Thursday, July 30, 2009

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!

5 comments:

Carmen Medlin said...

This is a fantastic piece, Pete! I love how everyone is staring in shock at this elephant in a diving suit. Very comical.
It is hard for me to find anything to crit about this really, other than that elephants are a lot bigger normally. But I don't think it takes away from this image at all -- who knows, maybe he's just a little elephant who loves to try crazy things!
Great job with the ripples on the underside of the water ceiling. That is hard to do. And the blueness of the more distant coral with the cold highlights are spot-on.
I think this would make a great mailer, especially for summer!

kris fulk said...

This is really interesting seeing the underpainting. I just started acrylics (painting in general) and I'm amazed at how your outlines come out really crisp. I can't critique your technique - it looks flawless to me. The only thing that made me step back a little is the elephant's head in relation to its body. At first glance, I thought its back was its front. Its right hand in the back is kind of inconspicuous, and I thought it was the tank at first. Maybe if the head was angled slightly more to the diagonal / <- like this, it would be clearer at first glance. But, really, after I stepped back, I finally saw the light (pun intended, and the highlight on its knee helped). I love that the great white has a pot belly lol!

Unknown said...

The water looks really good and the light coming through the water from above is a nice effect too. I also like the solid black of eye of the shark. It's how shark eyes really look, but you pulled it off to show expression too.

My biggest criticism would be the legs and flippers on the elephant look like one big tail or fin. It doesn't read clearly right away. Maybe if you shade the leg farthest away a bit it would make this more clear.

Patti said...

I like this. I think everyone else has pretty much covered anything I would have said.Love the color and the look on the elephant's face. There is just a bit of reading difficulty at first look with the elephant. In respect to childrensillustrators.com, I have been on there for around 2 years. I have gotten a lot of requests from people self publishing. I have had some interest from publishers, but as of yet no work that I have either taken on or has worked out. I'm not sure if I am going to do it next time around.

Pixiewinkle said...

Pete- I love this illustration. I agree with Steve about the elephant- if you separate the legs it might read more clearly. I like the colors as well. Good work.