Tag: illustration

tulips sketch

New Illustrations for Inspire! Art Watercolor Brush Pens

I haven’t been this excited in awhile.

A few months ago I got an illustration job that was perfect for me. I was commissioned to make some artwork with a new line of watercolor brush pens by the Inspire! Art company. The purpose of the illustrations were to demonstrate the kind of work the pens could produce and to show examples alongside the product photos online.

I had so much fun because I had free choice to draw whatever I wanted and I even got to work in my own sketchbook!

I really had a lot of fun with these pens. There are a huge range of line weights possible with these brush tips. I think the clearest example of finer lines is in the outlining in the butterflies wings. I also liked the painterly way I could work, as seen in the Johnny Jump Ups piece and the tulip petals. The colors are very tropical but coordinate well with each other within a color family. The set also comes with two water brushes in a fine and broader size.

You can check out these pens on their Amazon sales page (click through all the photos to see my work).

tulips sketch
Tulips by Carolyn A Pappas. Illustration for Inspire! Art Watercolor Brush Pens.

To see some more examples of my work with these pens, follow Inspire! Art on Instagram as I made some additional drawings that haven’t been published yet.

swallowtail butterfly
Swallowtail Butterfly on Zinnia by Carolyn A Pappas. Illustration for Inspire! Art Watercolor Brush Pens.

johnny jump ups sketch
Johnny Jump Ups by Carolyn A Pappas. Illustration for Inspire! Art Watercolor Brush Pens.

Spinach Illustration by Carolyn A Pappas

Spinach Illustrations

Spinach Illustration by Carolyn A Pappas
©2015 Carolyn A Pappas, Spinach Triptych (Illustration for Sow True Seed). Pen and ink and watercolor, each image 3.75 x 5.625 inches.

The above images are three illustrations of spinach I made for Sow True Seed, an open-pollinated and heirloom garden seed company. I illustrated three varieties of spinach: America, Winter Giant, and Bloomsdale Longstanding (shown in that order), and these images will be printed on the seed packets. I had my choice of vegetables and I picked spinach because it is a personal favorite of mine and it reminds me of my Greek heritage.

The company sent me reference images to work from, and I also did a lot of image searches online while researching. In the end, I used my own props and made up the spinach from my own imagination. It was a huge challenge for me to work from imagination and I’m glad I took a shot at it. The ink work is a little different than what I do normally – I was going for a more heavy handed look, like a woodcut.

I am thinking of framing these together and hanging them in my kitchen. The packets won’t be sold until the start of next year, and I will post a picture when that time comes around.