IF-Whiskers

Here's an item that I pulled from my sketchbook that I thought would fit this week's Illustration Friday topic of whiskers.  This is a subject I like to play with a lot for some reason; a Victorian era impresario type character, perhaps evil, perhaps not.  I threw the sketch into photoshop and added some color to it, but eventually I'd like to explore this guy I bit more.

IF-Zoom!

Well, I almost made it!  This piece was done for this week's Illustration Friday, the theme being "zoom".  This was based on a sketch I did in one of my sketchbooks a few years back and always planned on finishing someday.  I've always been a big fan of Mickey Mouse, especially the old Floyd Gottfredson comic strip version.  I just got the first two volumes of the new reprint collection and I'm enjoying and savoring them now.

Happy Halloween!

Here's my latest, just in time (whew!) for Halloween, and also in time for this week's Illustration Friday.  This is an idea I've been playing around with in my sketchbooks for quite some time.  I don't know why it took me so long to get around to it.  It's inspired by a scene from the movie Sunset Boulevard, where the old washed up silent film stars get together to play cards, and the idea of old movie monsters getting together to do the same just tickled me.

Signing Dan!

Exciting news!  I recently did my first book signing event at the Orange County Children's Book Festival.  Patrick came with me and took a few photos.  I was a little nervous about it.  I'm a shy guy, after all, but I had a great time, got to sign some books and even read Dan out loud to some kids.  Even with the 100 degree heat it was a wonderful event!

IF-Mirror

It's been a while since I've been able to do Illustration Friday...finally I'm back!  This week's topic is mirror.  My illustration is inspired by one of my favorite musicals, FOLLIES, by Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman, though this piece is quite a bit cheerier than the show.

Recess!

I've been busy with a few things lately, so I haven't had a chance to do an illustration in a while.  This is for the upcoming SCBWI-LA Illustration Day in November.  The assigned topic was "recess" and our illustration had to include these 5 items:  apples, buffalo, blanket, hay, and telescope.  I got them all in!

IF-Time To Suspend The Cares Of The Day.

Ludwig Van Beethoven takes a break to revive his mood and recharge his muse.  I've had this idea for a while to write and illustrate a picture book about Beethoven being inspired to write his Pastoral symphony.  I come from a family of Beethoven fanatics, and my brother Mark and I would spend long hours playing a four-hand version of the Pastoral on our piano.  There is a bit of a story to the symphony, starting with a beautiful sunrise, through a walk along a babbling brook, meeting a country oom-pah band, and finally a thunderstorm.  In the end the sun shines through. Beethoven found nature invigorating, healing and inspiring and I liked the idea of trying to convey that in a story.  I did this illustration, along with a book dummy, for a submission to the summer SCBWI conference, where they are going to consider a few book proposals for children's picture books.  I'm finding it challenging to hone my idea, trying to make sure that the story is clear and entertaining and worth telling.  Wish me luck!

IF-Space

My latest piece for this weeks Illustration Friday.  I've often wondered what those chimps thought when they were shot off in rockets during the early years of the Space Age.  Here's my take on it...

All you need is love...

Here come the Beatles in their little yellow sports car!  The Nucleus Gallery in Alhambra, California is doing a tribute show to the Beatles, and I thought I'd take a shot at contributing to the show.  The gallery always has wonderful shows, and they often do these tributes.  One of my favorites from not too long ago was a tribute to Where The Wild Things Are.  I was blown away by the contributions to that one!

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been thinking of doing a series of illustrations of some of my favorite musicians, and the Beatles are at the top of my list for pop music.

IF-Coltrane Plays His "Shiny" Saxophone

"Over all, I think the main thing a musician would like to do is give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things that he knows of and senses in the universe. . . That’s what I would like to do. I think that’s one of the greatest things you can do in life and we all try to do it in some way. The musician’s is through his music." -John Coltrane

This is a piece I did for a good friend and colleague as a birthday gift for her husband, who, as you might guess, is a big jazz aficionado.  I love music myself, and have been wanting to do some illustrations of my favorite musicians.  Perhaps this will be number one in a series...

IF-"Hurry", Dan, Hurry!

Dan is coming.  Hurry, Dan, hurry!  My first picture book, "Dan, the Taxi Man", should be available any moment now.  I can't tell you how anxious I am to see a hard copy.  This was the first illustration that I finished for the book and I'm very proud of it.

"Dan, the Taxi Man", written by the multi-talented Eric Ode, and published by Kane Miller.  Get your copy...soon!!!

IF-Faded Photographs, Vivid Memories

My idea for this week's Illustration Friday topic, "faded".  I'm an avid photo taker and have always loved looking through old photo albums.

Congratulations Cailley!

My niece Cailley is graduating from high school in just a few days, so I'm sending her this piece I did for her.  I am so proud and happy for her!  Congratulations Cailley!

IF-Sight

Thea came upon a most unusual sight.  What was behind that door?

My piece for this week's Illustration Friday, this was an idea I had for my portfolio,  inspired a little by The Wizard Of Oz.  I love the idea of moving between black and white and full color worlds.  It was also a chance for me to explore working just with value.  I do like to work in black and white a lot, but I still sometimes find it challenging to make everything read, so this was a good exercise for me.

IF-Kernel

This is an oldie.  I originally did this piece for an illustration class that I took long ago, then reworked a few years later, also long ago.  I hadn't yet taken up acrylics at this point, this was done with ink outlines and watercolor.  The assignment was to illustrate a poem called "Table Manners"...My favorite part are the corn kernels flying through the air from the boy's cob.  The funny thing is that corn on the cob is one of my least favorite foods.  I love popcorn, and cornbread...yum!..., but corn on the cob?  Yuk!

Arrr said the Parrot Pirate

I don't know why, but this image popped into my head and I just had to put it down on paper.  How do you think it would look on a t-shirt?

IF-Heights...Godzilla!

It just crossed my mind that this piece that I did a while back also fits this week's Illustration Friday theme.  I originally did this for Drawergeeks, a web drawing club that I belonged to.  Drawergeeks is unfortunately on hiatus, but it was a big inspiration and motivation for me to start doing my own work again. 

The "Heights" of Fashion-IF

Here's my entry for this weeks Illustration Friday-"Heights".  I was inspired by a scene from the original  Broadway production of Into The Woods where Cinderella was curling her stepsister's hair.  I was obviously also inspired by Marie Antoinette and her famous over the top wigs.  This isn't really done in the style that I usually work in lately, but I liked the way my pencil sketch was turning out so much that I didn't want to lose its feeling, so I scanned it and colored it in Photoshop, still a fairly new technique for me...

IF-Jazz Baby

I originally started this piece for last week's Illustration Friday, "vocal", but just got around to finishing it today. I thought I would submit it anyway, since this week's subject is "puzzled" and the setting I put the character in sort of looks like a big puzzle! I've always been fascinated by the 1920's, "the jazz age", art deco, etc., so this is a bit of a tribute to all of that.

IF-Vocal "Jazz Singer"

This is a remake of one the first digital illustrations I ever made. At the time I was using microsoft publisher. I was really happy with this piece, but then my computer crashed and I lost the file, so all I had were some fuzzy printouts. I was working in a style then that was influenced by my discovery of Alex Steinweiss and Jim Flora. Love their stuff!

IF-Vocal "Little Brunhilde"

This is an older piece that I'm posting for this week's Illustration Friday topic, "vocal". I did this originally for my husband, Patrick, when was working in the educational outreach department of the LA Opera, though he didn't end up using it. It now belongs to my cousin Jessica who is studying opera at the University of Illinois, and a beautiful voice she has!

IF-Return

This is for this week's Illusration Friday, the subject is "return". Return made me think of when I was in elementary school and how excited my dog Whiskers would be when I returned home. That was always so nice, especially after a hard day at school. Good memories!

Swamp Venus

Boy, its been a while since I did an illustration in Illustrator. It was lots of fun, but I sure feel rusty. This was done for this week's Illustration Friday challenge, "swamp".

KentCulotta.com

I am happy to say that my portfolio website is finally back up and running! The site has been down for a few months, and I couldn't figure out what the problem was, but thanks to the ministrations of my cousin, Chris Rundell, everything is A-OK! Go take a look!

Dan, The Taxi Man

Exciting news, everyone! Just saw the proofs for my first children's book, and it looks great! Here it comes, Dan, The Taxi Man, written by Eric Ode, illustrated by me, and published by Kane Miller. It's official release date is September 1st. I can hardy wait!

Happy Birthday, Emma!

Finally I finished the illustration for my niece, Emma. I've been laid low by a cold for the last couple of weeks, which slowed me down quite a bit. Now I have to get these pieces matted, framed and in the mail. I can't wait to hear what they think.

Happy Birthday, Isabelle!

Here's my latest illustration, done for my niece Isabelle's birthday. A while back I did one for her eldest sister, Cailley, and I knew I would have to get around to doing one for Isabelle and also for her other sister, Emma. Their birthdays are just a couple of weeks apart, and Emma's piece is already in the works. Sshhhh, don't tell them!

Emilie at the window

This illustration is for the back of my next postcard, with the same little girl who's on the sea serpent on the front side. I like working in both color and black and white. I have to say that black and white has a special, magical feeling for me. I love old black and white photos and movies.

Sea Serpent

Well, I'm a little bit late, but here's my next postcard. Emilie and the Sea Serpent. I still have to do a black and white illustration for the back side of the card...

Wedding Bells

A good friend of mine got married recently, so I did this piece as a wedding gift!