a classy hat and purse business for the woman with style. Check it out, done all-digital, but it looks like watercolor on paper with ink! Or do you see the difference? Tips and feedback welcome :-)

back from my vacations

Hello! I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while – I was on vacations! And before that it was hectic like crazy :-) Fitting my current mood and situation, here's a recent illustration I did for the German magazine LISA. It visualized a known problem we all have after vacations – what will we do with all our digital photos?? 1500 in my case (and I was gone for just 3 weeks!?!)

Hope you like the illustration,
Astrid
PotatoMammaDesign.com

call for entries in a digital magazine!

Interesting for you illustrators and artists out there? On coroflot.com (portfolios and jobs for creative work), I was contacted by the group VectorMagazine, who is looking for artwork submissions.

Check it out, many types of artworks can be submitted, and for free! I don't know anything about the magazine yet, but I submitted illustrations – what can I lose?

Good luck!
Astrid

PS: on the recent post about the contest on gizfolio.com, I won 2nd prize (gold portfolio membership for 1 year). Can you imagine!??? Yay =)

neat treat: found an easy contest online

Hello fellow illustrators!

I came across a little contest on gizfolio.com which, as it looks, is easy enough. Just send artworks via email, and one can win a 2 year's worth of an online portfolio site. Watch out, deadline is August 10th!

Good luck!
Astrid

Glimpse of Children Picture Book Dummy

On August 1, I submitted my contest entry for the children book contest www.der-meefisch.de. I was contacted by the author of the story, who asked me to illustrate it for her. Since the market custom doesn't seem to welcome the submission of illustrated stories (unless the author is the illustrator), I agreed to "just" take part in contests with her, creating a dummy for her (Of course I will later also submit the artworks to art directors). Here, you see a small glimpse of the dummy, as well as a preview of the finished illustrations. It's my first children book illustration project! What do you think? Questions, thoughts and comments welcome! (Click the images to enlarge).

Astrid
astrid@potatomammadesign.com