This illustration was created as part of an Aesop’s Fables assignment, focusing on The Fox and the Cat. It marks my first fully illustrated story scene and played a major role in shaping the clean, bold style I now use in children’s book illustration.

The goal was to keep the composition simple while allowing the characters to carry the emotional weight of the scene. The fox sits confidently with its back turned, while the cat’s expression introduces contrast—subtle tension, uncertainty, and personality within a minimal setting. That dynamic became the foundation of the piece.

Created in Adobe Illustrator, this vector illustration uses strong outlines, flat color, and simplified forms to keep the artwork clear and readable. This approach translates well to children’s books, where clarity of shape and expression is key, especially for younger audiences.

The limited background was intentional. By reducing environmental detail, the focus remains on the interaction between the characters and the story they imply. The tree provides just enough structure to anchor the scene without distracting from the main subjects.

This project helped define several elements that continue to show up in my illustration work:

• Expressive, character-driven design
• Clean vector linework for scalability
• Controlled, cohesive color palettes
• Simplified environments that support the narrative

It also reinforced something I return to often—storytelling doesn’t require complexity. Strong shapes, clear emotion, and thoughtful composition can carry an entire narrative moment.

This piece represents the starting point of my children’s illustration style, which continues to evolve across both traditional and digital media.

Some books are meant to entertain. Others are meant to strengthen you. 52 Weeks of Victorious Aging does both—and that’s exactly what makes it such a meaningful Mother’s Day gift. Written by Dr. Martha Lucas, this book offers 52 practical, achievable actions designed to help readers create a healthier, happier life as the years advance. Each week focuses on one simple step—no overwhelm, no drastic overhauls—just consistent, sustainable choices rooted in real clinical experience and wisdom.

Simple Guidance That Actually Sticks

Let’s be honest—most wellness advice is either too complicated or too unrealistic to maintain. This book takes a different approach. One week. One idea. One small shift that builds into something bigger over time. It’s approachable, encouraging, and designed for real life—especially for women who have spent years taking care of everyone else and are finally ready to put some of that energy back into themselves.

Illustrations That Reinforce the Message

One of the most special parts of this project is the artwork woven throughout the book. I had the privilege of illustrating it, and the goal was simple: create visuals that feel warm, inviting, and easy to connect with. Two of my favorites capture the heart of the book beautifully.

Love Yourself (Yes, Really.)

The hugging heart illustration—also featured on the cover—represents one of the most important (and often ignored) ideas in the entire book: Yes, like yourself or how about this crazy idea—love yourself. Loving yourself means having regard for your own well-being and happiness. It means acting in ways that support your physical, emotional, and spiritual growth. It means knowing how to say no, taking care of your own needs, and not sacrificing your well-being in the process. It’s about focusing on what is good within you and building a relationship with yourself that is supportive, not critical. In other words—treat yourself like someone you actually care about.

Bake the Cookies

And then there’s the cookies. Simple. Familiar. A little nostalgic. This illustration taps into something just as important: joy. Not everything about health needs to be rigid or restrictive. Sometimes it’s about allowing yourself moments of comfort, creativity, and connection—whether that’s baking, sharing, or simply enjoying something small that makes you happy. Because a healthy life isn’t just about discipline. It’s also about living.

Why This Book Makes a Perfect Mother’s Day Gift

Mother’s Day gifts often land in the same category: flowers, candles, maybe a brunch reservation. Those are lovely—but temporary. This book offers something that continues long after the day is over:

• encouragement
• practical guidance
• weekly moments of reflection
• a gentle push toward better health and balance

It’s a gift that says, “I want you to feel good. Not just today—but all year.” Whether it’s for your mom, grandmother, aunt, or even yourself, 52 Weeks of Victorious Aging is a thoughtful, lasting choice.

Available Now

The book is available in eBook, paperback, and hardcover through your favorite retailers. It’s a beautiful addition to a bedside table or coffee table—and even better when it becomes part of a weekly routine. And yes—I’m especially proud to have illustrated it.

Available in the store of your choice in eBook, paperback, and hardcover.

Some books are meant to entertain. Others are meant to strengthen you. 52 Weeks of Victorious Aging does both.

Written by Dr. Martha Lucas, this book offers 52 practical, achievable actions designed to help readers create a healthier, happier life as the years advance. Each week focuses on one manageable step—no overwhelm, no extreme overhauls—just consistent, sustainable choices rooted in experience and wisdom.

I had the privilege of illustrating this book, bringing visual warmth and personality to Dr. Martha’s practical guidance. The illustrations are simple, approachable, and designed to reinforce the encouraging tone of the book.

Dr. Martha is a seasoned Chinese Medical Doctor and acupuncturist with decades of clinical experience. Her advice isn’t trendy internet wellness chatter—it’s grounded in real-world practice, long-term patient care, and a deep understanding of how the body changes with age.

Here are two examples from the book that readers especially love:

Week Spotlight: Vitamin D and Sunshine

Dr. Martha writes:

I can’t say enough about vitamin D. In my practice, I recommend taking 10,000IU a day. In fact, during flu season, when everyone seems to be sick with some sort of virus, I take 20,000IU a day.

Vitamin D boosts your immune system, increases muscle mass, and builds strong bones. Wait… isn’t that the saying for milk?

You get vitamin D from some foods: fish, dairy, and fortified food products.

The most common source of vitamin D is the sun. Being out in the sunshine for 15 - 30 minutes a few times a week gives you adequate vitamin D. But after 15 minutes, you need sunscreen.

You can ask your doctor for a blood test if you are unsure whether you are getting enough vitamin D.

Simple. Practical. Actionable.

Week Spotlight: Coffee Without Guilt

Good news for coffee lovers:

It’s okay to drink coffee.

Some research has found that coffee may even reduce your chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and heart disease.

Dr. Martha’s approach is realistic. She isn’t trying to remove every joy from your life—she’s helping readers make informed choices that support longevity and quality of life.

Why This Book Makes a Perfect Mother’s Day Gift

Mother’s Day gifts often focus on flowers or candles. Those are lovely—but this book offers something deeper: encouragement, empowerment, and weekly reminders that health is something we can actively nurture. Whether it’s for your mom, grandmother, aunt, or even yourself, 52 Weeks of Victorious Aging is a thoughtful, practical gift that keeps giving all year long.

Available in the store of your choice in eBook, paperback, and hardcover.

It’s a beautiful addition to any bedside table or coffee table—especially for women who value wisdom, health, and graceful strength as they move forward in life. If you’re looking for a meaningful Mother’s Day gift that blends medical expertise, encouragement, and approachable design, this one delivers.

And yes—I’m especially proud to have illustrated it.

Meet Metrosexual Humpty Dumpty—mustached, scarfed, booted, and absolutely unbothered by the zombie apocalypse.

This simple ink outline character began as part of my Zombies in the Nursery series, where familiar childhood icons are dropped into wildly inappropriate horror situations. In his story, Humpty doesn’t just fall off a wall—he unintentionally saves the day when zombies invade a royal birthday parade. It’s dark, ridiculous, and exactly the kind of storytelling playground I love to explore.

What makes this particular piece special to me isn’t the gore or the parody, it’s the restraint.

This illustration was done as a clean ink outline with minimal interior detail. No shading. No color. No texture tricks. Just line work and silhouette. When you strip an illustration down to that level, every decision matters. The curve of the mustache. The tilt of the glasses. The exaggerated swoop of hair. The weight of the boots. Even the drape of the scarf had to communicate personality.

Humpty’s rounded body creates immediate visual humor, but the accessories shift the tone. The boots give him attitude. The scarf adds motion. The perfectly groomed mustache suggests a character who cares deeply about aesthetics, even if he’s about to crack open on a cobblestone street. The balance between absurd and dignified is where the charm lives.

I often tell clients and students that strong character design starts with silhouette. If you can recognize the character in solid black, you’ve done your job. This little egg-shaped gentleman holds his own because his outline is readable, exaggerated, and intentional.

And honestly? Sometimes simple ink work is the most fun. It forces you to rely on fundamentals instead of hiding behind effects. It reminds you that personality comes from design choices, not decorative noise.

Zombies in the Nursery lets me experiment with that balance—playful, nostalgic forms colliding with horror and satire. It’s nursery rhyme meets splatter comedy, and somewhere in the middle of that chaos, a mustached egg becomes a hero.

More cracked classics are on the way. If you'd like to read the story, head on over to winniejeanhoward.com.

The Classic: Graphite on White Paper

This one is where it all started. Straight graphite. White paper. No tricks. And honestly? This is where your skills either show up… or they don’t. There’s nowhere to hide when you’re working like this. Every shadow has to be earned. Every transition has to be smooth enough to feel like skin instead of scribble. The subtle shifts around the lips, the jawline, the shoulder—this is all about restraint and control. It’s not just drawing what you see. It’s deciding what not to push too far.

Flipping the Script: White Pencil on Black Paper

This is where things get fun. Instead of building shadows, you’re building light. Everything starts in darkness, and you pull the form out of it—edge by edge, highlight by highlight. It forces you to think completely differently about value and contrast. The bottles don’t exist until you make them exist. That’s the addictive part. The glow, the surface texture, the way light wraps around those shapes—it’s all about precision. One wrong mark and suddenly your glass looks like a melted candle from hell.

Controlled Chaos: Graphite + Eraser on Canvas

And then there’s this one… which is basically me deciding to break my own rules. Graphite laid down first. Then pulled back out with an eraser. Add a little white pencil on top, and suddenly you’re not just drawing—you’re sculpting light out of darkness and smearing it around like something exploded on the surface. It’s messy. It’s controlled. It’s somewhere in between. This technique flips the mindset again: instead of adding detail, you’re removing it to reveal form, which feels slightly illegal… and incredibly satisfying.

Why Pencil Still Wins

Out of everything I work with—digital, paint, collage—pencil is still the one that feels the most honest. No shortcuts. No filters. No hiding behind texture or color. Just pressure, value, control, and a whole lot of time. It’s slow and unforgiving. And it forces you to actually see what you’re doing, which is probably why I keep coming back to it.

If you haven’t already guessed, this is Christopher Walken, one of my absolute favorite actors and a true national treasure. I originally aimed for a quiet, brooding mood, though part of me wishes I’d leaned fully into his beautifully unhinged Sleepy Hollow energy. Either way, it was a blast capturing his unmistakable features in a stylized form.

This sunflower life-cycle series began as a study in shape and transformation. Each illustration was created by hand using ink and pencil, focusing on the evolving structure of the sunflower—from full bloom to curling petals to the dense, textured seed head.

Working in black and white strips everything down to essentials. Without color to carry the image, the eye is forced to follow rhythm, shadow, contrast, and line. Every curve, every cluster of seeds, every shift in direction has to earn its place. That’s what makes ink work both demanding and meditative.

In this series, I explored multiple stages of the sunflower’s form:

• The open bloom with layered petals radiating outward
• The drooping head as petals begin to curl and fall
• The dense seed structure as the flower matures
• Transitional angles that emphasize texture and weight

Each drawing builds on the previous one, not just visually but structurally. The seed pattern tightens. The petals collapse. The form becomes heavier and more sculptural.

There is a short transition video on Pinterest that showcases how the drawings evolve from one stage to the next. Watching the shift from bloom to seed head highlights the organic movement within the structure—the subtle changes that happen slowly in nature but feel dramatic when seen in sequence.

Watch the transition video on Pinterest.

For me, this kind of botanical study is less about the flower itself and more about understanding form, repetition, and transformation. Those same principles show up in book cover design, illustration work, and even layout—where balance, weight, and movement guide the viewer’s eye.

Black ink on white paper remains one of my favorite mediums because it never hides mistakes. It demands clarity. And when the lines start flowing just right, it becomes a quiet, focused kind of magic.

I have always loved frogs. They’re expressive without trying. They sit like tiny philosophers, then launch themselves into chaos without warning. That combination of stillness and sudden movement makes them perfect subjects for illustration.

This small frog-themed series was created digitally in Adobe Fresco using watercolor brushes layered with hand-drawn ink outlines. I enjoy blending the softness of watercolor textures with loose, expressive linework. The ink keeps the personality sharp; the watercolor keeps it organic.

The first piece captures a frog perched confidently on a warm rock, eyeing a nearby fly. The posture is relaxed but alert. There’s personality in the slight tilt of the head and the rounded shape of the body. I wanted him to feel grounded—solid, content, and just a little smug.

The second illustration captures the moment after the decision is made. The frog disappears beneath the surface, leaving only legs and ripples behind. It’s a playful study of motion and timing. The water becomes part of the storytelling, with circular ripples replacing the full character form.

Working digitally allows me to build layered watercolor effects while maintaining control over tone, contrast, and texture. I can adjust subtle color shifts in the skin, deepen shadows, and refine motion without losing the fluid quality that watercolor demands. It’s the best of both worlds—traditional aesthetic with modern flexibility.

Frogs make frequent appearances in my sketchbooks and digital studies. They offer charm, humor, and movement in equal measure. Whether for children’s illustration, character design, or expressive animal artwork, they’re a subject I return to often.