Style?

Working on some black and white images of children. I did a bunch of sketches that are more realistic, but wanted to try a little looser stylized look. Here's what I have so far.

First true oil...

So, I really like oils...the way the paint can be worked and reworked is truly cool. And I found a method/technique that I like (which has room for improvement).

I did this for Illustration Friday. The painting is still wet, so I'm getting light weirdness happening all over the place, but this shows the gist of it.

Hope all is well with everyone.

Big changes...

Hey everyone. Well, in the last couple of weeks, my family made a pretty big decision. I retired from teaching middle school (after 8 years) to give this children's illustration dream of mine the full attention I think it deserves. I'll also be able to stay home with our 2 kids which is awesome! So I'll be around lots more now, as I'm going to be kicking myself in the pants pretty hard to stay up on creating new, dynamic, and exciting pieces for my portfolio. I'm hoping to be submitting to agents as well. Prepare for the blitz!

I'm also giving oils a try in earnest now. It's what I really want to be working in (acrylics dry to dang quick) and I want to maintain a "fine art" quality to what I produce.

While trying not to seem too redundant, I selected another Rockwell for a color study. The line drawing has some pretty obvious flaws, but I'll be really focusing on color. Anyways, that's what's going on with me and what I'm working on.

Back O' the postcard

Hi there folks,

So here's the finished comp for the back of the postcard.  i put it all together, but have each element separate so it can be moved around.  I originally had my website under my name - but it just got too muddled, so I moved it into the tree to, hopefully, have it stand out from the rest.

What do you think?

 Should the grass below the cat flow up like it does in the first one?  Or circle around the character like in the second one?  I don't know which one looks better...I originally made it like the one above because I thought it would look better if the honey from the cat's hand overlaps the grass...but now that I redid it with it under, I don't know which one looks better.  Any ideas?

And I did the two drawings as if they were two separate illustrations because I wanted to show on the back of the card that I could do the spot illustrations as well as the full page ones....so I don't know if that helps with deciding which direction to go with the grass...

Recent Image

I've been doing work for licensing lately. This image will be a flag next Spring. I've also been working on dummies for my book agent in hopes that she will find them homes. Nothing yet but I am working on a new one now. Hope everyone is is busy with lots of work!
Patti

Something fun since I haven't posted here in a while.

postcard back!

This is going to be the back of the postcard that I'm currently working on.  I did the front illustration (I decided to turn the dog jumping for a bee hive into an ensemble piece with the other two characters, and that illustration I'm now revising)...

But what do you think of this?  I still wanna color it...

What do you think of the word placement and such?  And the composition?

Do you think someone will question that the tree doesn't have all the branches that the front side does?  I actually used a different tree for this one because the other one was too busy...but does it matter?  Is a tree even necessary?