2009 Illustrations

For 2009, I will be illustrating costumes and accessories for a couple community helpers each month.  I designed 4 dolls that they will be designed for as well.  Here they are.  January will be attire for coaches, umpires and referees.    

December Illustrations

Here are the December Illustrations.  They took 3 times as long to do, but they turned out great!  Here they look a little florescent, but the printed version is better--according to my art director.  This is an illustration of the 12 days of Christmas!  

November Illustrations

The original November illustrations are better here than the printed look.  Unfortunately, STF's got a new felt company that prints illustrations darker than before, so I have to plan on that in the future, but for this months illustrations, they all turned out a lot darker.  The felt is heavier, however, so that is a nice feature.  The characters are cute though!

October Illustrations

The October Illustrations turned out very well.  With each of the pumpkins, you can add features (lit and unlit) to make your own Jack O' Lantern.  In the story, it is the lightning bugs who light up the JOL's, so each pumpkin has it's own lightning bug....

September Story

These are the illustrations for the September story.  They were scanned very fluorescent, however.  In real life, they are much more natural colors--not that that matters to the buyers!  They get what the scanners and printers do...A pain in being an illustrator.  They did turn out pretty cute though.  I liked them...

Boutique Pictures

Here are a few pix from the boutique that I participated in.  There was a window behind me, so they area bit hard to see. You can see me telling the lady in the white sweater about each one of the Elee's.  I like to introduce everyone to the elephants.

Also, I have got a shop set up on Etsy to sell the remaining prints from the boutique.   You can go there with this link!  

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6021317 

  My shop name is EleeShrunkArt.  These prints are great for home decoration!  Buy today!  You may also email me if you are interested in buying a custom made Elee, just for you.  And I have the prints that are at the Etsy shop in 4 x 6 and 8 x 10, if you are interested in those.  My email is jennirsheffield@gmail.com

August Illustrations

Much Better!  I think these turned out so much better.  I had fun designing and painting them.  I had fun with the accessories as well.  I hope you like them. 

Soon 2 Come

I am setting up an Etsy site to sell Custom-made Elee Statues, just as they are seen below.  Keep your eye out for my new site, and I will keep you posted!  I will also be selling Elee Prints, so there is something for everyone!  Pictured here is a sample of my favorite print of Penelope.

July Story Time Felts Illustrations

July Story:  Tricky one.  It is hard to make a fly and a mosquito look "Cute," but I think it turned out okay.  Some of the colors look pretty funky in these images.  I am hoping when they come out on felt, they will tweak the colors a bit.  To tell you the truth, these images aren't my favorite.  I will definitely do better next month.  I have already started the drawings and they are already way cute!  It is a story about a family of bees. 

JS Logo

I finished my logo.  It is a collage of all the things I love about elephants, surrounding my initials in the middle.  I also added Harriet and Susanna to the post below, so be sure to check it out!  Amy very graciously and professionally took all my pictures.  I love them.  They turned out great, so I will be selling prints at the boutique as well as the cute little custom made statues below!  I just have one more day (before the boutique)!  I am excited. 

Heber's Fab Idea!

You are going to love this.  Heber thought I needed a name for my booth at the boutique--to state the theme without spelling it all out....

He also thought of a name for my booth.   I absolutely love it.  It is...

An Elephant Never Regrets!

Don't you just love it.  I mean it is soooo perfect!  And it says it all....

Thanks Heber. Love Jenni

Spring Into Summer Boutique! June 28th 10-4 pm

I am currently preparing myself to participate in my first boutique!  I  have been working pretty hard to get 5 Elee Statues completed as ideas for custom orders.  I plan on selling them for $250 each, and I may give a discount at the boutique.  I am also going to make up a bunch of prints to sell,  and I will even sell some cards.  I have a lot of work to do to finish everything up, but I am excited.  Here are pictures of the finished elephants:  

Margaret: The original.  She loves to dance.  Being a rugged, chubby elephant has never stopped her from being beautiful.  She loves to be admired.  She admires. She loves her friends and most of all, her family.  

Penelope: She is a sweet-heart.  She won the crown of Miss Africa despite terrible odds.  Miss Lioness was the shoe-in with her sly, sleek ways, but Penelope has heart.  Her tender soul out-shined all.

Truman:  You are what you pretend.  Fake it till you make it. Truman loves the great outdoors, but he doesn't have to be there to enjoy himself.  Truman's imagination takes him places no one else can see.  And though it is pretend, to him and the birds, he is true to himself and what he creates. 

Susanna: Don't you cry for her.  She is a hefty elephant who practically breaks the tight rope every time she walks on it, but if it breaks, she will tie up a new one.  She doesn't let obstacles stop her from doing what she loves.

Harriet: The gymnast.  Harriet can stand on her front foot without supports. Her gymnastics teacher told her that she had never seen anyone her size do much in gymnastics (let alone stand up on her front leg), but that was before Harriet was in her class.  Harriet does it, and makes it look easy. 

June Illustrations

These are the illustrations for the June Story.  It is about 2 worms.  It was kinda hard to make them cute, but I think it worked.  Heber helped me out a bit with ideas.  The gem is the pearl, and the other bug is a June bug.  

May Illustrations

I really liked these as well. As I mentioned, I am getting better! Heber has been letting me go at it, since he has been so busy with school and work, and so I am happy they are turning out as well as they are. I don't feel like I am a pro or anything, especially since some of my characters are still rejects sometimes, but I am getting better and gaining more confidence. I am working on the June illustrations now, and they should be done by the end of the week!

April Illustrations

These are my favorite illustrations thus far. I really liked how the characters turned out, especially the Katydid, the pill bug and the flowers and diamond...
When they go to print, they always are different than what I turned in, but in these I like the differences as well!

Background for Bug adventures!

This is the background that I just finished and turned in for the adventures of the bugs. So they will print it out on a large piece of felt with a board, probably around 15x 20 (I can't remember the actual sizes!). I really liked how the colors turned out. You'll notice the underground portion. This is needed for the worms (June story) and the ants (January story).

March

In this month, my favorite character was the stink bug. Heber designed it, and I painted it red to add some color overall. I ended up needing to change this, since they wanted it to be realistic to true stinkbug colors, but you can see it red here! If you bought this story, however, it would be black with a green belly. We made the Leprochaun "Bling-" as Mitch referred to it! He was fun to create as well.

February

We really liked the lilacs and the grasshopper from this month!

Story Time Felts

Heber and I got a monthly job working for a company (Story Time Felts) that prints children's stories and pictures on felt. Each month we get a different story to illustrate about a group of bugs and insects that live in a meadow. The stories illustrate the unique features of each month--the birthstone, the flowers of the month, and the unique weather conditions. Each month new bugs are introduced and featured as well. It is a great teaching tool! Heber has helped me learn to be a bit more about animation and "cuteness" with my characters, and we've really enjoyed doing them each month. You can see a lot of improvement as well as the months go by.

January