Illustration Friday: Cats 2

Maybe it is time for a new banner. Here's my idea. I think I will paint it up and throw in some type. I'll keep you posted.

(I accidently posted this on Illustration Friday twice. Big time sorry.)

Illustration Friday: Cats

Weird. I did this quick study of a cat skull that I have sitting in my studio just yesterday, and I find out today that the topic is cats. Lucky me. I did it in gouache. About an hour. My dad found this skull in a pasture and thought I should have it. I must say it is in perfect condition, picked clean and bleached white. It looks better in real life.

Illustration Friday: E is for...

E is for eanimals (the e is silent). I was trying to come up with something for this weeks topic and all I got was this page of animals that start with E. It'll have to do.

Bajio Amigo

I just finished painting or, more correctly, re-painting this piece. I originally did this for a friend back in 2001. I never painted it to the level I wanted it. It's what I would now consider an underpainting. My friend recently started a restaurant called Bajio. It is fantastic! Best food around. Ohhh, the Chicken Green Chile Quesadilla...mmmmmm to die for. I digress. Anyway, long story short, he asked me to make some changes to reflect the resturant. It gave me the chance to do it the way it should have been done in the first place. I think it is a big improvement. There is so much junk jammed in there that it is hard to control the values and to make everything read correctly. So, what do you think? Any crits?

If you ever see a Bajio restaurant go try it out. You won't be sorry.

Free Toaster and Oven Mitt!

So, cat tacos has reached a huge milestone today. 20,000 visitors!! And, to celebrate and to thank you all for visiting, I'm giving away a shiny new toaster and a swell oven mitt. Okay, so it is just a crummy, poorly drawn picture of a shiny new toaster and a swell oven mitt, but who cares? Who can complain on such a joyous occasion? Thank you all for all of your great comments and your encouragement. I never imagined so many people would visit here. I put a Stat Counter on my blog ang I was blown away by what I found. I have had visitors from 69 countries (that I know of). Amazing! Look at this list.

Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Australia
Argentina
Austria
BA
Bahamas
Bahrain
Brazil
Belgium
Bulgaria
Burmuda
Canada
Chile
Colombia
Cote D' ivoire
Croatia
Cyprus
Denmark
Egypt
El Salvador
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Hong Kong
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Korea
Kuwait
Latvia
Luxembourg
Macao
Malaysia
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Panama
Pakistan
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Slovenia
Slovakia
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Tailand
Taiwan
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
Uraguay
Venezuela
Vietnam

Let me know where you are coming from or tell me if I missed your country. I'm glad blogging has brought us together.

Anyway, enjoy your shiny new toaster and your swell oven mitt. May you always have warm toast and cool hands.

You keep visiting. I'll keep bloging. Thanks again,

Guy

Illustration Friday: Sea

Swimmin' wit da fishes.

Painted Steam Guy

I threw some paint on and this was the result. I used gouache. I can't even remember the last time I used gouache. I not really happy with it, but it was good practice. The background is all scumbley and I'm not crazy bout the colors. Oh well, better luck next time.

Waiting for a Call

Here is a little sketch I did while waiting for a phone call. Who knows where this little guy came from. I like him though. I think I may have to paint him some day.

I was asked to teach a illustration class at Brigham Young University. This morning was our first class. Hello new students. I think it will be a fun class. I'll be teaching painting techniques and processes, using gouache. Wish me luck. Better yet, wish the students luck.

Illustration Friday: Flavor

This is the first thing that came to mind. I don't think I'll have time to add color--maybe later. What you see is what you get.

Illustration Friday: Holiday

Well we made it through another Christmas. Happy kids, worn-out parents, gifts, too much food--the works. I thought for this topic I would pick the painting we used for this years Christmas card. I thought it was nice and Christmasy, and because today is also the start of Kwanzaa, I figured this is a nice added bonus. It is an image from Santa's Kwanzaa, a children's book I did last year. See, two holidays with one stone. We don't celebrate Kwanzaa, but I did enough research on it while illustrating the book that I think we could. Here are a few other pictures form the book. My wife actually painted this last one. She sat next to me and I told what to do. I think it turned out pretty good.


I hope everybody is having a wonderful holiday season. Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting my blog. I've been able to meet a lot of great people here and I hope it will continue into the new year.

Snowball Fight

We have all of our Christmas shopping done. Whew! Now I only have a couple projects to finish up before the holidays and then I can relax. Won't that be nice? Anyway, here are a couple quick sketches from today's drawing. Nothing much, but at least it is something.

Illustration Friday: Surprise

Peek-a-boo!

Illustration Friday: Blue

Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox. When thinking about all of the things I could do to illustrate "blue" my mind just kept coming back to these two. I'm not entirely sure if I like it or not, but it was kinda fun to do. Enjoy.

My Studio

I was taking some pictures of the studio for something else, and I thought I would post them so people could see the place where I work. It is a rare look into the lair of a sub-basement dwelling artist. My wife even allows me to leave the lair once a day to get the mail. She thinks the fresh air might be good for me. She's a peach.

Snow Break

The other night I attended a lecture by Mark Buehner. He is a very talented children's book illustrator and he has done some really great books. Some of his more recent books are "Snowmen at Night" and "Snowmen at Christmas". After hearing him speak and seeing his work, I got snowmen on the brain. I went to draw something totally unrelated but instead this came out. Happy holidays!

Flyin' Pig

Just a quick warm-up sketch. Trying to get into the mood to work.

Illustration Friday: Small

I kept thinking about giants when trying to come up with an idea for this weeks IF so, this is what I came up with. Everything is small when it is next to a giant. I was going to do shrunken heads. That would be cool. But, I'll save that for another day.

The Sultan Rides!

Nothing impressive but it is something to post. A very random sketch. When my 7 year old daughter saw it she said I was weird. Success!

Not a cat taco!

Here is a little painting I did today for a friend who owns Bajio. A resturant with the best Mexican food around. I started out just doing another doodle, but it seemed to fit his resturant so, I went ahead and painted it. Another friend of mine,, does paintings for him all the time. He does some amazing stuff. Jim Madsen Anyway, I showed him my sketch and he threw some color on it too. Not bad eh?

Illustration Friday: Strength

I didn't think I'd have time for IF this week, but I started sketching and came up with this. It was a very quick sketch and I added the color here and there while working on another job. I don't know who he is yet. Maybe Overdeveloped Upper-body Man...I dunno. Any ideas? Those bags of chip can be hard for anyone to open.