Animal Doodles in Glorious Color

May 26, 2016May 25, 2016 | Erika Schnatz

So I drew these animal characters ages ago for some Daily Doodle prompts on Twitter, but didn’t color them in until last week when I was desperate to find new pieces to put in my portfolio for a children’s book conference. It wound up being one of the strongest pieces in my portfolio since I haven’t completed many kid-appropriate illustrations in the past few years. I’m going to see how this style works with my new picture book dummy, because I need to figure out a color solution that is not terribly labor intensive. I have over 30 characters on one particular spread, so for the sake of my sanity I’d like to keep it simple.

King of the Hamsters

April 30, 2015April 27, 2015 | Erika Schnatz

A quick sketch from last summer. My pet hamster is a little poop, but we treat him like royalty. His only redeeming quality is his supreme cuteness.

Gone Fishin’

July 3, 2013April 10, 2015 | Erika Schnatz

A nice little line drawing I did last summer, based on an image in a California guide book I had checked out of the library…

Better Things to Do

June 27, 2013April 10, 2015 | Erika Schnatz

I’ve had a hard time staying motivated as I finish up my term of AmeriCorps service. I don’t have a cat, but if I did, I’d totes let it sleep on my head sometimes.

Materials: Micron brush pen

Week of Lincoln: Day Two

February 12, 2013April 10, 2015 | Erika Schnatz

Today, an Abe Lincoln-themed comic for you!

Written by Dan Duncan & Erika Schnatz. Illustrated by Erika Schnatz.

Let’s see if I can get another Lincoln post ready for tomorrow!

Friday Afternoon Comics: Your Brain on Jazz

February 8, 2013April 10, 2015 | Erika Schnatz

So I’ve been a major slacker on the art front this week – my apologies, loyal followers.

The Year of Gnomes project is going on a bit of a hiatus, so I have more time to make comics. However, there will definitely be gnomes in some of my comics. So don’t despair, gnome fans.

Without further ado:

This is based on a silly idea I wrote down on a Post-it note months and months ago.

Enjoy.

More comics on the way next week!

Friday Afternoon Comics: AmeriComics

February 1, 2013April 10, 2015 | Erika Schnatz

Welcome to the first installment of something that will hopefully become a permanent fixture of my sketch blog: Friday Afternoon Comics!

I created the comics below as a response to some personal reflection questions in my AmeriCorps mid-year report. For those of you unaware of AmeriCorps, it’s like the Peace Corps, but within the United States. There are AmeriCorps programs all over the place focusing on different themes and missions, this year I am working in a program called Oregon Campus Compact at Portland State University. Our focus is on student retention through mentoring programs. I’ve gained a lot of great knowledge and experience serving so far.

You don’t really need to know any of that to read these, but they probably make a bit more sense if you do.

AmeriComic 1:

AmeriComic 2:

Materials: a pen!

I am pretty good at writing in ALL CAPS.