Wedding Bells

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

Merry Christmas!

I'm almost, almost, almost ready for Chrismas. Finally got my cards out today!

Tintin is coming!

The new Spielberg movie "The Adventure of Tintin" is about to open, something I've been both looking forward to and dreading. It's been mentioned in several places that the Tintin books, while hugely successful in Europe, are little known here in America. That seems funny to me, since both my brother and I have been huge fans since childhood, growing up in the wilds of Michigan. I remember reading black and white reprints which were serialized in, I believe, Children's Digest back in the third grade, and we soon had a collection of most of the books at home. My brother Mark even wrote an essay about how Milou, (Snowy the dog in the English translation), was his favorite cartoon character of all for one of his college applications.

Now the Spielberg movie is coming out. The trailers I've seen are full of action and swooping cameras. They're exciting to watch. I've always enjoyed the old-fashioned kind of popcorn movies that Spielberg is so good at. That's the part that I'm looking forward to. What I'm not looking forward to is all the motion capture weirdness. No matter how well its done, the characters come off as soulless zombies. It's a choice I don't understand. If you're going to do a "live action" movie with these stories, why not just hire actors with a resemblance to the beloved characters and let it go at that? What we have to deal with are "actors" who are eerily not quite human and not quite the charming drawing we grew up with. Neither fish or fowl, as the old phrase goes.

I guess I'm just a purist. I would have loved to see an old-fashioned, well done, traditionally animated movie that really captured the spirit and look of these stories that I have loved. Most of all, I'm sorry that my brother Mark didn't get the chance to see this movie. I would have loved to hear his opinion.

CJ, the lawyer

Here's the final illustration that I did for my cousin, a "portrait" of his son CJ who's currently going to law school. I was trying to get it done in time for Christmas, but I guess I didn't quite make it. Oh well...

Lawyer, Lawyer

Hello everybody, I'm back! I've been awfully busy these last three months doing the final illustrations for my first picture book. I finally finished this week and sent them in to the publisher. I'm happy to report that they really like them! It was quite the learning experience for me.

This sketch is for another project, a commission from my cousin.

Feathertop

Hello everybody! I've been a bit lax about posting on my blog lately because I've been busy working on my first children's book! It's called Dan, the Taxi Man and it will be out sometime next fall. I'm in the midst of doing the final illustrations and I'm having a blast doing it.

I took a little break to do this illustration for my next postcard. This one is inspired by the Nathanial Hawthorne story Feathertop, about a scarecrow who falls in love, a story that I've wanted to illustrate for a while.

Boo-Boo-De-Doo!

And this is for the backside of my latest postcard. It was a nice diversion from the other work I'm doing now. Fun, simple and quick!

IF-Midsummer Night

Well, I've finally gotten back to doing an entry for Illustration Friday, due to a lucky coincidence! I had picked Midsummer Night's Dream as the subject for my next postcard mailer, and was working on the piece when it was announced that Midsummer Night was the next IF subject. I love lucky coincidences, I just wished they happened more often!

This was my first traditionally painted piece after doing a lot of work in photoshop the past couple of months. It was great to work with real paint again, but I guess all mediums have their advantages. There were moments that I really wanted an undo button on this.

Big Princess Hair in Glorious Technicolor

I recently finished a freelance project that forced me to give myself a crash course in Photoshop, (even though I had played with it a little before...) The project was fun but a LOT of work. Now that its done I wanted to try coloring my own piece so I took my sketchbook doodle that I posted previously and here it is...

Big Princess Hair

Just a little quickie from my sketchbook. I didn't want to ignore the blog for too long. I've been busy the last few weeks on a freelance project that I hope to have done by the end of this coming weekend. Wish me luck!

IF-Bicycle

Wow, I've done two Illustration Fridays in a row! Yay me! I did this one quicker and looser than I usually do, so that I could have it in time to submit.

Journey

I've finally gotten around to doing another piece for Illustration Friday. This weeks subject is Journey. This piece is very much inspired by a Saturday Evening Post cover by JC Leyendecker, one of my favorite illustrators.

Back of the Postcard

"I'm a little jazz bird and I'm telling you to be one too!" -Ira Gershwin. This is for the backside of my new postcard.

Spring Planting

Chuck is back! This is an illustration for my next postcard. It's spring planting time for Chuck.

Happy Cailley Day!

I did this piece for my niece Cailley's birthday. She mentioned that she liked jackalopes a while back, and for some reason this idea came to mind. It's only a little over a month late. Not too bad for me...heh heh. Happy Birthday Cailley!

Merry Christmas

This is my 2010 Christmas Card, and also the postcard I'm sending out to publishers. It turned out to be a bit of a "bear" to do! I hope you all like it!

More Chuck!

"Chuck found a job at a restaurant..."

Chuck the Duck

A few years ago my nieces, Cailley, Emma, and Isabelle, wrote a story called Chuck the Duck while we were eating dinner at a restaurant. I've been intending to illustrate it ever since, and I'm finally getting around to it.

"One day there wass a duck named Chuck. He needed money, so he went to find a job."

Snow White and Rose Red

"Rose Red would run and jump about the meadows, seeking flowers and catching butterflies, while Snow White loved to sit and read."

This is a new piece for my children's book illustration portfolio. I spent a lot more time than usual on this illustration and I'm very happy with the way it turned out. I'm planning on doing several more illustrations from the story of Snow White and Rose Red...

Diary-Reading Sister's Secrets

Wow, its hard to believe that I have another blogpost so soon! This is a piece that I started a while ago, but then set aside. It's my first piece that I've done in photoshop. When I started I was doing it with a mouse, but it was slow-going, which is probably why I set it aside. Then my friend Brian loaned me his Wacom tablet. It took me a bit to find my way working with a tablet and with photoshop, but I think I'm starting to find my rhythm...

It Was Night, And The Rain Fell...

This is my entry for the SCBWI Illustrator's Day Contest in LA. The illustration is supposed to be inspired by the line "It was night, and the rain fell, and falling, it was rain, but, having fallen, it was..." Now that I've finished the piece I don't think my idea is very original or interesting.

Every illustration I do is a learning process, and this one is a good example of that. Sometimes I plan my illustrations very carefully, but in this case I really just winged it, drawing it straight on the the illustration board instead of working and reworking the design on tracing paper. I also really didn't have a clear idea of what colors I wanted to use, and so I made it up as I went along. I'm definitely trying to find the right balance between planning carefully and being spontaneous.

Grandmama

Here's a quick piece I did to get back into the swing of things. I was out of commission for a couple of weeks, (pneumonia), and now I'm trying to ease my way back up to speed. I'm questioning myself a lot about my work right now and trying to figure out which way to go.

Illustration Friday: Paisley

Now that Drawergeeks is on hiatus, I've been meaning to start contributing to Illustration Fridays. It took me a while, but here it is. The subject is Paisley. I did this one with very little planning, just a quick blue sketch on my illustration board and out came the paint tubes. It feels a bit like working without a net.

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

Well, I finally got my art desk cleaned and organized, and now I hope to get a lot more art work done. This was a piece I started a couple years ago, then set aside and lost track of...

Waitin' round the bend, my Hucklberry friend...

This is a commissioned piece I did for my good friend Jose. This one got interrupted by my month long trip to Massachusetts, but now its done!

"SNAP SNAP"

A quickie piece I did with Illustrator. I usually like to start with a hand drawn sketch, but I just started playing in Illustrator with this one. Easy to start, but much harder to finish...

Anyone Got An Atlas???

This is my first piece done in Illustrator in quite a while. It was fun to get back into it. You may remember the original sketch that this is based on from a couple years back.

sketchbook

This is from my sketchbook, done a couple months ago. Done at Victoria Gardens, where Patrick works. I especially like the "Dad" who is carefully "watching" his three kids.

Sketching Eve

This is a quick sketch of Eve I did based on the famous painting by Lucas Cranach, the elder, (and seen on Desperate Housewives). I was reminded of this piece yesterday when I went to the Norman Simon to see the Comtesse d'Haussonville by Ingres. I've always wanted to play with this subject.

Paul Bunyon Done!

I wasn't sure how I felt about the way this piece turned out, but seeing it on the computer I like it very much. I still feel like I have so much to learn about working with paint, but I guess the answer is to keep trying...

...testing...testing...

Just playing around with some new art supplies. This was done with neutral gray ink, (instead of black). I really like the way this feels to work with. I can be stiffer when I'm working with black ink, with the gray ink I feel looser, more natural. This is going to be fun!

sketches

For this weeks Drawergeeks, Paul Bunyon. I had hoped to get further along, but on the other hand I don't want to rush it, so...here's the sketch.

Mark

My brother Mark asked me to do a Facebook avatar for him a while back. Well, I finally finished it!

Redhead

This is something a little new for me. I've been wanting to loosen up a bit, so I did this without any pencil rough, just starting straight out with a brush and some paint.

Frankie's in Love

Well, this is a week late, but this was for Drawergeeks. I finally got my drawing desk cleaned off and can work again.

Betty and Veronica

At last I've done a new Drawergeeks. I really need to get back into the swing of things with this blog! I did this one pretty quick, Betty and Veronica in their late middle age.

Mom, I've been published!

This is so cool. Walt Stanchfield was the best, most inspiring life drawing teacher I ever had. He had been at Disney forever and was already a legend by the time I met him. He knew how to criticize your work without making you feel like you're a crappy artist and should never pick up a pencil again. His goal was to make your drawings feel alive, like real living characters instead of dead anatomy lessons. It makes sense since he was so full of life and joy himself.

One of the things that Walt did each week was to give us handouts with tips, examples, quotes, etc., to help inspire us. He would often include students' drawings as examples and this is one of mine that made it. Pretty exciting, huh? His handouts have just been collected and published in two volumes called Drawn To Life, and I would highly recommend these books to anyone who wants to learn or improve their drawing skills. These books are a goldmine of information and inspiration!

p.s. My drawings are on page 277 of volume 1!

Happy Birthday!

This is a portrait I did for an old friend's birthday. I had fun with one and did it rather quickly, which is unusual for me. Happy Birthday Anne!

Goth White

Another post so quick! This is a quickie I did for this week's Drawergeeks. The subject is Goth!

Under the Witching Tree

Well, it certainly has been a long time! I've been working lots of overtime out of town lately, so its taken me a couple of months to get this done, but here it is. I couldn't get the scanner at the apartment to scan the whole image, so the edges are a bit cut off, but I've been wanting to get something posted for a while, so here it is. I'll get a better scan up when I can.

Hellboy

Wow, I can hardly believe it, but I've managed to do two Drawergeeks in a row! Yay me! I did this with a new watercolor brush I just got, where the water is actually put inside the handle. I'm still getting used to it, but it's pretty darn convenient. Thanks to Alina for telling me about these brushes.

Straw Berry

Well, it's been a while! I had a lot of things going on these past few months, but I hope to be at least a bit more active from now on. This is for Drawergeeks. The subject: Strawberry Shortcake. I had a hard time trying to figure out what my take on this would be, but then I did this doodle this afternoon, and voila! Inspired by the sixties and, especially, Twiggy.

Fire 'n' Smoke

Wow, it has been a while hasn't it! This is actually an idea I've had for ages, in fact, I did a version of this when I was in high school. I think I do like this version a bit better...

So Long Santa!

Merry Christmas everyone! I was trying to do this one for last week's Drawergeeks, but I got hit hard by some cold/flu thing, and I'm still under the weather. I hope to be over it by Friday when I travel back east to my brother's for the holidays.

Sweet Marie

This is a piece from one of my sketchbooks, based on an old sideshow poster. I don't usually post sketches, I guess because I'm afraid they aren't that good, but I had fun doing this one. This is actually done with ball point pen on newsprint. What do you think?

Let's Take A Stand!

Well, this is a really belated Drawergeeks! The topics was Hot Dog Stands, oh months ago. I started this then, but it's taken me a while to finish it off. Too much detail, I guess.

Star Belly Dancer

Well, it's been a while. This is for this week's Drawergeeks: "star belly". Open to whatever interpretation we could think of. I'm very happy with this one. I've started so many other Drawergeeks assignments, but haven't had a chance to finish one until now.

Cleopatterer

Here's the latest for Drawergeeks. It's a fun subject. I had started a different version of this topic, but I realized I couldn't get that one done in time, so I did this one tonight. I hope to get the other one done soon!

The Clown and the Bareback Rider

This is for this week's Drawergeeks. I did this one last minute, but considering that I'm pretty happy with it.