Sketches

Dancing Cats

| Erika Schnatz

Continuing the week of cuteness, here are more cats (if you need more cats drawings, just scroll through past blog posts). I was supposed to have a finished spread for the SCBWI-Oregon conference, but grad school got in the way, so I only finished the line art. This summer I need to color it in. Of course, nothing I do is going to compare to Jon Klassen’s work, but a girl can dream.

Initial sketch:

The text from the spread I picked to illustrate: 
“Eight cats tap…tip bowler hats in pink tuxedos, canvas spats”
Left page refined sketch:
Right page refined sketch:
Left page line art:
Right page line art:

Mr. Tea

| Erika Schnatz
A fun 80s mashup between Mr. T (who pities fools) and Mr. T (who has tall teeth) at a tea party (naturally). This piece was part of “Jibbart Jabbart: A Mr. T-Themed Art Show & Experience” at the PhilaMOCA in Philadelphia.
Line art

Picture from the show (c/o Ben and Amy Leach)

My art on the wall! (c/o Ben and Amy Leach)

Another view (c/o Ben and Amy Leach)

Pabst and Presidents!

| Erika Schnatz

It’s been a bit since my last post, mostly because I was doing some last-minute illustration work on this guy:

 It was entered in a Pabst art contest here in Portland at the lovely Grand Central Bowling. The winner was determined by voters, so I was very fortunate to have many of my friends stop by and drop their tickets into my envelope – I won the contest and this image will be transformed into a billboard in Southeast Portland! How awesome is that?!

I’m excited that so many people will see my art! I’m going to brag about it like crazy, since it’s not everyday that your artwork becomes a billboard (unless you work closely with a marketing department, I suppose).

So yay! Here are some images of this work in progress:

The rough sketch that started it all!
The line work for the illustration!

After the PBR cans were colored in (minus the white logo)
All done!

I should have taken some close-ups of the cans – there are many details packed on those cans. Once the billboard is up, I’ll be sure to take more detailed photos!

More Sasquatch!

| Erika Schnatz

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Sasquatch because he’s the main component of an image I created for a tote bag design contest at Powell’s books. Here’s my linework for the submission – next week I’ll upload the color version (which is looking pretty adorable so far!)