Illustration Friday 2014, and Happy New Year!

© Cheryl Kirk Noll "Time Passes"

Warmest wishes to all during this "Polar Vortex." May your 2014 be productive, healthy and filled with peace and love.

A Happy and Joyous New Year to All!

This week's Illustration Friday has the prompt word: "TIME." How appropriate for a new year.

I'm floating on the automatic high of "starting fresh," as I do every January. Still, I'm posting an old piece... "Time Passes." Although it's remains one of my favorites, it is 13 years old! Perhaps I'll do an update in a decade or two!

Illustration Friday # 27: TRIBUTE

This week, I'm posting an older piece for the Illustration Friday "Tribute" prompt word.

This is a CD cover I did for Rochel Coleman, a professional storyteller who has lived in Providence. His uncle was one of the historic Tuskegee Airmen, black pilots who flew combat missions over Africa and Europe in WWII, and one of the stories that it tells is a tribute to these men, who broke racial barriers.

On a related note, I recently read an interesting YA book by Sherri L. Smith titled "Flygirl." It was about a young black woman who "passed" (as white) in order to serve in the Women's Airforce Service Pilots during WWII.

ILlustration Friday # 26: FAREWELL

Finished this by the skin of my teeth. Worked on it most of the week. From a Japanese folktale I rewrote.

© Cheryl Kirk Noll

Watercolor with some colored pencil.

IF # 25: TRAIN

I didn't manage to post the piece I worked on for this weeks Illustration Friday on time, but here it is. My thinking... you must TRAIN your eye to become an artist.

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© Cheryl Kirk Noll, watercolor and colored pencil

I started this some time ago, but I reformatted it, reworked the main character and added some details. It is for a project I'm working on with my friend Linda. The story takes place in France in the 1880's.

Illustration Friday #24: WILD

This week I was doing what turned out to be a color study for a story about my "wild" hedgehog, Henry, who just does NOT want to go to bed! I don't know why, in a cozy bedroom like this one.

I haven't gotten it quite the way I want it yet, but, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

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© Cheryl Kirk Noll, 2013

Illustration Friday # 23: URBAN

I was determined to do the Illustration Friday prompt again this week. I pulled out an assignment I did for the class I took last semester at RISD in Adobe Illustrator. We were asked to do a copy of a travel poster, which was lots of fun. After I finished it, I worked on a travel poster for Providence, RI, where I live. This one isn't a copy, but designed using several photos I took of the obelisk and Courthouse  downtown. After finishing it up today, I lost the new work, so I did a quick Photoshop touch up for some of the final details. (sigh).

Providence ©Cheryl Kirk Noll