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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 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.

I dunno. I did this last week but never finished/posted it. These peas are identical LOOKING, but not so identical when it comes to personalities.

Below is Illustration For Kids‘ latest postcard promo! (I put it in a vertical format for better sizing on the the blog.) Please have a visit at our group website and check out the individual illustrator websites, blogs, FB, Twitter pages, etc. Thanks!

I forgot about this until it came in the mail yesterday. It’s the August 2012 cover for High Five magazine. Lots of great stories, poems, games (and illustrations to accompany them!) inside. Thanks so much, Highlight for Children folks! You rock! (I think I’m getting to old to say “You rock!”, but, hey…They do!)

We all had a favorite teacher, yes? They did really neat, cool things that we remember well after our school days. My most “cool” teacher was when I was in third grade. He taught us to knit, make bread, sprechen Deutsch (as well as sing Bach Fugues in German!), tumble, and make lye soap. And that’s also the first time I did a comic strip–and fell in love with cartooning. His name wasn’t Mr. McCool, but it may as well have been.

Having taught classroom myself for a number of years, I know how hard the job is. So godspeed to all you teachers out there, prepping for the new year!

Time to post some samples! Below is some (fairly) recent work that’s been published. This is a game kids can play by cutting out the squares and making unique stories (see sample, below, that demos how). Looks to be fun, really! I’ve done several Silly Story Cards and find them quite fun to illustrate. Thanks, Chirp!

During a walk by the water yesterday, I stopped to watch the various birds search for their evening grub. A tall, slim heron, was idling along in the shallow waters on his own, while nearby were ducks and gulls in pairs or groups. And the ducks and gulls were often intermingled with each other. So I imagined what the plight of this heron would be if he were to join in.  He would certainly have some struggles to interact, as he towered at least a foot above the other birds. And so I figured it might be a lonely experience, to be in the midst of a group where you towered over everyone else.

Just a little guy I’m working on for something.

Though I grew up in a beach town, I’m not that much of a beach person. On a hot summer day, though, I can see it’s attraction!

I had to do something on LOST for this Illustration Friday. It goes along with this posting I did back in 2010, before LOST was over. Whether you loved or hated the ending, it was still quite a show.

I’m working on a couple of dog-themed illustrations lately and thought I’d carry it on over to Illustration Friday. This week’s topic is “suspend”. I liked the idea of doggy acrobats.

I’m trying to do some warm up drawings and messing with different styles and brushes, papers, etc.

This is a simple line-art drawing, digitally drawn, without working off a rough. I used Painter 11, with the paper set so it has some tooth. When I use a pencil, I usually use the “grainy cover pencil”, which will cover any colors used underneath the it’s layer, as well as pick up on the grainy texture of the paper. If you work digitally, you know you can control the amount of grain with some of your tools. Painter’s digital watercolors are underneath the line work. I like to use them quick and fast. I don’t like things to look tight, so I’m fighting that ALL the time when I work. And finally, I will sometimes double up the line work and/or color layers, depending on how bold I want things to be. In this case, I went for bold.

“Refresh” is the word prompt for Illustration Friday this week. I drew a quick one. It’s a good time of year to watch birds doing a little sun bathing, yes? Playing/sitting/standing in/sitting next to/etc. water is always refreshing to me.

Illustration Friday got a face lift this week! (It looks great, Penelope!) Check it out–along with all the other creative entries. And don’t forget to enter an illustration yourself. It’s fun!