A slight re-working of an old illustration. I dropped the temperature on the thermometer and added his breath-cloud. Or whatever that’s called.

Don’t go out, little squirrel!

Hi everybody! I have a few things that are out in print this month so I wanted to get them up on the blog.

First up is a spread I did for the Jan-Feb ’13 issue of Chirp magazine. This was a lot of fun to assemble and figure out, to have characters applying and wearing body paint. I learned a lot about the art form just doing research. Some samples of the spread are below. Thank you, Owlkids, for the fun project!

Closer…

Closer again.

A tad bit late but, hey. : )

My contribution to this week’s Illustration Friday prompt, “Glow”. The coloring is messy and ugly, but the idea was fun to try and pull off quickly.

A reworking of an image/card from two years ago. This one is on my December promo postcard. Sure is a lot of fun to change this up from time to time and add new angels and animals, etc. My personal favorites are the dog-angel, cat-angel and mouse-angel!

This is the final iteration of a piece I did for Illustration Friday a few weeks back, using the word-prompt “tree”. It went from a boy and dog in a tree, kids in a tree, SNOWmen in a tree, and now back to the first idea. And when I thought THAT was done, I added the boxes, bulbs, and ribbons. I think it’s finished. I have not had the urge to fix or change anything. A good sign! And now I’m using it for one of my Christmas cards this year. Merry Christmas!

Not feeling all that able to draw today. This is kind of what it looks like outside presently, minus the fox.

A very apt Illustration Friday prompt for this week, as the snow begins to fall. Below if my contribution. Check out the others by clicking on the link above!

My warm-up drawing for the day turned into a cookbook cover. I consider it a rough, mock-up. I could tweak, change and alter this thing forever, if I let myself.

…And now I think I need my own cookie fix… : )

An  illustration for Illustration Friday’s word prompt, “Stretch”. These guys are playing some sort snowman’s version of Badminton, me thinks.

This might be kind of out of my style, but I was experimenting with the watercolor brushes primarily and just let it evolve.

I worked up several different ideas for this Illustration Friday prompt, but finally just decided to do a quick character study-sketch of a cute rat. I like playing with the sloppy digital brushes, too.

For Illustration Friday…Two spot illustrations, here. I wanted to just play around with the line, colorizing, lettering and layout. Not sure what stories these might tell, if any.

Here’s another coloring page for kids to color…Yes, while you baste that turkey, make that stuffing/dressing, or need your class to do a few minutes of “busy work”! Please click on the image for a downloadable pdf to print out.

May you all have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Messing around and loosening up the ol’…self.

My contribution to Illustration Friday. The word-prompt this week is “Tree”.

Jokes for kids are a treat to illustrate. Here are some I did recently for a publication. The challenge is take the riddle/joke and interpret the punch line.

Below: The joke at the top of the illustration isn’t the one that goes along with the drawing. The actual joke is: “What is a fish’s favorite treat?”

The answer: “Gummy worms”. Heh.

Below: And I just wanted to play around with one of the fish above, so isolated him, changed his eyes up and simplified the background. He-llo, fishy!

This is a fun little illustration project I completed a while back that is now in print…

I hope a couple of people enjoy receiving this someday. My guess is that they will be more enamored with any money that is inside. I know I would be.

This was a fun job to work on. But then, they ALL are! I went light on the pen line on this.

For Click magazine.     (c) Carus

Hi all…Love can be a haunting experience sometimes, eh?

I’m making my Illustration Friday posting for this week into a free Halloween greeting card. I guess this also has a “romantic” theme to it, as it’s entitled “Monster Love”. I’m sure, though, that it will work across the board for a broad-range of Halloween occasion you might have.

Just click on the image below for a pdf version to download and print out. Enjoy!

Here’s a little something to keep the kids busy while you bake those delicious Halloween treats. Please click on the image below for a downloadable version. Have a Happy Halloween!

Illustration Friday’s are a good opportunity to experiment with style as well as mediums.

Above: Jesus walks on water. Though I don’t think the passages denote it to be a nice, balmy day, as is depicted here. He looks more at play!