My NEW book ships tomorrow

So after the success of my first book, Drawing Animals With Numbers I was able to use the money I made on that book to print Drawing Monsters With Letters. I am really excited about this book. After learning so much about self publishing I was able to loosen up and have more fun with this book. The other nice thing was getting orders for the book a month before it came out. People really liked the first book and that only makes it easier to sell the next book. I have had a blast promoting the books all over the Mid West and talking to so many kids and sharing my love of drawing with them.

My iPad drawings

I created these on my iPad in Sketchbook Pro on Thanksgiving Day.
The iPad is not an easy thing to draw on. It's like drawing on glass with a marshmallow tipped pencil. But Sketchbook Pro is the bomb! For iPad it works great and on my computer it's the closest thing to drawing on paper.

staying fresh

i painted this gal before (you can see the acrylic version on my personal blog) but wanted to see how she would look utilizing some of the more gestural painting techniques i've been employing lately. its faster, messier, and riskier (for me, anyways) - but i enjoy it!

color continues to be a challenge. i want to get to a point where i'm developing shadows from other hues, rather than the standard darker version of the local color. back to the drawing board!

lions, tigers, and bears...oh my!

the wizard of oz reference in this painting was completely inadvertent but really funny when i made the connection! and, yes, i live in kansas, so maybe its something ingrained...

anyway, here's part 3. i'm currently trying to figure out how to get these three on the mailer. i'm very guilty of not having the card design in mind first, but oh well.

hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!

Illustration Friday Topic-Burning

I just added this image to Illustration Friday's blog for the topic, Burning. This is in oils on a gessoed board.

what's wrong with this turtle?

I went ahead and colored it - and I really like how it turned out!  It might be the bg color and sky that's a little more colorful than my usual blue/white...I think the turtle looks more turtly when done.

I'm working with a writer who's coming up with a concept for the square animals...and she suggested a turtle character, so I thought I'd work one out to add to the list of characters I already have.  I'm still open to suggestions, if you have any things that might make it a stronger character...and now Ill even take color suggestions!

Finished Color

First pass at color

what could possibly happen next?

one more to painting to go...then it's mailer time yet again! thanks go to steve for suggesting the 3 part illo on the next postcard. any and all crits welcome!

thank a vet today!

Illustration Friday Topic-Afterwards

I just submitted this image for the Illustration Friday Topic of Afterwards.

gesture painting (oil)

so i'm delving further into the realm of gesture painting. rules of the game? pick a portrait, landscape, or still life and paint as much as you can in 30 minutes. i'm impressed with how quickly the time goes and how tempting it is to keep painting even when the timer says, "stop." also, no predrawing - just a quick painted sketch and then block in color like a madman!