Posts Tagged ‘robot’

My Favorite Childhood Robot!

Filed under: On My Mind,Shanda's Journey | April 3, 2015

wonder

This is Vicki, my all-time favorite robot character from the 80’s tv show “Small Wonder”! They say the best material anyone has to pull from (for writing children’s books) is from one’s own childhood. As a kid, I thought this was SO COOL to watch. Maybe it’s why I wrote a robot picture book as an adult!

It’s interesting and deep to think about what makes you care about something…even though you know its not human or even an animal.

I get a little teary-eyed when I think about moving my family out of our home that we’ve lived in from the beginning of our marriage. This house sheltered us from so many storms, we raised our babies here, we dreamed our dreams here. I know the house isn’t human, but I can’t help but imagine it feeling like we were abandoning it if we left. It would be sad. I’d probably drive by and check on it periodically to see if the new owners were taking care of it, not that I could do anything about it, but it would feel good if I knew the house was being loved like it deserves. Isn’t it strange that I think those thoughts? Do you care about anything like that?

The new movie, Interstellar, explores this idea of machinery and humanity too!

It’s definitely something for character creators to think about no matter if you are drawing them or writing about them. Your characters are (usually)  not really real, and furthermore, they might be inanimate objects. So, what does a character need to do, say or look like to be loved by the readers?

I dazzled my four-year-old with this show today! The episodes are on Youtube. She can’t wait to watch another episode tomorrow. Go ahead and relive the magic too…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48WCJ84z7vw

What I’ve drawn lately…

Filed under: Illustration,Shanda's Journey,Sketchbook | November 11, 2014

The first pencil drawing of a character is by far, my favorite part of an illustration. It’s fast. Full of possibilities, energy and texture. It’s alive! I believe my work is best when I let the sketch do heavy lifting in an image.

Image from "Dollie 1.0," a picture book dummy by Shanda McCloskey.

Here (above) is my latest color piece where I tried to let the pencil do the most work. And although this image lacks action and sense of setting in my opinion, I still like it and think its one of my best pieces yet. This image will be a color sample in my latest picture book dummy about a gadget-loving girl and a doll. My goal is to get this newly updated dummy submitted to the 2 people who requested it earlier this year before this year ends! (I have a 5 month old baby girl, so I’m moving a little slower these days :)shanda_mccloskey2 The pig (above) and pig & boy sketches (very bottom) in this post are sketches I had sent to a small publisher earlier this month when they thought I might be a good match for a story they were publishing. Unfortunately, they weren’t convinced. I guess it just wasn’t in the stars. But it was exciting for a little while! Bummed, but not defeated.shanda_mccloskey3 shanda_mccloskey4 shanda_mccloskey5

sketch by Shanda McCloskey

sketch by Shanda McCloskey

sketch by Shanda McCloskey

 

Thanks for stopping by to see what I’ve been drawing!

-Shanda

Illustration Friday: Robot!

Filed under: Illustration,Sketchbook | July 23, 2013

robot_book_character by Shanda McCloskey

This one has a little bit of digital details, but I’m not sure I like the color and contrast as much as the originals below.

photo 1
photo 2
photo 4

 

I love this one the most. I like the high contrast, and simplicity in the hair. These were brightened(exposure) on my iphone Photoshop app. Somewhere here is where I want to be.

-Shanda

 

Shanda McCloskey, Children's Illustrator & Author