I can wear lavender all day! (www.lizjacob.com)

Most of the toddler dresses I have created so far have been in pastel shades. This time around I wanted to try something more colorful. I chose a deeper shade of material from the lavender color family (one of my favorite color tones) and decided to contrast it with a white panel painted with just wild flowers. Fabric paints look most vibrant on white, so I can't resist adding whites to my designs :-)

After looking at the tailored piece, I felt the need for something bold and striking on the top portion of the dress. I went through my kitty and found lovely laces in multiple lavender shades and voila, there came the idea of creating a detachable lace flower for the dress. In my opinion, it worked well... adding a bit of sophistication to the dress.

Now, can't wait to see the dress on a pretty princess :-)

Farm crib sheet - completed! Yay! (www.lizjacob.com)

This is the sequel to the earlier post where I shared some of my farm illustrations which I planned to use for a crib sheet. Here are the pictures of the painted sheet. Let me know what you think.

Coming up with an illustration concept (www.lizjacob.com)

I have been asked by customers many times about where I pick up my illustration images from. The answer is that I develop them all from scratch. My attempt is to make my collection look like colorful pages right out of exciting storybooks. I want my paintings to trigger off a kid's imagination and excite them enough to build their own stories around it.

I spend maximum time in developing concepts. Concepts are developed based on the painting space available, the overall tailoring design, and the gender of the child wearing it. Crib sheets which have a larger painting surface have more elaborate patterns while rompers and dresses require more compact designs. Collection for girls lean more towards beautiful gardens, fairies, mermaids and for boys I think up of action oriented stuff like robots, dinosaurs, pirates, sailors. I am not stereotyping here. I believe there can be as much adventure in a beautiful fairy garden as in a dinosaur park. It's just about representing an environment that is visually appealing to a girl and a boy.

Once the concept is decided (example below: a farm), then I get started on the individual elements, their dimensions, overall proportions, colors etc. I refer to plenty of kiddy books and internet images to get facial features and body proportions right for various creatures and characters that I illustrate.

The key thing while illustrating to have the right balance of elements, sizes and colors. It should not be too over crowded or too plain.

Here is my conceptualization process of the next crib sheet that I am working on. I have already created two crib sheet designs in the past. One was based on alphabets and the other had a theme on caterpillars. The third one is inspired by life in a green, pristine farm. The images that spring into my mind when I think of a farm are those of a windmill, meadows, flowers, vegetable patches, cows, hens, ducks,  tractors, farmers... Once I shortlist the elements, I think of what combinations work better - Cows and haystack OR Cows grazing next to a water body of ducks. Well, the latter will look more colorful, so let's just go with it. So color representation is a huge deciding factor in creating my illustrations.

Here are my final four images that will appear on my farm crib sheet. In my next post you will see the final, painted version of it. Let me know what you think.