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

 

Spider Cover Illustration: Feb. 2013

Digitally Colored Drawing, 2013

(the full image without cropping)

     I couldn't be happier about my cover for the February issue of Spider magazine.  The color and contrast quality along with that wonderful glossy luster had me beaming for a week.  They did a fabulous job with this illustration and matched my colors as well as (if not better than) anything I've had printed before.

 Spider Magazine, February 2013

Here are some of the layers that go into creating the final image.

  

 Shadow Layer

Local Colors

 

Optical Layer 

(glowing flowers, sparkles, etc.)

 

Highlights Layer

The Latest Three Little Worms for High Five Magazine

I'm a little late in posting this but here is the Latest story about the Three Little Worms by David L. Roper.  Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

The Old Man of Dumbree, Ladybug Magazine

     Well Carus publishing did it again.  They blew me out of the water with the handling of a recent illustration.  The Old Man of Dumbree looks great and I hope the photos that I took give you all a sense of how well the printing looks.

The Old Man of Dumbree, Digitally Colored Drawing

     I had a lot of fun interpreting the text of this poem.  I thought the tension between the mischievous mice and the owls sense of propriety would make for a humorous scene.

     Good luck to those mice should the Old Man of Dumbree ever have to excuse himself to the bathroom.

The Old Man of Dumbree

by Edward Lear

There was an old man of Dumbree,

Who taught little owls to drink tea;

For he said, "To eat mice, is not proper or nice,"

That amiable man of Dumbree