Christmas Candies

I thought these were gossip worthy considering how much time and effort was put into making them. My mom made almost everything I just helped with the cookies and other little things. We made mint chocolate almond bark, peppermint bark, cookies and cream fudge, peanut butter fudge, chocolate cherry fudge, peanut butter brickle, ginger bread men, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, and white chocolate tree's. As far as my art work goes expect another red ridinghood painting soon and maybe a gingerbread illustration.

Final #2

This is the final piece being shown in my book dummy. This is also a submission to Illustration Friday (to sink back in a chair). After twelve tries on the face I don't think I'll ever be able to look at this painting ever again. I thought of making another but with the amount of time left I'm not sure if that's possible. I still have about half the book to draw out and finish before new years. Lets hope I make my personal deadlines to avoid last minute craziness.

Final #1

So this is one of the two paintings. It took a day longer then planned because i used cheap watercolor paper and basically half of the first layer of paper was peeled off when I masked it. I fixed it by gluing it back together with gesso and lucky for me it looks better with the mistake. Sadly i don't think i'll be able to use my original wolf with this one. They both came out with different personality's and they are three years apart so looks like its time for a new wolf. Enjoy.

Red Roughs

These drawings are the foundations for my next two and final paintings for my book dummy of red riding hood. If I have extra time I will go back and create another painting since the composition is similar between these two (will see). Both were done in 4h so I tried my best to touch them up in Photoshop so you get the idea.

A Winter Update

After a mini vacation this past weekend I am starting to feel my art motivation return. I did try to finish this painting for a They Draw And Cook competition but I just didn't have the time to get it in by midnight yesterday. I did submit it for their website but its not the greatest (A little too rushed). For the next two months expect me to post every 3-4 days. This is the month I'll be trying to finish my portfolio and website and have everything ready for the conference in January.

Sketchs

These are just a few random sketch's I've done for the scbwi magazine that never got in or were put on a waiting list. Will see what happens with these.

Tomie Depaola Competition

First off let me say that I have never been a fan of chicken little. Receiving this opportunity to apply to a SCBWI conference scholarship was more then appreciated but the assignment was a very tough Challenge. To enter you have to illustrate a paragraph from Chicken Little. This assignment brought up two things Ive been avoiding. A large detailed scene and a composition with more then two characters. I suppose this was great practice and possibly a very good portfolio piece. I would love any critiques/ opinions on my final piece. Along with the final I have my rough sketch (slightly different. Loosey Goosey gave me lots of problems) and a photo of some of my researching. Remember that the library is always your best friend. I ordered over seventeen chicken little books and took photos of my favorite spreads for comparison.

Silent

Silently plotting dinner.

Tyler's Halloween

This was a project I finished a while ago for my cousins baby shower. I couldn't finish it in time and it took a while to get to her so that's why I waited so long to post any art from it. I'm still unsure if any of it will be in my portfolio for the conference. I'm only allowed one book dummy and my red riding hood is looking pretty good. More to come soon!

Scary Recipe

Yet Another small project that turned into an Illustration Friday as well as a new recipe for TheyDrawAndCook. This is a Halloween cake I have made every year since I was a kid. Its delicious, cute, and very fun to make.

Fuel

Another piece for illustration Friday. Ants need food fuel to be strong. I'll really try to keep on top of these for the next month or so. They really are great practice.

Scattered

After checking Illustration Friday in the first time forever I have discovered a recent card I made fits the word perfectly. I made a birthday card with bugs scattered over a cupcake. I do plan to make a series of different types of cards in the future for my portfolio. So far I have two really nice birthday cards and one thank you. I would like to get a thanksgiving and Christmas card in along with a birthday invitation for my niece. Oh, and if I haven't been obnoxious enough forgive me for saying join my blog once more. I love followers and comments are always appreciated.

It begins

So tomorrow is the big day for conference sign ups and the list of things to do is never ending. I can't post a lot of my projects for a while so this is just an update with how things are going. First off I recently got a dry erase board calender so I can see the amount of work I need to do on a daily basis. Its also a cute little display of things I have collected. And yes coupons too, I love American Eagle jeans.

Secondly, my mom brought home a giant box of art supplies someone at work left and didn't want. She took the several boxes of oil paints and over fifty brushes while I received three acrylic box's, two different types of water color box's (tubed), liquid acrylic metallic paint, tiger pencils, gauche/watercolor paper, and a slew of tiny brushes in a cute ceramic mug. These things could not have come at a better time. Lastly I try to read as much as possible when I have the time. One book really helped me overcome procrastination. It's called Art & Fear. I highly recommend it to those of you stuck in an art funk.

Another Portrait

Here's a small project I did for a friend. I enjoy the sketch the finished makes me cranky. No more requests from here on out...The rest of my posts will be revolving around the scbwi winter conference. Lot's to do and very little time. For now enjoy.

Space Part 2 of 3

So this is part two of my space series for my cousins soon to be son. The first was a mural for the nursery and this is the card for her baby shower. There will be a part three to this series but I'm not letting anyone know about it until mid October. It's a surprise!

Macaroni Monster

This is my submission for the new TheyDrawAndCook competition. I love mac and cheese with a hot chai but for the kids I replaced it with chocolate milk. I really like these little projects for the time and size restraint. It helps me procrastinate less and experiment more with page layouts and type.

Celebrity Portraits

So I was going to wait to post these until my website was up and running but I couldn't help myself! The first one is John Stewart from the daily show and then Florence.

Finished Space mural

A while back I put up thumbs for a possible mural for my cousins new baby. I finally got around to painting it and did it all in one shot. I really love it, the entire nursery is filled with adorable robots/space things. I also thought it was cute that a handful of my family helped me paint the stars. Tyler better love it!

If Perennial

So I thought for illustration Friday it would be cute to show my weekend with friends. Visits have always been a reoccurring thing. Also the panda's are a card I created for my friend's birthday which is also perennial! I'll put pics of it folded and printed soon!

Map

After days of rushing around and last minute painting I finally finished my submission for TheyDrawAnd Travel. Instead of putting the actual map of my favorite town I thought it would be cute to create photos of my favorite places. I hope you all enjoy it as I spend the rest of the weak on the beach.

Sketch

So here's another sketch for the book I'm remaking. I do have more but There's still things I need to fix. I will post again in the next day or two.

Sunday Post

Starting every Sunday I'll being posting new things. I decided it would help me get threw projects I'm working on by having more of a deadline. Also I would really like to keep my blog up, it's a great source of motivation. Here's the first two sketches of my remake of red riding hood. I had a great photo shoot so I should be getting them done in the next few weeks rather fast. Text wont be added until the very end. The finished pieces will all be on my new website which is also in the process at the moment.

Cindy

I thought I should update my blog while finishing up some really amazing pieces. So I made this for my fellow illustrator/friend Cindy for her birthday. Portraits are great practice before a big project!

Snow White

After much pain and anguish I have finished this fairly large collage. It taunted me for days and when I finished I had to scan it five times and piece it together. Overall it came out ok. After watching how to train your dragon a friend and me decided snow white needed a dragon. To see a larger image go to my website. (My new one will come soon!)

New and Old

I have been pretty busy lately with work redesigning everything that advertises me. But I have been more lazy then usual when getting myself to illustrate. Hopefully a daily list of things to do will help me achieve my goals every week. This project was inspired when I found old magazines and paintings. I was always told to never throw art work away but I really don't see the point in keeping things I hate that take up space. So I'm using all my old work to collage some very amazing new things. Collages will be posted in the next week or so.