Caricatures, Silhouettes and Illustrations by Leona Hosack

Celebrating 10 years pursuing my art and looking forward to the next ten!  Ten years ago in 2010 I started doing silhouettes and began my Etsy shop! In 2012 I started adding Caricatures to my shop and started doing them in public. In 2014 I started connecting to online agencies and began to do silhouettes and caricatures for private parties, festivals  and weddings for hire! Some pictures included below! Before that time I had  illustrated one book, and had had some illustrations in a several collections of stories and some children's magazines, but not often. I have written and/or illustrated eight children's book since 2010, and am about to start illustrations for two more children's books in 2020! Here's the list! Yahoo! Books Written and Illustrated by Leona Hosack Babysitter Blues, published by One Voice Press, distributed by US Baha’i Publishing Trust, available at www.bahaibookstore.com 2013 www.bahaibookstore.com Kamal’s Day(Picture Book) pu...

I decided to join the many artists accepting the online 31 day art challenge #Inktober2019 this year. https://inktober.com/rules I hadn't heard of this one before, and though I've done art challenges like Illustration Friday, I tend to draw almost every day, even if I don't have a book project going on, or any caricaturing gigs or custom orders to finish. Drawing is what I do for fun and to relax even if I've been giging! So I didn't need this challenge in order to draw more.  I wanted to try Inktober to get back into posting my work on line more! I amazed myself in that I actually finished the month long challenge by posting my work on line every single day. I hope to utilize that feeling of accomplishment to work on my new goals for 2020! Below are some of my artwork produced in October during the #Inktober 2019 online challenge.

Yay! Day 3 of #Inktober2019! I drew this using Pigma Micron 02 and 08 ink pens. I'm choosing not to use the suggested list of prompts but am focusing on my Cheering Child designs for now. For shading I just used graphite. This kid is cheering himself on! And his kitty too!

 Hi Guys! This is my second Cheering Child design that I'm sharing for #Inktober2019, a 31 day online Art Challenge. https://inktober.com/rules  I'm not really sure I'll be able to post every day, but I'm starting out that way and will see how it goes!#leonahosackInktober2019 I have been playing around with my idea of Cheering Children for a while, but now would like to work them up a bit so that I can present them on my Etsy shop eventually as instant downloads for a child's room decor, and also would like to produce these designs on items such as tee-shirts and canvas bags, etc. There is a list of suggested prompts to use for this challenge, but I'm choosing to focus on my own designs and I may work in some Halloween ideas. Everyone needs cheering up now and then, right? Wish me luck!

The sketch! The first final piece I did, but I had forgotten to make his hat and coat black as in the photo! I was asked to do this caricature of a deceased friend of my nephew, so he could give it to the man's widow, which is a very kind thing to do! I love the photo I worked with as it shows the person, whom I never knew, as a very interesting guy, though out of respect I have not included the photo here! I loved drawing the peacock feathers! Apparently he was a musician among other things! Which version do you like? The final final colored piece.

Here is my newest submission to Illustration Friday. The theme this week is "Fairies". This is an illustration I did quite a few years ago just for fun, but I think this is the first time I've posted this piece online.  I find that occasionally doing an art challenge like Illustration Friday gets my creative juices flowing and allows me to move forward in my illustrative abilities. Still growing as an artist even in my sixties! And fairies will never go out of style! These fairies are taking a tea time break from all their fairy work! Illustration Friday

What a great birthday weekend I had a couple weeks ago! On Saturday,2/9 I enjoyed doing Silhouettes at the Valentine event of the Old York Historical Society, in York, Maine! They had planned the event around my doing silhouettes, and had arranged for people to sign up ahead of time, and though we didn't have a crowd of people, there were enough to keep me busy, and several families wanted silhouettes of more than one child and also wanted to buy the extra silhouettes! I always cut two silhouettes at a time, because I can either keep them as extras, or sell them to people for a lesser price. Also cutting a folded piece of silhouette paper (always black on one side and white on the other) with the black on the inside makes it much easier to cut! All in all a very nice (though cold) day at the Old York Village Museum! The next day, February 10 was my birthday! And 27 years ago on that day I gave birth to my last of three children, a son! What a birthday gift! I have to...