Art of Fantasy, Fairie, and Myth
All artwork & content copyright Mickie Mueller & The Mickie Mueller Collection.  Removal or reproduction is infrigemennt of copyright law.  Art from this website may not be used on the internet without specific permission from the artist, a credit next to the art and a link to this website.
How do you do that?

Here are some images from Mickies old wooden art table that show the steps of how Mickies art is created, from sketch to completion, with Mickies commentary explaining each step! 

step 1 I have created the sketch, I used a photo of my daughter posing with a shovel in the yard, making our neighbors wonder about us! (sorry, she made me promise not to show the photo!) I have dried leaves that I collected from the yard to use as reference as well. step2 Now I coat all the areas that I want to remain white with a product called Miskit, it is the consistency of thin rubber cement. As I wait for it to dry, I add my magical herbs to a teaball and make an infusion: pumpkin rind, ginger, rusty mums, pomegranate, & cinnamon step3 Now the paint (watercolor in this case) is mixed with the herbal infusion and applied to the illustration board. In this way I can render the sky and other background, later more detail will be added. Notice how the Miskit repels the paint? Just wait, it gets better! step 4 Ahhh, fun! When the paint is all dry (waiting is the hardest part) I start with an eraser on the edges and peel off the Miskit leaving the clean sketch beneath! Talk about magic!step5 Now I get to work the pencils! I use Berol Prismacolor colored pencils and start working in the figure. I do shadowed areas first, and layer the lighter shades over the top.step 6 The pencil creates layers very nicely over the top of my herb infused paint allowing me to add more detail and vibrant color! Occasionally I will layer a very thin wash of the paint over the pencil and then more pencil over that upon drying.step 7 I continue working the pencils adding more and more detail, building up the layers. She is really coming to life now! The pumpkins become more vibrant, develop more form and detail.Now she is complete! She bursts to life as she soars over the pumpkins on her wildflower broom! Now I need to scan her and get her on the website for you to see! I hope you like her!Here is a detail view of the work as it was in progress. This is pretty close to full size. Yes, the pencil sharpener is my friend!
Click the first image and then scroll through.