Illustration Friday: Tales and Legends

The tale of the little mersquid is a less known among bipeds, but it kills with undersea children.

I did the sketch for this piece earlier this month and I liked it enough that I thought I should paint it, if I ever found the time. So, yesterday I needed to do a painting demo for my class and I thought Miss Squid would be perfect. It worked up pretty nicely, especially when you have a bunch of students watching over your shoulder. Talk about pressure. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. Enjoy.

Another cowboy

A little sepia cowboy for your viewing pleasure.

Illustration Friday: Plain

A plain ole cowboy out on the plains. This was a very quick demo that I did for my class today. Pen sketch with ink wash.

two girls

Here are a few recent doodles. On the second one I only used orange and green. Kind of different, but fun to do.

Green Girl

Beats me. Sometimes I have no idea where a sketch will take me. I didn't plan on drawing this, but it just what came out of the pencil. Who am I to argue with...me? A least it is something new for this week.

Mersquid

Here is a little warm up sketch that kinda got out of hand. Might need to paint this one.

First post of 08

Well, here is a little sketch painting to kick of the new year. Thanks to everybody who stops by here. Hope you all have a great year.

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.