More Y.A. art

Here are 2 maore images I have been working on as illustrations for a ‘young adult’ fantasy novel involving flying ships that my S.O. is writing. I don’t know if the drawings will interest any publishers or not, but Annie (my s.o.) and I have been collaborating on these drawings for a while now (we talk, I draw, we talk some more, I redraw). Annie says the drawings have helped her ‘visualize’ the story a little more clearly. It’s been an interesting and challenging experience thus far.

The top picture is a floating ‘school in the sky’ which is protected by a ‘bubble’ and a large set of gates. I drew it before, but this version is improved a bit and includes the bubble/gates. The gates figure into the story so I needed to include them.

The second is one of my few forays into watercolor and pictures one of the flying ships. I’m pretty happy with the ship but think my watercolor technique needs work — especially with the clouds. Unfortunately, with watercolor, once you paint it, it is there — no ‘white out’ and very limited overpainting seem to be the rule.

I don’t know when I will get time to do more watercolor; maybe this winter?