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!

Woah, guys! Easy...don't critique this one!

Here's the cover for my first children's book! It's at the printers as we speak!
It's a really great story about a lazy dog who learns to get fit from an energetic elephant. I like that the story fits a niche market - we see lots in the news about kids needing to be more active and I have great hopes that this book will find its way into many school libraries.

what do you give a guy who can't fly for his birthday?

here's the latest. i found myself wanting more animals in the portfolio, so went this route. feels unfinished to me so i'm happy to get input on what you think it may be missing.
(oil on illustration board)

Santa Panda's Sleigh

Now don't pay too much attention to the color, I actually did each of the reindeer on it's own layer in illustrator so that way, once it's colored, I could still move them around and even use each deer individually, if I want to...

But composition - whatcha think?  Oh, and the blue ones for the reins are all very simply done and aren't finished...

 

This is the same thing with better color:

I think the trees will be a little more green with snow on top...I'm working on putting a sort of square feel to everything (even the trees and bushes), so each drawing I do will probably have a different bg look, while I try out different looks (for the different bg elements).

And this is it in Photoshop with all the revisions but without texture and fully rendered color:

nuts...I just noticed an ear tangent...

And here's the final illustration:

Snow White: Don't eat that apple

For promo card. What do you think?

its all about the garnish!

watch out! BEAR! ...making dessert... carefully.

Eeek! That monster stole my cookies!