First Post of the New Year

I don't know how so much time can go by between my posts when it seems like I just updated it yesterday! Like last year, one of my new goals for the year is to post more often, so let's see how I do this time. Hopefully better!

This is a new personal piece I've started. I got the idea when I was at the beach a few months ago. It was a cold day and hardly anyone else was there. It made the beach seem very private and personal. For some reason, the idea of a son and father sharing a day at the beach like that popped into my head. It's been rattling around for awhile and is finally coming out on paper. I'm trying to play with adding more texture to my digital paintings, so I'm keeping some of the texture of my value rough underneath the painting. This painting is turning out much softer and realistic that my illustrations normally are, but I'm really liking it. I'm going to tighten it up a little, especially the figures, but definitely want to keep the softness.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It's been a crazy holiday season and I'm too late to wish you all a Merry Christmas, but not too late to say HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

IF Pretend

The topic for IF this week couldn't be more perfect for a children's book artist:-) No one is better at pretending than children! Here is an illustration from my book Circle of Three where the main character is PRETENDING to be in Hawaii.

IF Wise

I thought the topic this week for IF worked pretty well with my new book, Butterfly Kisses, since it has to do with the wisdom of grandparents and also the wisdom of little kids:-) It's amazing what you can learn from children!

Flower Power

I haven't been getting much illustration done lately, I've been busy with some floral paintings. I've never done flower paintings before, which may surprise a few people since I'm pretty much as girly of a girl as you can get. But I have to say, I'm loving doing them. I think I may have to do these more often. I finished this magnolia I'm showing you a couple of weeks ago and am in the process of doing a red gerber daisy. It's coming along pretty well, but trying to do all of those tiny little petals that a gerber daisy has is definitely a challenge!

IF Sugary

This is my submission to Illustration Friday this week. I'm finally getting to share some of the artwork from my most recent children's book! This is the opening double page spread. The book is called Butterfly Kisses for Grandpa and Grandma. The author of the book is Alayne Kay Christian. Its a really sweet story that is perfect for grandparents and grandkids, especially those that have to deal with living far away. In this opening spread, the main character is enjoying some ice cream at grandpa and grandmas. One of the reasons she likes to come to see grandpa and grandma is all of the SUGARY sweets she gets to eat:-)



The book is not yet released, but can be pre-ordered at the publishers website, www.bluewhalepress.com. I hope you enjoy this spread, I'll be posting a lot of Butterfly Kisses in the next few weeks!

IF Clutter

For this IF word of the week, I chose a painting I did for my book Circle of Three, published by Magination Press. It's an illustration of the three main characters making a mess and lots of CLUTTER while doing their art project together. This was definitely a fun illustration for me to do being an artist and remembering how much fun it was to do arts and crafts in school!:-)