Caricatures, Silhouettes and Illustrations by Leona Hosack

Black and white caricature sketch of Justin as a pilgrim. Thanksgiving is here again. So hard to believe! I had a wonderful trip with my husband a few days ago to visit our son and daughter-in-law and their 5 month old daughter down in South Carolina. We are so thankful to have been able to finally meet this granddaughter, our third  grandchild. And we are so grateful that we live right down the road from the other two granddaughters and can see them often! Here is a caricature I did for someone for Thanksgiving. The black and white sketch is above.  Justin as a pilgrim in color. Plus I thought it would be fun to include a video on how to draw a turkey for kids. I think I'll be sharing this video with my older granddaughters today. They are 8 and 3 years old! H ere's my latest submission to Illustration Friday! The theme this week is "Shadow"! I thought it would be fun to draw a little girl catching her shadow in the act of sticking out it...

A black and white caricature of a girl. When I do Caricatures, Portraits and Silhouettes at festivals, weddings and events people often ask me how I achieve a likeness. In Art school I learned a lot of things and tried using a variety of art tools, but when I draw in order to produce a likeness I use a "tool" called Sighting. Sighting is a method of comparing and measuring one part of what you are drawing to another part in order to correct your drawing as you go. Here are two great videos on using sighting to see the way an artist sees. This is the photo I worked from for the caricature portrait above!   A pencil portrait of a girl- done earlier this year. Pencil Portrait of my granddaughter, Bailey Girl in Yellow-Oil Painting

November is Children's Picture Book Month!! Find out more about it here: http://picturebookmonth.com/ Monkey Girl Here is my latest Illustration Friday submission. I always enter my subnissions under Style as children's Art! The Theme this week is: Tails. I've been wanting to work on illustrating more animals, since I am always doing people, so I thought I'd do a monkey girl with a very long tail! Speaking of Tails! Did you know that November is also Adopt - a- senior- dog month? Find out more here!http://weeklysauce.com/lifestyle/november-is-adopt-a-senior-dog-month/ Here are a collection of my dog Silhouettes that I've done over the past few years.   Some were done from photos, and some were done on the spot from life at festivals. I have to say that the dogs are getting better at standing still or I've gotten faster and better at silhouetting dogs in person!

Since festival season is over and Christmas parties have yet to come, though it's just about here, I've been able to work on my graphic novel, and am almost ready to send  some sample pages of it out to an agent I've contacted with the hope of moving forward towards publication. Wish me luck! This fantasy story features a young girl who is a slave of a witch, and an enchanted bowl who helps her overcome the witch!  I've never done a story on this form before so it's been a lot fun studying graphic novels and learning about the form. I love working with the compostion and have really enjoyed using this venue to tell a story!  This Idiot's Guide on how to plan the Panels for your Graphic Novel was very helpful to me. If you would like to know more about how to lay out a graphic novel click here! http://idiotsguides.com/static/quickguides/artphotography/how-to-plan-the-panels-for-your-graphic-novel.html Zarin takes the enchanted bowl out of the cubboard...

 Here's another video by my favorite Illustration Teacher Will Terry. His ideas on pricing your illustrations have been very helpful to  me in terms of knowing what to charge for my work!  A custom order from my Etsy shop Here are a couple of Caricatures I did recently, both ordered through my Etsy Shop. A salsa dancer!                                                                            Here's a video on drawing caricatures-   fun to watch!

 A sketch of a mouse, just for fun- because I don't do animals very often! I think he's an exceptional mouse!  How many ways are there to market your illustration work?  I am so in learning mode about this and I've included here an awesome and helpful video! This is Will Terry( Folio Academy), well known children's book illustrator and teacher and he's right on the mark with great advice! He offers an overview of the changes in the illustration field since he started in 1992. Towards the end of this video he shares a lot of great ideas on how to market your illustrations in creative ways, illustrated (no pun intended) by stories of people he knows. He ends by saying "The internet ignores mediocrity, but it celebrates the exceptional. Go out  and be exceptional."  Enjoy!!                                                ...

 This is an interesting video about a website that offers a more interactive way for your child to enjoy ebooks, as well as another way for children's book authors and illustrators to have their work published. You can record you voice to be heard by the child while they look at the ebook! What will they think of next! Check it out here:  http://ripplereader.com/ Here are a few illustrations I did a while ago, plus two illustrations (below) from my upcoming picture book, Kamal's Day to be released soon from Bellwood Press, an imprint of the US Baha'i Publishing Trust. This is an illustration I did a few years back for the Core Curriculum Series of Books  put out by The National Spiritual Assembly of Baha'i of the US. The sketch for the finished piece above. This is from my picture book Kamal's Day! Snack time at Children's  class! Clean up time. Even the dog helps!