Why, oh why, did I give the elephant a snorkel?

Here's my latest piece. You can see the underpainting work on my blog if you're interested. Acrylic on canvas paper again - I'm starting to like the texture afterall, so I'll keep using it until I run out, I guess.

I'm hoping this one'll serve well as my 2nd postcard. I had really lofty intentions of getting samples out every 3 months, but I guess reality is what it is. Hopefully I'll have more time to paint!

I'd love to hear your thoughts before I send it out to the printers.

On a side note, have any of you experienced success with, or tried, childrensillustrators.com to market yourself?

Thanks all!

Take A Bow

This was a little girl I was playing with. Most of my little girls end up with long blonde hair and bangs---must be my DD creeping in there. LOL

Late Night Television Monsters

Here's my newest illustration for a book that I am working writing right now. Well, I will be writing it, I have another book to finish first then this one will be waiting in the wings. The working steps to this painting can be seen on my blog.

Wanna Sandwich

Here the finished painting to my sketch tutorial as seen on my blog I wish I could show how I paint, but I don't have a real set painting form. My new sketching technique is one that I am very happy with. I go back and forth between two art programs Photoshop and Sketchbook pro 2009.

Blog post notification?

Has anyone figured out if it's possible to get an email whenever someone posts a new image to the blog? I keep forgetting to go check, and an email would help ... Also, I just posted a sketch to the private board that desperately needs a critique - please help! Thanks.

Owl's Hollow

This was for Illustration Friday, haven't had anything for that in ages! On time at least. Crit away :)

Mommy Elephant

I did this for practice. I found the picture out of a book called Wild Animals by David Alderton. I don't know who took the photo. I just wanted to see if I could paint it and make it a little unique, but not go over board.

Created in Photoshop and Sketchbook Pro

Yummm!

This is just a little character study, done in marker and photoshop to show one bear.

Checking in and a mouse

Lady at Court

This little mouse isn't really for anything special, but is the first thing I've been able to paint in almost two weeks, so thought I'd post her here. What do y'all think about putting little spot characters like this in a portfolio? Or are pieces with more interaction better I suppose? This one might be a little too licensing-y.
I've been swamped with typing, life & family drama these days, not much painting time. Starting to get antsy about having no painting time!

Finished swinging yet?

Hey there...my show if finally hung and will open tomorrow! I'm excited about being done - I just have to finalize the music choices for the opening and I'll be set (I already have Phoenix, Miniature Tigers, Doves, Flaming Lips, Fountains of Wayne, Weezer, Camera Obscura, Interpol in the mix)....

Anyway - thanks for all the help and suggestions - I decided last night to make the appropriate changes to the swing illustration - and here it is in it's final form...

If you didn't notice - I thought, as it was my last piece, that I'd throw in some things (that I thought were clever) such as the little roach from the planting tree illustration, and the giraffe from a different angle...so we see his sad little vantage point from the one side (in his illustration) and the rather perplexing and ridiculousness of what he's doing, if you take a step back and see it from the outside (in this picture). Anyhow - that's the show...I'll be posting pictures on my blog some time this weekend from the opening....thanks again for your help - you've all made these illustrations a lot stronger than they would have been otherwise...

I reworked the type on this to make it feel more drippy.

You Will Always Be

All finished! :) I thought I had posted the finished piece, but then I saw I haden't. Dunno how that happened. :/ Anyways, pushed the shadows in photoshop, a suggestion given to me in a critique. I think I like it. He showed me an example of this tweeking my piece "The Talisman", and I understood why. Really brought the focus on the light. Now my question is...is the light too focused on here and do we loose the Tear Catcher (that's the child on the butterfly's name)?

:)

another one for the show...

I have all sorts of ideas about this but I wanna hear what you have to say...this just might be the last piece for my show...as it's starting this friday...

Yay Isaac!!!

Congrats on getting Pick of the Week on IllustrationFriday.com! How exciting for you!!! *sniff sniff* I'm so proud of you! :P LOVE the illustration too. I'm enjoying seeing you take the pillow characters and making new animals out of the technique. The elephant is adorable. :)

Whoo Hoo!

Adam's Dream - Sketch

While waiting on moving forward with the portrait piece I started to draw this one yesterday. My thought process was like usual. Start with a object/being and then build a story around that. I wanted to do something in regards to Illustration Friday, but the word "Shaky" just wasn't inspiring me. A friend of mine who is expecting was going to commission me to draw a piece for her nursery. Tho that is still something we want to do, now is not the time. So that inspired me.

If you want all of the details as far as my process and the story that it became visit my blog (kind of a long post so didn't want to take up room here and it was going on my blog anyway) http://warriorprincessdream.blogspot.com

I'm having fun with this and would love any feedback or more details that could possibly be added. I'm going to work on a smaller illustration (maybe a spot) to go along with this one. :)

Been a while

I'm back. Man, I had no idea that having a baby in the house would be so much work. He's by far the pushiest roommate I ever lived with. I have been working on some things for myself since jobs seem to have up and vanished lately. I have worked in this business for over 12 years and this is by far the worst year of work I have ever had. Don't know if it's the same for everyone or not right now.

Oh, by the way, the piece above is a civil war actor. I went to a mock civil war camp last weekend and took some pictures. It was something I had never been to before. The North one the morning battle and rumors were spreading that the north was going to win the afternoon battle.

YA Look

This is something I did to try to build some images that are more YA for my portfolio. I love painting faces! I've been playing with the type. I am trying to get it to look like it is written with a finger on the glass. Any suggestions are appreciated.

YWAB - More Paint

Got some more paint on this piece, hopefully it will be finished by the end of the week. Have other projects to move on to. :P

I'm way impressed with all of the posting, it's great to see so much communication going on and how supportive you guys are with one another. It's awesome! Sorry that I haven't bee on much, I'm glad I'm only going to have to do a wedding of my own once. :P

God bless everyone!