Goodbye Summer, Hello NEW Fall Art

I did character studies and interior sketches for a new book project this summer. My contract has a no-show clause, so I can not post the art till I get the 'OK' from the publisher, Little School House Books. Promotion for the first book should begin in the early part of 2011. Plans for DVDs of the character's adventure have begun too!

Each season we change the art images on the Picture Book Artists' website. For my fall post, I worked up a new image for an ABC book I'm writing. I don't have a title yet ... it's a book in progress. This is a sample of the 'A' page, showing a family on the Puffing Billy train. This is a historic steam train still running daily on its original mountain track near Melbourne, Australia. Now, I think I am going to redo this art... it REALLY is a book in progress.. ; )
The sketch was stitched together and colored on the Cintiq in Photoshop.
Another project underway in the studio is my costume for the annual Highlights Illustrators' Party. I am honored to be an invited guest again! Look for SILLY pictures to come...

Thanks for visiting, News from the Studio and Happy Fall!

OBX Watercolors

I spent last week at the OBX with my family (and pugs.) We had a great time together and the weather was wonderful. Here's a great photo of Duck, NC by my son, Ryan.
With my trusty traveling watercolor kit I painted every day and had a little gallery display on the windowsill of our beach house. Most of the watercolors were small quick studies, postcard or trading card size.


































Here I captured the pugs on the beach. Many family members became inspired to picked up a brush and have a hand at watercolors too. Great fun! Until next year ... I have these little studies to remember our week at the beach! Now back to illustration work.

New illustration featured in PW article, The Elephant in the Room by Elizabeth Bluemle

It was great to create art for Elizabeth Bluemle's article,
The Elephant in the Room on PW Shelf Talker.

I worked digitally for this illustration. I drew each elephant separately,
then placed them into the circle composition. I used Elizabeth's writing and collaged it into each

elephant's body for texture, value, and as an element to support the subject-matter of her article.

Then I added color in Photoshop.

June Workshop!

Join us for two sessions: Children's Picture Books:
When Text Meets Art
Monday, June 14 & Thursday June 17 6:30-8:30 p.m.

The Writers' Center of Indiana!
Instructors: Rebecca Kai Dotlich & Sharon Vargo

When text meets art, it creates a new world on the page—an expressive balance where each complements the other. Join poet/author Rebecca Kai Dotlich, and illustrator Sharon Vargo for a hands-on workshop in which participants will experience writing from an illustration, and sketching an illustration from a poem or prose quick-write. This is a great workshop for both writers and illustrators. No previous drawing experience is needed.

Hello Baby Goose

Back in 1996 a parent from Open Fields School, a small non-graded private school in Thetford Hill, Vermont, offered the school 100+ blown goose eggs. She thought the children could use the eggs for projects. But the late Trina Schart Hyman, (April 8, 1939–November 19, 2004), an American Illustrator of children's books and friend of the school, suggested that the eggs be used for a fundraiser instead. Her idea hatched a bi-annual fundraiser where artists decorate the eggs and send them back to the school for an online auction.

Various types of eggs – goose, quail, hen and emu – are sent to artists all over the world. They return transformed with paint, ink, pencil, gilded, sculpted, cut, collaged and otherwise incredible eggs. Trina's "eggstraordinary" art event has become the school’s biggest fundraiser - The Great Goose Egg Auction.

Despite skepticism at first, the eggs returned were great "Egg Art", and raised over $5,000 that first year. Since then, the school has held the auction every other year, and has raised as much
as $21,500 (2006 auction, honoring Trina's memory). Over the years, the eggs have been donated by a dozen Caldecott Medal & honor recipients and four Macarthur Fellows. Other contributions have come from alumni of the school, local artists, and volunteers from around the world.

I am excited to be a part of this great fundraiser that Trina Schart Hyman began. My goose egg arrived, neatly bubble wrapped in a brown box, back in November 2009. I unwrapped it and left it positioned on my drawing table for inspiration. It didn't take long and an image came right to mind of a baby goose sleeping. I did a sketch with a baby goose in a stroller. I pictured the baby goose on either side of the egg, in a night and day version. By night, sleeping. By day strolling

Here is a step-by- step diary of how I painted, "Hello Baby Goose".

Please visit my egg on the Great Goose Egg Auction Site!

Smiles & Friends - line art to a finished painting

There are two stages in my art process - line art and full color painting.

Line art is done first and sent to the client.

Once the Line Art is approved, I can begin painting.
Currently I'm working in a traditional manner and also on a Cintiq.

I use the Photoshop software on the Cintiq. I may do a little color testing in pencil, but I usually have the colors in mind before I begin painting. I'm hoping to load Corel Painter soon and start using (learning) that progam also. Here's a closer look at the art...
SMILE!

"Hopping" to another example of a work in progress. Here shows
the line art and painting on the same piece.

Baby Bear on the Cintiq

It's cold and snowy outside ... but warm and cuddly
in the studio creating new sketches using the Cintiq!