Dayle Dodwell's Illustration

Forrestall Studio Presents – Dayle Doddwell: Children’s Book Illustration

December 7th, 2009

Forrestall Studio is proud to present current works by Illustrator Dayle Doddwell.

In this series of images Dayle explores the art of children’s book illustration. Drawing inspiration from such influences as Alan Lee and Brian Frowd, Dayle is in development on a children’s story featuring the adventures of Felix, an imaginative young boy and his cantankerous ‘closet gnome’ Mortimer.

Dayle works primarily with watercolor in this series. Watercolors have a soft painterly effect that expresses depth and light in a subtle manner; used effectively they can communicate scenes, ideas and situations in a soft unobtrusive mode. Although Dayle works in various other media – including gouache and digital/vector illustration – she prefers watercolor for her storytelling projects.

Before diving into a project Dayle takes time to examine current trends and techniques, borrowing liberally to augment her own evolving style.

In her personal illustration work Dayle will often start with a single small idea and explore multiple concepts along her own creative path. Starting with the word “Blur” Dayle envisions a child asleep on a giant leaf drifting on a current that represents the blurry landscape between dreams and the waking world; “Music” evokes the vision of a fairy’s song and with “Unbalanced” she whimsically reverses the idea of “cow tipping” to cows tipping cars.

Dayle continues to work from her home and studio in Bedford Nova Scotia doing freelance design and illustration for commercial and publishing clients.