Illustration Friday topic is Snow

This is a piece I did a while ago in oils for a gift bag. My moonlit snowman. We don't get snow where I live now, but to be honest I think I saw enough of it growing up in the midwest to last me, and don't miss it much. It is pretty. I like to look at it in pictures.... I do have fond memories of making snowmen with my sister and brother as kids and of making elaborate trails in the field behind our house and making games using the trails.

Christmas Bags are in Stores!

I was picking up wrapping paper at Dollar Tree this morning and found 4 of my Christmas bags. They did some nice things with the gussets and interiors. I like the google eyes on the reindeer and penguin and 3-d mustache on Santa. Always fun to find things in the store!

Illustration Friday topic is Whiskers

Whiskers is the topic this week. Need I say more?

Over the years the cats that we have shared our home and lives with have kindly submitted to being models for my paintings. This is Amanda who has graced the pages of children's books in both realistic and stylized form.

This is Scotia, who was the sweetest cat that ever lived. All of the other animals loved him too. He had huge paws with extra toes and was the first cat I ever lived with.

This is Reggie. He was one tough cat. He had been the runt of the litter that was abandoned. He ended up being huge around 19 lbs. 

This is Leonardo. We had him from a young kitten. He was incredibly playful and loving.

This is Zoe who was very shy and very sweet. She was a model for this United States Humane Society Holiday Card that was commissioned. I loved doing this piece and was very pleased that it received several design awards.

All of these guys were in the pages of this Golden Book. I thank them all for the joy and warmth that they bestowed. 

Illustration Friday Topic is Tree

Okay, I know I used this image for a previous topic, but it fits the topic tree so well. It did take me quite a while to paint so I figure it gets to be up again.....right? I live in an area full of monumental redwoods. It still awes me that they have been around for so long. If they could talk the stories they could tell. There is a park nearby with a huge grove you can hike through and there are stories of those who came before us that stood beneath these same trees.

Illustration Friday topic is Sky

I thought hmm sky and October. What would work for that? Ah yes a friendly witch flying with her trusty purple bats against a cyan sky. I love doing Halloween images and this one was really fun. I did this painting in oils on board, but recently went into photoshop and added a few touches. Happy Halloween all!

Illustration Friday Topic- Water

For the topic water, I thought I would put up an image that I did inspired from a story from a member of my writer's critique group. The image illustrates one of the dangers in the water for elephant seal pups. I really love the effect that water has on objects. I am also really curious and awed by life in the seas, so this was a joy to paint. It is in oils on board.

Illustration Friday Topic-Mirror

I thought this image would work well for the topic Mirror for this week. This is one of the Two Can Art images that I have been working on. For those who don't know Two Can Art is a collection of work that is a collaboration between my son, Noah who is autistic and myself. Noah paints all of the textures that I then take and create images. I am really loving working with the textures. Our next project is to create papers together. I just built a screen for it, so I am looking forward to what kinds of new textures will come from that. It will be fun to mix them with some of the painted textures.

Illustration Friday topic is Book

Well here's an opportunity for shamelessly showing my book covers for animals MUST BE and Friends, Amanda and Max. Both are e-books. These projects were a labor of love. Amanda and Max actually got made into 3-d characters for Christmas last year by a company. Which was really cool when I got these gigantic boxes with them in it. The Amanda and Max book is in watercolor and the animals Must Be is all done in oils.

60th Anniversary for Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

Simon and Schuster is having a competition for a new cover for Ray Bradbury's book Fahrenheit 451. It is celebrating it's 60th edition. He wrote one of my all time favorite books. Dandelion Wine and I felt compelled to enter. Here is my submission.

Illustration Friday topic is Identical.

I found identical an interesting idea for a topic. Even when things are close in look that are rarely identical. I found these beautiful onions at the farmers market and HAD to paint them. This is oils on canvas.

Cutting Board Samples Have Arrived

The samples for the cutting boards I licensed art for came today. I think they came out nice. It's always fun to open boxes with product with your artwork on it. Christmas in August!                                                                             

Illustration Friday Topic- Tall

I think the first thing I think of for the topic tall is one of my favorite animals, giraffes. This painting is one of the images from the e-book animals MUST BE. The painting was done in oils on board. I love painting animals and this one was really fun to paint.

Illustration Friday Topic-Freeze

This is an image from the Two Can Art collection of work. The collection is a collaboration between myself and my son, Noah who is autistic. Noah paints all of the textures and I fuse them with design.
I thought this bear image would be a good fit for the topic Freeze in that it is clearly a winter day and also if I ran into this guy I would probably freeze as well.

Illustration Friday Topic- Lonely

I really enjoyed painting this young man. He is really a sweet teen. I have a friend with a teen age boy and I was looking for teen agers for reference. She showed up with around a dozen. It was actually really great and I got a lot of great reference material. I think it fits the topic nicely since I went really cool with a lot of the coloration. This is oil on board.

Illustration Friday Topic- Carry

I did this painting a couple of years ago for a picture book that I wrote. The painting is done in oils on board. I thought it fit the topic carry nicely.

Illustrator Friday Topic- Suspend

I have been practicing painting in photoshop and have been reworking this image that was originally painted. I still have quite a bit to do on it, but it's been interesting. I have moved to some other photoshop painted images from scratch too. Thought I'd just show how far I got on this rework.

Illustration Friday- Topic Refresh

When I think of refresh I think of cold lemonade and watermelon on a warm day. Although it is warm here it is nothing like what many others are coping with. I wish cooler refreshing times ahead for all of you.
This image is watercolor on board.

Illustration Friday topic- Space

I did this a while ago as a cover for a picture book that I wrote. I still need to go back and edit the story, but I did a couple of images as paintings for it. I look at it now and think I may go back into the painting a do a little more work on it too.

Illustration Friday Topic-Secret

This Secret Santa painting has been very good to me. It has been licensed for gift bags, cards, flags, mailbox covers and needlepoint. It's oils on board. I like painting people a lot and Santa is a great character to do. I have done quite a few of them.

Neil Gaiman-Inspirational For All Those In The Arts!

Just listened to this and found it really interesting. Thought others would like to see it as well. I really like his books a lot. Hope we are all out there making "Good Art"

Illustration Friday Topic-Shiny

This weeks topic is shiny and I thought I'd put up this image that I did of shiny green apples with the sun shining on the shiny apples and the shiny green container. It's oils on canvas and I was working on painting reflections and light. It was an exercise for me to push myself.

Samples are Here!

I just got some samples from my licensing agent of the coasters/tiles that some of my images are on. I also got a sample of one of the cards that was recently licensed. I do love getting samples.

Illustration friday topic-Hurry

This is a painting I did in oils on canvas that I thought fit the topic hurry. He does look like he's hurrying.....
This image does well as a giclee print. It's a favorite when I hang art locally in the Santa Cruz area. I feel really lucky to live in an area where people really like and support art.

I've been so busy getting new art together for the Surtex licensing show that I haven't posted for a few weeks. Nice to get back in the saddle.

Illustration Friday topic-Jump

This is an image I did for a story I wrote a while back. I thought it fit the topic jump well. There is nothing like a dog to make a jump look joyful!

Illustration Friday Topic-Heights

I thought this image fit the topic heights well. One of the first things I think of from where I live is the great redwood trees. There is a beautiful park near us (Cowell Park) with an abundance of them. This tree is from another park just down the road. This painting is done in oils on board.

Mountain Art Center

My friend Lisa teaches art to kids at the Mountain Art Center here in Ben Lomond. I Stopped in today and took a few pictures of the kids creating. Lisa comes up with some really fun projects to get young minds creating.

Illustration Friday Topic-Vocal

This seemed an appropriate image for the topic Vocal. This is oils on illustration board. Everyone knows how vocal little lungs can be. (Especially this babe's big sister)

Illustration Friday Topic-Return

There is nothing as wonderful as the return of a good friend. This image is oils on gessoed board.

They Draw and Cook Kraft Contest.

The fun Blog They Draw and Cook http://www.theydrawandcook.com/

had a contest with Kraft recently. You picked from the recipe list provided and illustrated the recipe. It was really fun. I thought it was a good chance to work on some of my digital illustration which I started doing more of. Here were my entries.