2024 Arizona Calendar, watercolors

I've been wanting to put together a calendar of watercolors for awhile now, and I'm so happy to share it with the world!  It is a collection of some of my favorite things about Arizona, in a colorful illustrative style. It features the Grand Canyon, saguaros, cactus wrens, Salt River horses, Montezuma Castle, jackrabbits, and more. I found a POD that does high quality work and ships within a week. The images are square, 11 inches and can be framed if you can pick a favorite. 

Purchase calendar on Etsy

December: Magazine Interview and Instagram challenges

Recently I was interviewed by Voyage Phoenix magazine and the article is now on their website.  It's not the easiest thing to talk about myself and my journey, but there are also some nice pictures of my paintings, so check it out!

Sandra Jessop interview

And over on instagram I've been part of a couple challenges.  There was a full week of November reserved for Folktale art.  I chose The Musicians of Bremen and stuck with it to illustrate all of the prompts.  I took a month to decide, sketch, and then paint the finals.  They were posted a bit out of order in real time but look wonderful alongside the story.  I chose that folktale out of our Grimm book, mostly because of the animals in it.  After a little research I found that alternate versions had the robbers represented by a wolf, a lion, and a bear so I played with that idea.  

I don't usually draw anthropomorphic characters, but one of my favorite scenes turned out to be the robbers around the table.  The musician animals have left their old lives and found this little house and they are peeking in the window to see who is there.  The prompt was "Feast" and I had so much fun illustrating this scene after they finished the meal and were moving on to pie.  It cracked me up putting napkins and little forks in place for them, as though they were refined, but then showing the bear and lion armwrestling.  Can't you imagine the discussion that came before?  To do it again I would love to see the bones flying around in the sudden clearing of the table.  

©Sandra Jessop

Watercolor and ink pencil.

It's Spooky Season! illustration by Sandra Jessop

 For the TheyDraw.com community, I present "To the Spooky House!"  I never encountered anything like this while Trick-orTreating, but I'm sure I would have been nervous.  All the others are fine, so it must be OK.

I think she may be an old woman who loves Halloween, but is a little afraid, herself.  Costumes can be so scary!  So she dresses as a witch (for confidence) and sits on the roof (to be mysterious) and drops the candy (fun factor!).  Of course she is a cat lover, and that cat sits in the window because it doesn't want to miss anything.  Cats love the action!  

https://www.instagram.com/sandra_jessop/ 

Hoopa Doopa Valley Children's book , watercolor illustrations

 

All three of the Hoopa Doopa Valley books are now available at Amazon.com!

My aunt and I worked together to create this wonderful trilogy of children's books, and we'd like to share it with you!

Pick your favorite season or try them all - Farmer Jim's cows and crops will delight you with a special surprise in each story.   If it brings you happiness, tell a friend and consider leaving a positive review to help others find it.  🐄

Hoopa Doopa Valley: Harvest Day

Hoopa Doopa Valley: The Snowy Day

Hoopa Doopa Valley

Sketch to final - Watercolor illustration

I recently did a pencil drawing of a candy store, with a shop keeper, customers, and a few mischief makers releasing birds into the store.  I started to wonder how they got those birds and came up with this idea.  Here is the summary (character design and location reference not included).  

 I wanted it to be more about the bird trap, so I kept higher contrast there. Knowing what areas I wanted to keep light, I started with the shadows and washed in a glaze of blue and pink.  Next, I added green and yellow, followed by ultramarine/grey to the birds.  

For this illustration I used limited colors, using only Sennelier's Deep Ultramarine, Bright red, Lemon Yellow, and Payne's grey watercolors, on Arches hot press watercolor paper.

It was probably at this point I realized that I missed printmaking.  (Add that to the list of things I can be doing during COVID19)

Initially I wanted this to be a big scene, with a lot happening, bikers going by, dog walkers, people hanging out windows, but then decided to narrow the focus.  I'll use those other characters in another scene.

The first rough sketch:

Hoopa Doopa Valley The Snowy Day - children's book

Hoopa Doopa Valley - The Snowy Day

I'm very excited to announce our next book in the Hoopa Doopa Valley series is published!  It's a snowy day for Farmer Jim and the animals.

Dream for Illustration Friday, watercolor illustration

Dream Memories

Sandra Jessop, watercolor

Mysterious walk- girl in forest illustration, watercolor

Mysterious for Illustration Friday.

©Sandra Jessop, Mysterious. Watercolor illustration, 9x12

From the sketchbook, watercolor and pencil - Puglia, Italy

First of all, I have never been to Puglia, Italy, but happened to see it on a TV program and thought, wow! how do I not know about this place?  I found my nearest sketchbook, and got to playing with watercolor and watercolor pencil.  I just loved the way the buildings were all stacked up, glowing in the sun on the cliff over the blue water.  

From the sketchbook - Muscle for Illustration Friday

"Muscle"

I checked in again with Illustration Friday to see what the topic was, so I created this little guy while watching tv.  Sometimes those little dogs are stronger than you expect!