Ladybug Cover, The Jolly Rover, Rocket Trip, & Bubble Band

Lady Bug Cover Sept. 2016,  Digitally Colored Drawing

The Jolly Rover,  Digitally Colored Drawing

 

Rocket Trip, Digitally Colored Drawing

Bubble Band, Digitally Colored Drawing

Ladybug Magazine: Plane Tracks

Here's another for Lady Bug Magazine.  They have to be one of my favorite magazine's to work for.  Everything I've done for them ends up in my Portfolio!  I had a lot of fun illustrating Carrie Finisons Poem.  Enjoy,

Plane Tracks, Digitally Colored Drawing

I'm Back in the Studio with The Boxcar Children and more

Holy cow, it's been a long time hasn't it?  Well I hope you can all be a bit understanding.  Without going into too many terrible details, just know that my wife became ill a couple years ago and I had to take some time off from illustration.  You see, most of my bills are paid by teaching and with two young boys to look after, a sick wife, and two full time jobs... something had a to be set aside.  At least until the health issues were resolved.  So I took some time off from illustration.

Well, I am happy to say that she is much better now (and very grateful) and I'm back in the studio.
Here are some projects that I finished just before taking the time off.

The Boxcar Children: The Mystery of the Wild West Bandit

The Boxcar Children: The Mystery of the Wild West Bandit

 I can't tell you how exiting it was to get this gig.  My boys had been reading the original series with their Mother when I was offered this job.  They were really impressed when I told them I was going to be the new illustrator for the Boxcar Children books!  It was one of the most rewarding moments I've had since getting into the business.  Anthony VanArdsdale is currently illustrating the covers for the series, you can check his work out here.

The Boxcar Children: The Mystery of the Missing Pop Idol

The Boxcar Children: The Mystery of the Missing Dinosaur Bones

The Boxcar Children: Soccer Tournament Trouble

The Boxcar Children: The Mystery of the Grinning Gargoyle

Ladybug Cover

      My first published illustration with dinosaurs!  I don't know of too many illustrators that wouldn't get exited by a dinosaur themed assignment.  There's so much room for interpretation and invention with this subject matter.
      The publishers were very interested in a cowboy with dinosaurs concept, which I was reluctant to do (I really wanted to do something with flying dinosaurs).  After my first sketch was rejected  (Pteranadon's First Flight) they asked for several very rough ideas including the cowboy & dinos concept. I finally took the hint. Yet I decided that if I was going to do a cowboy, he would be riding a pterondadon; the result was Dinosaur Roundup.  
 

Rejected Sketch: Pteranadon's First Flight

Concept Sketches

     The most challenging aspect of this illustration was determining which species would comprise the herding beasts.  I was originally going to go for something more iconic like a triceratops but I thought they were so bulky it would crowd out the negative space that I wanted to use to to show more of the herd.  So I settled on the Parasaurolophus which I took many liberties with.  Mostly I just tried to make it as cow like as possible by rounding out the features and giving them cow spots.  I'm fairly happy with the results and Carus Publishing did wonderful work with cover layout and color matching.  

Enjoy.

Dinosaur Roundup, Digitally Colored Drawing

My First Hidden Picture: The Wisest Bird

 

The Wisest Bird, Digitally Colored Drawing

 

The Wisest Bird, Detail 1

 

 The Wisest Bird, Detail 2 

Find it in the latest issue of Highlights High Five magazine (Jan 2014).

 

Oil Paint, Ahhh

 

Murky Waters, Oil on Canvas

Murky Waters, Detail

 

Murky Waters; Underpainting 

It has been too long since I have done anything in oil paint.  Working on this piece for a local fundraising event was like visiting and old friend.  

Enjoy.

Sketches For the Stuffers Project