unexpected visitors.

bats! why’d it have to be bat? 

what does it taste like?

a couple more for my “ani-mask” series and a baby cafe.

don’t you hate, when you’re on the road, you end up behind a slow driver? 

what’s on tv?

animal mask series.

the dinos

been playing around and adding some collage to the proceedings…

i had the privilege of contributing a piece celebrating the 50th anniversary of “where the wild things are” by maurice sendak. it was a fun assignment to be a part of and you can view my piece along with the works of a multitude of talented folks here.

my thanks to betsy bird for putting this fun project together. : )

some recent pieces for fun.

jump.

the mac dad will make ya jump, jump

a friend sent me this pic which is linked to the twitter account of art director guiseppe... Read the rest of this post

summer fun time.

today is tuesday, one day after wrapping up another 4 day children's book conference. tired, yes, and a little tough going back to work and dealing with 'the real world', but one has to do what one has to do. it was another great, beautiful conference and i do so enjoy hanging out with friends and a community that i am proud to be a part of. i came away with some good thoughts, some good vibes and a belly full of beer. (we won't get into that last point.)

 but, here are my takeaways from this year.

1) my favorite workshop was by melissa sweet. she gave such good, practical advice both about composition/layout and technique. and did i mention she had handouts? and she gave us a color copy of her color pallette and wheel- of how she mixes colors including a nice tip on how she comes up with her shadow tones. i hadn't thought of it in those terms. this was a good workshop filled with useful information. 

2) (which goes hand in hand with #1 above) the need to sketch more. melissa explains how she does these exercises of drawing in a 3x3 square of just any random objects from life. just something quick. sometimes in color, but just a sketch. in one instance, she did a 3x3 drawing each day for one year. it was pretty amazing and cool to see just a sampling of those drawings laid out one next to another. i've never been much for sketching or doodling. i only did so when i was working on a projecct or a painting for myself. my problem when i sketch, is that i tend to draw in a realistic manner; as i see it. there's nothing wrong with that, but i just don't want to do that. i want to break the rules (of what i see), i want to enlongate, exaggerate and just draw dots for eyes. but since melissa's workshop, i just feel the need to express myself more. so i'm gonna try and sketch something on most days if i can get into the habit. even if it's just in a little 3x3 square. btw- here is a sampling of what i started doing at the conference after taking in melissa's workshop. these are some of the speakers and panelists:

3) how i adopted a pet rock. this little fella comes courtesy of tammi sauer. he (or she, i haven't checked) is part of her promotional campaign for one of her recent books, me want pet. tammi is one of my favorite authors and people in general that i've met thru SCBWI and she has great promotional instincts. cheers to you tam! now excuse me while i take this guy out for a walk. 

4) meeting new people and fostering recent acquaintances (and seeing old friends who have moved out of town) always amazed at the breadth of work that i come across from the new people i meet. but best of all, they're all such nice folks. here's a sampling with links:

bethanie "palisades" murguia, melinda "new mexico" beavers, emily ecton, brian bowes, kat yeh (sorry i threw that balled up napkin at you :), jennifer "trickster" meyer, carter higgins, katy betz (come back from florida) and mike jung. (i met mike at ALA this year. our circle of friends seem to overlap, so it was really nice to grab a moment to chat and talk all things from the lakers to movies and the virtues of emma stone. mike has his debut novel coming out in october, so go look for it. i just started reading my ARC and it's pretty darn good.

 5) we miss you pat. pat cantor is a lovely woman and person. i miss her. she passed away just a few short weeks ago. it's a bit sad to think that i won't get to visit with her at these summer conference. the year i took 2nd place in the portfolio showcase, she took 1st place. since then, i've always felt a link or connection or association to her. she created beautiful pastel art and it's sad to think we won't get to see what she would make next. i hope she is painting a nice mural up in heaven. 

6) three cheers for my friend karyn raz. karyn won one of the coveted mentorship spots, wherein she will work with professionals in the children's book field to help guide her in breaking into the market. so happy for her and i know great things will come from this opportunity.

7) it's all about the ideas. THE IDEA, in all it's forms. from those that are informative to inspirational, but also ideas for stories that are percolating and imagery that are floating around in my head. and even the game plan that i am beginning to formulate as i plot the next step in my artistic journey. 

now, if you'll excuse me, i have some things to do.

today is my niece's birthday (and my mom for that matter- happy birthday, mom!) and i'm planning a trip up to SF to go visit her this weekend. so, being the "cheap" uncle that i am (he said tongue in cheek), i decided to do a little picture of her. i thought it came out well, so i decided to post it here. i hope she'll like it and i hope she doesn't happen to drop by this site before i see her. (she is a rather precocious 7 year old afterall... :)

and a happy new year to you. i'm going to try and do something that i used to do way back when, showcase a painting in progress from start to end.

to paraphrase a line from last year's movie, prometheus- "big things start from small beginnings." 

i had an idea for an image

i wanted to play with the notion of water as the color of the paper and have a few lines showing the ripples in a pond with some bits of reeds sticking up from it. 

from there i was trying to figure out what the narrative could be. i had an image of a fish tipping his hat to a girl or a princess. so i worked on that for a while.

it was all right, but i'd done some princess-y stuff in the past and wanted a new story.

one day i was reading a comic whose story was set in japan and the idea of cherry blossoms falling on water with a girl in a kimono stuck in my head. so with a quick change and adjustment, i began work on this idea.

i was liking this direction. after transferring the image to paper, i began with painting the fish.

next, the girl.

then filling in the rest of the background. at some point, i abandoned the idea of making the water the paper color because it would mean i should paint in the sky to differentiate the two. i dropped in some blue but made it washy.

then back to the top for the finished image. 

in hindsight, i could have broken down the steps further. maybe by layers of paint in one instance. if i try a post like this again, i'll do better. i've always enjoyed seeing how elements develop whether in paint or model making or movie special effects. (yeah, i like watch the behind the scenes stuff on DVDs) so i thought i'd try my hand at some behind the scenes action. 

smile.

fish, fish, fishy, fish, fish.

working on a new personal piece. my, what’s got this pelican all hot and bothered?

reworked website coming soon…i think…fingers crossed.