Debra Cooper

A Christmas Outing

2012-01-13T19:38:00.003-05:00

During Christmas both my son's where home visiting and we all went for a drive to let our English Setter pups go for a romp. My youngest son created this quick video of our outing. He is a student at RIT majoring in Motion Picture Science. My oldest son is applying for graduate school in Virginia to pursue a Doctorate of Physical Therapy. It was so nice to have them home and always a joy when we get great memories to share.

DAC Studio Store @ Zazzle

2011-11-26T08:17:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to announce that I've opened/reopened a Zazzle store, call DAC Studio offering card and gift items. Currently I have Christmas cards posted and some ornaments with the snowmen. I will be adding new items a little at a time. All artwork is original and created by me ranging from painted items, digital art and designs that will be offered on cards, tshirts, etc. If there is an image you would like to see on another product just send me a note and I would be happy to set it up. Thank you if you get a chance to visit.

Click here to go to the store or click on the link in the side bar.

http://www.zazzle.com/dacstudio*

illustration friday: scary

2011-11-01T17:43:00.002-04:00

Illustration Friday: Scattered

2011-10-19T10:47:00.005-04:00

Grape Harvest

2011-09-14T13:54:00.003-04:00

I have been growing a concord grape vine up the post of my bench swing. This is its third year of growth and boy did it grow! Right up and over the top post. I provided some nice shade this summer and now the grapes smell so wonderful. After a few taste tests, the grapes are ready to be picked and turned into juice and jelly. Last year I only had enough grapes to make 2 cups of juice. This year will be so much better.

Amazing Clouds

2011-08-26T21:15:00.002-04:00

I have been completely mesmerized everyday for the past week by the magnificent cloud formations in the sky. I took this photo a few days ago and it just amazes me at how uniform all those clouds are! Its as though they where just stamped in the sky. I could of stood there all day looking at these. ( this image is not digitally altered at all). Some days I think I might drive off the road starring at cumulus clouds, they are so intoxicating against the blue sky.

swell

2011-08-18T21:07:00.004-04:00

Now isn't this just swell Mandy!

Watercolor Sketch of Baby Carrrots

2011-07-26T19:45:00.004-04:00

I just picked some lovely baby carrots from my garden for dinner. Thought I would just put brush to paper without thinking too much about what I was doing. I quite like how they turned out and they were delicious for dinner as well.

Illstration Friday: Gesture

2011-07-20T12:18:00.003-04:00

Pencil sketch with a little PS color.

Illstration Friday: Stay

2011-07-14T09:52:00.003-04:00

Slugs like to stay in your strawberry garden in order to find the best berry to sample.

This illustration was inspired by a little 10 year old girl who was the best sales person at a local strawberry farm. She greeted us with open arms, showed us where to pick the best berries that day and how to pick them. She was quite talkative and knowledgeable about the berries. I asked her how they keep all the pests away from such delicious berries and she responded with – "you have to plant a lot of berries. Did you know slugs have a way of finding the best berries? If you find one that has a little bite out of it and you eat the other half, it will be the most delicious berry you've ever eaten. They just know which one is best." She was just so great. I plan to send a copy of this illustration to her as a thank you for such great hospitality.

Illustration Friday: Midsummer Night

2011-06-30T13:14:00.003-04:00

I don't know how well this goes with the theme. I pieced this together pretty quickly to submit to IF. Animals painted with acrylic and background added in photoshop. I just don't know.

2011-06-29T10:27:00.001-04:00

It's been a busy spring to summer. Both my sons have graduated! My oldest graduated from Roanoke College, VA with a degree in Business Administration and Economics and pursuing an advanced degree in Physical Therapy. My younger son graduated from High School and will be attending Rochester Institute of Technology, NY majoring in Motion Picture Science (or as my husband and I refer to it as Visual Engineering). We are extremely proud of both of them.

I also had 3 niece's graduate from college as well, all sisters! One from Hunter College in NYC, pursuing an advanced degree in Nursing, another from Penn State, currently working and the other from Franklin Marshall College in Lancaster, PA, looking to pursue an advanced degree in Law. We are extremely proud of all of them.

The image above is a wire creature I made with my younger son, I photographed it and turned into a graduation card for him. ( I changed the wording for this image)

Peony

2011-05-31T18:43:00.004-04:00

This is my observation of what the inside of a Peony flower bud looks like when cut in half. Watercolor on matt board with colored pencil.

Illustration Friday: Soaked

2011-05-25T14:49:00.003-04:00

Oliver didn't just dunk his cookies, he soaked them good.

Outdoor Visitors

2011-05-23T14:29:00.007-04:00

This afternoon as I was working on the computer I heard a strange scratching noise coming from the direction of my dryer. Something had gotten into the vent from outside and slipped down the tube. I thought for sure it was a mouse, as I've found them before. Trying to figure out how to catch the little guy with out it escaping into the basement I grabbed a laundry net and tied it around the base of the dryer hole. I waited to see if it would jump out. Nothing. So I decided to turn the dryer on for a moment in hopes it would blow it out. Something came out and I quickly carried the sack outside to see what it was. It was this cute little bird. I was able to get him out but he held onto the sack with his beak, so I placed him under a bush hoping he would be okay. I ran to get my camera and once I clicked to take the picture, the shutter noise made the bird scurry away. I don't know what kind of bird it was but please it would be okay.

My strawberry plants are in full bloom with a little help from Mr. Bee and . . .

my Peonies are being carefully groomed by these busy little ants.

The Irises are starting to pull back the covers to say hello.

Spring is finally here!

2011-05-11T11:01:00.001-04:00

lesson

2011-05-04T10:43:00.003-04:00

A light-hearted sketch of a boy giving his dog a lesson in obedience.

New Animal Sketches

2011-03-29T16:25:00.003-04:00

Illusrtation Friday: Toy

2011-03-29T16:11:00.005-04:00

The sketch is a reinterpretation of how I might redo an old illustration I did some time ago. I started to do a series of faceless bunny illustrations (this one, and some related to nursery rhymes) and several years back I attended the Upstate NY SCBWI conference and was able to show portfolio samples to an Art Director. She questioned why my bunnies had no faces, so since then I've archived them until I felt I could recreate them with expressions. So! here is my attempt at that. I still need to work out the expression.

I've also posted a couple more new sketches, just go to the main page of my blog. Thanks for stopping by.

cultivate

2011-03-23T17:42:00.004-04:00

This is Buttons the Cat. He is taking special care to cultivate a friendship with his new friends.

I wasn't sure if I would have time to get this painted by the end of the week. Buttons is based on a very large stuffed version that I made out of an old striped fleece jacket for my sister's grand daughter. Since making him I've had images of Buttons kicking around in my head and I finally did some sketches and thought he would make a wonderful little character to play around with.

stir

2011-03-15T17:27:00.004-04:00

Some Leprechan's think that by stirring a pot of gold it will give them even more gold. Greedy little buggers aren't they!

swarm

2011-03-03T14:45:00.002-05:00

concord grapes

2011-02-22T12:23:00.004-05:00

I recently painted this from a photo I took of small bunch of concord grapes that I grew in my backyard. They climb beautifully up a pole where my bench swing is. This past summer they grew so quickly up and over the top of the swing structure. I planted it 2 years ago and it grew enough grapes for me to experiment with making some concord juice. I probably only got about 2 cup worth, so I look forward to see how many more grapes I'll get this year and how much more it will grow. I envision sitting on the swing this summer and gazing up at lovely grapes dangling down.

"Barton Hollow" | The Civil Wars

2011-02-14T12:36:00.002-05:00

I heard an interview with The Civil Wars on NPR while driving home from visiting my father. I was quite intrigued and loved the sound of the music samples they play during the interview. I looked them up online when I got home and was instantly hooked. Their voices blend so well together it hypnotic. One of their songs was used on the TV show "Grey's Anatomy" and has become quite popular. I am posting a video of their song "Barton Hollow" from their new album. I just love it.

sketches

2011-01-26T12:14:00.003-05:00

I have a moleskin sketch book that my sons gave me for christmas last year and I'm using it to practice on my portrait and figure skills. These are my maternal grandparents, sketched from a small old photograph.

chicken

2011-01-19T09:19:00.004-05:00

Sophie was in love with the golden egg she found.

When a little crack appeared and her heart fell to the ground.

Suddenly the thing inside began to do some kickin'.

Sophie squawked and ran away just like a little chicken.

Happy belated New Year. January started off with a flurry of family cold's and the flu. Trying to get back into the swing of things, this is kind of a sloppy rendering of my idea for illustration friday. Hopefully I can muster up some motivation to create some final pieces of art from all my sketches.

illustration friday: mail

2010-12-20T09:50:00.002-05:00

Postmarked and ready to mail out some holiday cheer! Happy Holidays to all!

prehistoric

2010-12-09T08:33:00.003-05:00

This is one of my attempts at creating a vector based illustration from one of my sketches. I did create this some time ago but thought I would put it out there to see what you think. He's a cute little guy - but I think I will probably paint him next time.

Savour

2010-12-01T18:44:00.003-05:00

Savor the time spent with family while preparing for the holidays.

racing

2010-10-28T07:30:00.003-04:00

I wanted to stay with a Halloween image, so here's an old illustration I posted several years ago.

Ode to Halloween

2010-10-20T16:47:00.003-04:00

I've been looking at my paints for quite some time knowing I should be sitting there creating some art. Rummaging around looking for something else I came across a 3" x 5" textured clay board. Right there I decided to put my design work on hold until I painted something on that board. Several hours later this pumpkin painting was done. It was painted with acrylics using a photo I took several years ago for reference. I haven't painted with acrylics for a while and being quite rusty it took quite a bit of fumbling around until I was happy with the colors. Anyway I think it turned out okay. Feel free to give me some critiques, I could use them.

spooky

2010-10-20T11:03:00.003-04:00

Old Fashioned

2010-09-30T12:14:00.003-04:00

Dancing around the May Pole, an old fashioned kind of fun.

These are characters I created quite a few years ago where Rabbit, Turtle and Beaver where standing on each other to reach the moon. Here they are joined by a new friend, Racoon. I hope to have both drawing painted this winter and hopefully have these guys involved in other adventures together. Here's to being creative and meeting goals.

Halloween Card Samples

2010-09-17T17:47:00.003-04:00

I am looking for feedback on the look of these cards and whether or not I should include a verse or not to show as samples for manufacturers.

new little painting

2010-07-20T07:40:00.002-04:00

I always loved to catch salamanders when I was young. So I painted this little guy with gouache. I may have an idea using him in a greeting card. I'll let you see when I get it done.

new painting

2010-06-16T15:13:00.002-04:00

This is a finished illustration from my previous post for the illustration friday, "trail".

Critques are welcome. I'm trying to determine if my finished art is too stiff or not enough things going on to make it interesting. Hmm.

sketching faces

2010-06-15T07:16:00.002-04:00

trail

2010-06-08T14:53:00.003-04:00

I just finished this drawing related to trail. I'm looking forward to painting this.

A trail of bees followed bear as he skipped along with the bee hive.

new sketches

2010-06-07T13:25:00.004-04:00

Here are some sketches I'm playing around with.

early

2010-05-25T13:05:00.004-04:00

The Sun and the Moon are twins you know — early to rise and early to bed — is all that makes them different.

This is a rough sketch I decided to play around with colors in photoshop. Kinda hard to use the brush palette with just your mouse. I usually just plan colors in my head before painting. This was fun and may need to invest in a wacom tablet soon and give digital painting a try, although I prefer to work with paint and paper, more relaxing.

fearless

2010-05-12T08:46:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since my last post. Here's a rough sketch of an idea I had. A lot of the time my goal is to take most ideas to final pieces of work and it never seems to happen. I need to be fearless in obtaining my goals to illustrate for the children's market and that takes courage to conquer the monsterous thoughts of failure.

making the leap

2010-03-29T10:59:00.004-04:00

Well I did it, I have jumped in with both feet ready to embrace being an illustrator.

I ordered a small quantity of postcards and I am compiling a list to mail them to. Then . . .
I went full steam ahead and took another leap forward in my journey to becoming a children's illustrator and created a website and launched it Friday evening! My emotions ran the gamut that night as it was uploading (excitement, fear, guilt, you name it - I felt it).

So I present to you my website/online portfolio . . . http://debra-cooper.com

Please take a look around, I hope you enjoy it and I would appreciate any comments or critique's so I can be sure that what I am presenting is enjoyable and easy to navigate. Enjoy and wish me luck, my knees are shaking!

happy st patrick's day

2010-03-16T22:17:00.002-04:00

subterranean

2010-03-16T08:39:00.004-04:00

In the subterranean cave of the winter Oger is where you'll find the magic reindeer shoes.

This is an archived illustration based on one of my son's school papers when he was younger that he titled "How Reindeer Came to Fly." Someday I'd like create more illustrations for it.

february snow

2010-02-26T16:40:00.002-05:00

After a new round of 14" of snow, the skies turned blue and sun shines for a brief moment providing a glimpse of winter's beauty.

propagate

2010-02-25T09:03:00.004-05:00

Looking forward to St Patrick's Day. This leprechan will propagate the land with pieces of gold.

I've been working on this sketch this week and thought I might get it painted for Illustration Friday but I don't think so.

moleskin sketches

2010-02-12T13:48:00.004-05:00

My sons gave me 2 moleskin sketch books for christmas. This one I've claimed to do only people sketches in. These two were based on an old photo, the girl and boy were holding hands in the photo but I chose to do them separately.

muddy

2010-02-08T07:57:00.004-05:00

Jack and Billy enjoy getting muddy in the back yard.

focused

2010-02-02T07:59:00.009-05:00

This little cupid is focused on making a love match.

This sketch is meant to create a positive outcome for cupid this time. The sketch below is from an older topic for Illustration Friday that I did and I just liked the little guy, so I wanted to test my skills at recreating a character. My goal was to show his full face but sometime that pencil just has a mind of its own.

clumsy duck

2010-01-27T15:51:00.003-05:00

A very quick sketch.

wilderness

2010-01-16T17:28:00.004-05:00

This sketch was my first thought for the topic wilderness for Illustration Friday. It was based on the animated film by Suzie Templeton of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. An amazing stop motion animation. It was a 2008 Oscar winner for Best Short Film (Animated). I just fell in love with the bird. If you get a chance to see the whole film it's just amazing. The link will show you a sample.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_0IpkK67u8

confined

2010-01-12T09:20:00.002-05:00

Confined by fear, Little Lamb could not move from the shadow.

Happy New Year

2010-01-03T16:27:00.004-05:00

Happy New Year everyone. Here is the color version of a previous post I did for the Illustration Friday topic "music." I think it turned out okay enough but I think I need to loosen up my painting style. Here I used gouache and some colored pencil.

Critiques are more than welcome to help me decipher my style. Practice makes perfect, as the saying goes.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T16:21:00.002-05:00

Peace on Earth, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.

music

2009-11-24T14:55:00.006-05:00

It's been a while since I've posted to Illustration Friday so I quickly put together this sketch of Rhino and Frog making music in the jungle.

Also for music here is a portrait I did of my son playing his guitar. The quality of the picture is not very good - I didn't have a very good digital camera at the time.

sneak peek

2009-11-12T19:02:00.002-05:00

I thought I would post a sneak peek at a new illustration I'm working on. Hopefully I'll be able to complete it before christmas. It's a little bigger than I'm use to so I'll have to piece it together when I make a scan of the finished piece.

New Hoiday Art

2009-11-12T18:58:00.000-05:00

evening sketches

2009-10-22T12:00:00.003-04:00

The woman sketch I did from a photo image in National Geographic magazine and the little girl is just from my imagination.

frozen

2009-10-19T12:04:00.003-04:00

The poor little ghost remained frozen for quite some time after seeing the spider crawling up the pumpkin.

ATC size, colored pencil.

pattern

2009-09-28T16:43:00.003-04:00

This little monkey is makes a pattern with his banana's while watching a pattern of ants go marching by.

A very quick sketch and inking.

welcome

2009-09-15T09:04:00.003-04:00

Welcome fall and its beautiful changing colors.

I created this illustration a few years back and felt it fit the topic and season well.

sketch – just a girl

2009-08-23T16:24:00.003-04:00

Sketching to work on 3/4 view

caution

2009-08-23T15:20:00.003-04:00

Take caution Sara when ducklings are crossing your path. (Sketch with color wash)

modify

2009-08-04T19:45:00.003-04:00

For maximum momentum to the moon, Monty had to modify his measurements.

idle

2009-07-29T07:54:00.003-04:00

There she stood idle waiting for someone to come.

It may be a stretch. This is a WIP to compliment a past illustration in hopes to make a promo postcard ( uncharted territory ) hopefully I can make the leap.

worn

2009-07-02T07:17:00.003-04:00

Not matter how worn and tattered our nations flag became, it was always carried with pride to represent our freedom and perseverance.

A sketch I worked on last night for Illustration Friday's topic Worn and as a tribute to our celebration of Independence. Happy 4th of July.

First Harvest

2009-06-29T11:15:00.003-04:00

Look at these gorgeous beets! The first harvest of my little 12' x 18' garden. Within those walls I have broccoli, summer squash, zucchini, red onions, lettuce, swiss chard, green beens, yellow beans, 2 pepper plants, 1 tomatoe, carrots and strawberries. Phew! Just enough to nibble on as they become ready to pick. I'm so excited I can't wait.

drifting

2009-06-24T08:48:00.003-04:00

Something strange began to happen

as the moon shone bright

Peculiar and odd

as chickens took flight

Slowly lifting and gently drifting

into the sky they went that night

adapt

2009-06-04T16:47:00.003-04:00

While working at the Singing Cheese Factory, Joseph has learned to adapt to a few of his more frequent customers by sharing his favorite cheese.

Boy do I feel rusty trying to get something together to post for Illustration Friday.

puppet theater

2009-04-27T20:17:00.003-04:00

poise

2009-03-31T18:32:00.001-04:00

breezy

2009-02-27T16:25:00.003-05:00

Up, up and away

Theo and Welden took to the skies.

A gusty breezy wind took them both by surprise!

Higher and higher the balloon gained speed,

What a delightful adventure they'll have indeed.

Up, up and away.

I just finished this painting last week. I apologize for my sorry attempt at writing a poem to go along with it, I just thought it needed a little story line.

time

2009-02-11T16:17:00.002-05:00

This time of year — love is in the air.

flawed

2009-02-03T08:44:00.003-05:00

Accept me as I am so I may learn what I can become.

This is what flowed from my pencil as I waited to pick up my son from his guitar league meeting. I never know what will evolve when I think about what to do for any of the Illustration Friday topics.

climbing

2009-01-28T06:47:00.003-05:00

Three little kittens take turns climbing into the pail for a ride.

pale

2009-01-22T16:54:00.002-05:00

contained

2009-01-13T12:20:00.000-05:00

The potting shed contained Winston's favorite snack.

Resolve Final

2009-01-12T15:14:00.002-05:00

I thought I'd paint this sketch from my illustration friday submission for resolve. I used gouache over my pencil sketch. I'm not 100% happy with the outcome but if felt good painting again. I really need to put good effort forward to getting a lot of my sketches to finished art. Any way here's a step forward.

if: resolve

2009-01-06T16:27:00.004-05:00

I resolve to reach up and turn on my own sunshine through these dark and cold winter months. To find the right path for my illustration work - to do it and not just say it - to create a portfolio worth showing - to create that first promo piece and mail it out sometime this year.