Illustration Friday: Horizon

Happy Holidays everybody. I thought I would post this image because, for some reason, I have always liked the horizon in it and because it seems to fit the season. It is a spread from my book Santa's Kwanzaa. I think this might be the most simple background/horizon I've ever painted, but I thought it worked out okay. It was a fun illustration to work on. I especially like the tree, all by it's lonesome, in the right corner. For some reason it always makes me happy. I don't picture too many trees at the North Pole.

Anyway, I want to thank everybody who takes the time to visit this ole blog and I hope everybody has a wonderful time during the holidays. My family and I are all ready for Christmas, a least as ready as we can be, and we are looking forward to some fun family time.

Sketch Painting

It's been a while since I've done a little paint study, so here is one from the other day.

Illustration Friday: Backwards

Make sure the tip is facing the right way. I painted this for my neighbor who owns Tison's Painting & Decorating. Top notch painter. I don't think he would ever do anything like this.

Road to Nepal

I did this for a article in the Wall Street Journal a couple days ago. I thought I'd share. It was in yesterdays paper if anyone cares.

Spill

So, my daughter learned how to make a fake paint spill on some PBS show and thought it would be fun to make one herself. I gave her the paint bottle and with a little Elmers glue and food coloring and this is what she came up with. She placed it on my painting and waited to see what Mom would do. She gave the right response. I thought it was very funny, although, when my younger daughter saw the spill she quickly let me know what happened. I acted like I was mad and blamed her for doing it. She started crying. I felt really really bad. But, it was still very funny.

Illustration Friday: Excess

...of snow. Not a problem where I live...yet...I wish.

Book Signing

I thought I'd let people know about this:

Authorpalooza!

Many of Utah's top children's writers and illustrators will be featured at a
giant event to be held on Saturday, December 8 at the Jordan Landing Barnes
& Noble in West Jordan, Utah. The event, titled "Authorpalooza" is a
day-long autographing party featuring award winning authors and illustrators such as
Shannon Hale, winner of the Newbery Award; Sara Zarr, finalist for the
National Book Award; Mark Buehner, winner of the Caldecott Award; and many others.

The event begins at 11:00 a.m. and runs until 6:30
p.m. at the Barnes & Noble store at Jordan Landing.

The authors and illustrators scheduled to appear are:

11:00 - 1:30: Ken Baker, Shannon Hale, Sherry Meidell, Christine Graham, Guy
Francis, Jessica Day George

1:30 - 4: Sara Zarr, Becky Hall, Randall Wright, Anne Bowen, Mark & Caralyn
Buehner

4:00 - 6:30 - James Dashner, Kim W. Justesen, Rick Walton, Nathan Hale,
Mette Ivie Harrison, Ann Dee Ellis

For more information, contact Kim Justesen at (801) 597-7416, or Angie Wager,
Community Relations Manager, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 7157 South Plaza
Center Drive, West Jordan, Utah 84084, (801) 282-1613

Gargoyle and viking

Just a couple doodles. The gargoyle came from a visit with a old friend. He had a great book about gargoyles and this just happened. The viking chick was just a quick sketch with a bit of color added.

Mia

Just a quick sketch painting. Nothing much.

Warm up

I've been slacking. I normally try to do a page of random sketch whatevers every day and I haven't done that for a while. Here is the page from yesterday. I will do better form now on, I promise.

Lunch Report

Our first Utah Artist Lunch was muy beuno! Thanks to everybody who came. It was fun to see old friends and to meet new people. I mean, in person and not just online. Fun was had. Food was eaten. Here's who came: Lael Henderson, Samantha (my daughter, and a very fine artist herself), Me, Mike Hoopes, Rob James, Aaron Anderson, Dillion Thompson, Shane Lewis, Joe Olsen and last but not least, Mel Milton. A very fine group of artists.

A few highlights:
Mel tells a funny story.


Everybody laughs.


Joe show off muscles during feats of strength.



If you couldn't make it this time and you feel like a loser, we will be doing the Artist Lunch thing again sometime soon. We will keep you posted.

Artist Lunch

I was talking with my friend Mel Milton, and we thought it was high time that we had lunch again. Then we thought it would even be better if we had lunch with all of our artist friends. So, here is the deal:

Time: Saturday November, 10th 1:00pm
Place: Bajio's - 160 E University Pkwy, Orem

All Utah Artists are invited. Heck, anyone is invited. Even the Canadian artists.

So, come and hang out, meet new friends, enjoy a fine burrito, maybe even do a sketch or two. And remember, if nobody else comes, it'll just be Mel and I. That's a little awkward.

Let us know if you're interested.

Illustration Friday: Trick or Treat

This is too good of a topic to pass up. Unfortunately, I didn't have a whole lot of time to give this the right treatment it deserves. The idea has probably been done too. Oh well. This will most likely be the last Gallery O' Terror piece I do this year too. This month has been zipping by way too fast. Maybe I'll just have to keep drawing creepy things for the next couple of months to make up for the lack of really cool halloween posts.

Aloha

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I had to go to Hawaii for the last 10 days. It was tough leaving Utah for the sun, surf and relaxation of Maui, but it had to be done. It was a great trip and I had huge plans to do a lot of sketching, I even took a little watercolor set but, laziness was more powerful than the pen. The best thing that came out of my sketchbook was done by my daughter. Very nice hula girl. My sketches are lame, although I can see that drawing Tiki's could be fun. Maybe I'll post some photos from the trip later.

Gallery O' Terror: Jimmy

My son said his name is Jimmy. Who am I to argue with that? I'm not sure where this one came from. I had a paper with this neat texture, so I added a big blob of black and it turned into this. So, enjoy Jimmy. I hope he visits your dreams.

Illustration Friday: Open

I'm in the middle of a tight deadline (oooh, I said "dead") so, I didn't really have time for more than a pen & ink sketch. Maybe later I can add some color. I did this for Illustration Friday, but it also doubles as a Gallery O' Terror piece. Clever eh? I also wanted to thank everybody who takes the time to visit this dismal blog and leaves their gruesome comments. Have a Spooky day!

Illustration Friday: Blues

Blue ghost in blue. I figured I would do another Gallery O' Terror and combine it with IF.

Gallery O' Terror: Witchy Woman

I'm posting this on behalf of Guy. He was going to wait for a week or something, but I say get on with it already. Halloween waits for no man! Tomorrow the living room begins its transformation into the Gallery Of Terror. Mwah ha ha!

Love to all you bloggers,

Lorien
Guy's Lovely Wife and Assistant


Oh, the sketch is cool too.

Gallery O' Terror- Vlad

It's that time of year that I feel the need to do spooky stuff and I say, if we can start getting ready for Christmas months early, then we should be able to get ready for Halloween in September. This is a quick vampire sketch I did last week. I was thinking of adding paint, but I think I like it like this. The Gallery O' Terror is now open.

Illustration Friday: Juggle

I did this illustration awhile back for a card game called Big Top. I did the painting in black and white and did color variations in photoshop for each kind of card. I know that is not very exciting, but the point is that there is a bear, and he is juggling.

The Planet Hunter

The Planet Hunter by Elizebeth Rusch and illustrated by me is now available!

Bang

This was just a really quick doodle with a bit of color added.

Big ole Sketch Dump

Here is a little sketch painting I did today. I only had the skin tone colors and blue so that's what I used. And, here is a bunch of doodles that were sitting around. Enjoy.

Edit: I just checked my stat counter and saw that 100,000 people have visited my blog since I started it. Wow! Thanks so much for checking out my lame little blog and for all of your kind comments. I really appreciate it.

Secret Agent

Agent Eugene Hamm P.I.G concealing his sub-machine gun. My entry for this weeks Toonclub.

Goblin

I was reading Tony DiTerlizzi's "Evolution of a Goblin" this morning on his blog and my doodling led me to try one of my own. Not as good as his, but maybe it's a less common Utah goblin. Tony is an incredible artist with an amazing imagination. He has been an inspiration to me for ages. My kids and I loved reading his Spiderwick Chronicles books and now we are really looking forward to the movie. Tony rocks.

Elk and Elephants

I asked my 4 year old son to give this guy a name. He said his name is Elk. Strange, but I don't question his naming abilities. Later he pulled out his paints and did this awesome elephant in a jungle. Pretty sweet eh? The elephant is blowing his trunk and check out those coconuts on the palm trees. You might be thinking that I helped him, but I didn't. He demanded that I scan it and put it on the computer with my picture. Again, I don't argue with this kid. He can be quite persuasive.

Ivana

Illustration Friday: Captain

As captain, one of Glen's favorite duties is to turn on the "fasten seatbelt" sign.

"Pedro Stubby Thumb"

It's funny how nicknames stick. This guy could have easily been called "Ears don't match Pedro", but ever since he lost that game of "got your nose" with Twitchy Pete... well, you know the rest.

I was inspired by those guys at Avalanche. They are all doing wanted posters and cowboys. How can you look at that stuff and not want to do a cowboy of your own?

Dave

He is just trying to fit in with the earthlings.

Illustration Friday: Missing

Sketch paintings 10

The other day someone told me that I've been drawing a LOT of girls lately, so here is a picture of a boy....and another girl.

Illustration Friday: Moon

This is an image from my new book "Dance by the Light of the Moon". I'm not crazy about posting older stuff, but the book is full of moon paintings. How could I resist? This is one of my favorites.