Cecilia Olivera-Hillway's SKETCHBlog

New experiments

2008-02-25T21:17:00.000-08:00

These are a couple of watercolor + pen and ink illustrations I've made so far. They are mainly experiments for me to play with the technique since I'm seriously considering doing most of my work like that if I feel comfortable enough. There's still a LOT for me to learn.

Doodles and Plans

2007-10-30T10:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a collection of doodles I've been doing lately. Some of them made while taking notes at a Writer's Conference.

I have lots of plans and I'm slowly trying to get them to work. One of them, as I've been saying, is creating a new website. Soon I'll have two websites up: www.cohillway.com which will be my portfolio website, and www.polartwilight.com which will have all things environmental (i.e. polar bears) I can come up with. It may take a while for both of them to be up and running, but I'm working on it.

Monkey business

2007-09-23T22:28:00.000-07:00

I've been busy at my day job lately, but I've been having lots of crazy ideas that I'm working on. One being my new website which I'm yet to finish. Other ideas I've been having include pilot monkeys...

SCBWI Conference aftermaths

2007-08-08T14:38:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of attending the SCBWI Summer Conference in L.A. this past weekend. It was jam-packed with information that will take me some time to digest. I was fortunate enough to have a Portfolio review with Laurent Linn from Henry Holt, and he was very sweet and encouraging. He liked several things and gave me lots of advice. I'm always amazed of how friendly Art Directors are. Last year I had my review with Elizabeth Parisi from Scholastic, and she was also full of nice compliments and advice. Of course, last year I let time go by and I didn't keep in touch with her, as I should've.

For the most part the conference was a turning point for me and I think I have to reconsider several aspects of my career and my art in order to succeed. I don't want to be classified as only good for the educational market, so I have to work more on my style.

Some of the major changes that'll happen include making a whole new website that will use my name instead of Polar Twilight as a web address. It is just more professional and makes more sense that way.

Another major change will be that I've decided to focus my efforts on making graphic novels. It just makes sense having grown up reading them. Part of those efforts will include working on writing, drawing a lot more, experimenting on new techniques, refining my style and doing lots of research.

I already have some ideas I want to develop and hopefully things will work out. I'll post any progress in this blog.

The website change will be gradual since I want it to reflect my artistic growth, so for the first few months, the new web address will just redirect traffic to this one. The blog is definitely going to stay, but I'm thinking most of the artwork I have up right now will be replaced, including the "logo" and the look of the website.

Here's to change!

Back from my trip / Disco Hippo

2007-07-30T12:02:00.000-07:00

I'm finally back from my trip to Europe. I got to see my family for my brother's wedding in Portugal and I also got to meet my new niece. I'm an auntie! It was lots of fun and my husband ended up taking over 4,000 photos! Lots of great castle reference photos among them :D

In other news, I'm finishing up some illustrations for a new conference this Friday. I'm a bit uncertain about the results right now, we'll see how it goes. I've been thinking I should try more things with techniques and also try not to be too obsessed doing what I think people want to see and just do what I feel like doing.

The "disco hippo" I'm uploading is a little rough drawing I made for one of the students at work. I made this a while ago, but sadly, I never got to give it to him before school was over and he graduated. I bet he thought I had forgotten about his request. Anyway, I hope one day he gets to see it. In case you're wondering, the hippo is dressed up as Travolta and he's dancing next to Noodles.... why Noodles? Because the kids usually ask me to draw weird things and besides, they spent about a month of school singing that silly song about the hippo with noodles on his back , so it made sense... kinda.

Croc Process

2007-06-13T19:29:00.000-07:00

I decided the process of refining a sketch I made. There are small variations in each and in the end it looks different, of course. You can see the finished drawing in my portfolio page.

Kid's stuff!

2007-06-05T19:23:00.000-07:00

One of the students where I work likes asking me to draw things for him. He likes RANDOM things. I love all the things the kids can come up with!

Here's one drawing I did for him and I later colored with markers.

Previews

2007-05-02T21:43:00.000-07:00

I've been working on several things for my portfolio lately. This are all yet to be finished, but I thought I'd share.

With the penguins you can see that sometimes I will scan and play with sketches in the computer to "simulate" how it will look finished. I'm still not in love with the font... we'll see.

Hopefully I'll have the finished versions of all this and more soon.

Boys will be boys

2007-04-19T20:24:00.000-07:00

I had been extra busy at my "day job" lately, preparing for an after school class I was supposed to teach, but the response to the class wasn't great (I guess kids don't want to have extra Spanish classes after they were done with school, I can't blame them) and the class ended up being cancelled before it started. What that means for me is that now I have more time to dedicate to my drawings, yay! I didn't have my heart set on teaching that class and I had been talked into it as an addition to my regular day job, so even though it was disappointing in a way, I still feel it was a clear sign I should be pursuing my real interests.

Here's a little bunch of sketches I was making that ended up being a "character discovery" since I really liked the "stripe-boy" and the "goggle-boy" for use in future projects.

Back in business!

2007-03-13T17:12:00.000-07:00

I've recovered my website!! I'm thrilled beyond words right now because, after a long ordeal that involved my losing my main domain name, I finally have it back! I won't go into details on the how or why it happened, but it was a horrific experience beyond my control.

Anyway, I had been neglecting my blog and my sketching, but now that everything's back to normal, I should be posting more often and working on more portfolio pieces for the Illustrator's Day for the Ventura chapter of the SCBWI which will be in May.

The sketches I'm uploading are more like "doodles" (sketching without a goal or purpose in mind), but I still like them.

Back from Holidays, Happy New Year!

2007-01-02T10:38:00.000-08:00

I'm back from our holiday trip to Oregon where I met my husband's family. I had a great time, Oregon is a beautiful place.

I didn't do a lot of sketching while I was gone, but I made this sketch for a Christmas card that I didn't finish on time, because I got a mild food poisoning before I left to Oregon. I love dogs!

One of my resolutions for this year is to draw more, so hopefully I'll be uploading sketches more often.

More Mustangs

2006-12-16T20:09:00.000-08:00

Here are the two sketches that followed the one from the previous post; I just thought people might be interested in looking at how the sketches progressed.

The finished version of the image can be seen in my Portfolio webpage, clicking on the horse thumbnail.

Who knows? If I draw horses long enough, I might get to like them ;)

Mustangs Holiday

2006-12-12T21:23:00.000-08:00

This sketch is for a holiday card I'm working on, for the school I work at. I'm drawing horses because they are the school's mascot, but I must say it's been rather hard to draw them; I love animals, but horses are definetely not on the top of my list.

I'll post the finished image when I'm done.

Testing my new SKETCHBlog!

2006-12-01T16:38:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my new Sketchblog! Here I will be posting different experiments, sketches, news, etc. It will be updated frequently, so be sure to come here often.

Cecilia.