Facial expressions are hard!

Drawing them while keeping an illustrated character consistent is a real challenge. It takes a ton of practice so today I am using the daily challenge to continue to hone my Ava Appelsawse skills.

A few years back I heard Rosemary Wells, creator and illustrator of Max and Ruby, speak at the Mapso Book Festival. She was amazing and she explained that she starts each day with a warm up illustration of her 2 characters, which she then tears in half - and throws away!

This first piece is purely for warm up and to get her hand ready to work. I was shocked, and awed.

I quickly sketched Ava here peeking around the tree, book 2 has more than a few scenes in the woods, so this was good practice. Will I tear it up and throw it away - not so fast! It may still end up in the 2nd book. Either way it was an excellent warm up and a great way to start my day.