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I’ve been experimenting with my digital style to make it more painterly and yet retain the flat color that I like so much. This first piece of new art is an example of that experiment and works for the CBIG blog prompt this month (outside) and the Illustration Friday prompt for this week (atmosphere). Instead of raining cats and dogs, it’s raining on the cats and dogs!

Dogs and Cats and Umbrellas

The other new piece of art I have is a drawing of a lantern fish that I did for Ripple. It sold before I could post it here, but I still wanted to share the drawing because it works for the WaWe oceans prompt. Plus, it cracks me up. Hope it gives you a laugh too!

Fishy With A Built In Flashlight

The third piece of new art you may have noticed already. I have a new avatar because my hair is all chopped off. It will grow back (eventually) right? What happened was that I got a really bad haircut, which I tried to grow out for two months. Then I went to MN and asked a friend of mine that’s a hairstylist if she could fix it. She said no, so she chopped it all off and I’m starting over. The new avatar will be around until I have more hair again (I’m guessing 6 months, or maybe 9 … or 12). Eep!

Updates and new plans: A while back I announced that I was taking a break from Twitter, Facebook and the BlueBoards. The break was supposed to be for four months. Shortly after my update for the first month I had to answer a message on Facebook (for a commitment I’d previously agreed to). Since I was going on to Facebook, I also decided to visit Twitter and the BlueBoards. It was really hard to tear myself away again. For me, a month wasn’t long enough. After two months, I was cruising along, getting work done and blogging. Now it’s three months later and for me, three months is enough. I miss my friends and the industry news and the fun of hanging out online. So, I’m going to start (slowly) getting back into things. I might still take a few days off here and there, or a week, or maybe even a month if I have a deadline. That seems like the smart thing to do when I need to work and/or clear my head. However, as important as it was for me to step back and catch my breath, it’s even more important for me to jump back in. It’s more fun, not to mention more inspiring and productive to be surrounded by all the wonderful and creative children’s book people online!

p.s. Now that I’m home again, I’ll be posting notes from the LA conference and a new website design soon!

I’ve combined my abstract painting roots with my current representational style in this painting for the Ripple Blog.

Octopus and Jellyfish

This piece is approximately 4″ x 5″ and painted with acrylics. This piece can be yours for $10. I’ll update this post when it’s listed on the ripple blog (it’s supposed to post on July 8th). ALL PROCEEDS go to one of these two non-profit charities: The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies and The International Bird Rescue Research Center. The buyer donates directly to one of the charities, ensuring that all the money goes to the relief effort. They then send the email confirmation and the art is shipped out to them.

Note: There are still two other images of mine available. Happy Whale (digital print) and Seagulls (acrylic painting).

Happy Whale print / Seagulls painting

The sea birds have set up a satellite location in the country while the Gulf oil spill is being cleaned up. Have you ever seen seagulls, pelicans and chickens all under one roof? Me neither, but here’s how I imagine it would look:

The chicken coop has a few visitors.

The prompt for Illustration Friday this week was “satellite,” and the prompt for the CBIG Blog this month was “country.” I decided to combine the two in a painting for the ripple blog (to help animals affected by the oil spill). Click here for more info or to purchase this painting.

There’s still a whale print and two paintings, seagulls and pelicans, by me for sale from previous weeks.

The prompt for Illustration Friday this week was paisley. I’ve never really been a paisley person, but when I read the word for the week, I thought of a whale illustration I’d done a couple of years ago (probably because I’d just finished some paintings for the ripple project):

Happy Whale

I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to do so I just started working. I made paisley-like swirls and filled the centers with fishies, sea turtles and jellyfish. Then a couple of happy accidents happened and I decided to create 2 paisley whales:

Paisley Whale #1 (Unhappy)

Paisley Whale #2 (Singing)

I’ve decided to donate digital prints of these three images to the ripple project. Click here for more info or to purchase these images. Each print is 3″ x 4″ and sells for $10. ALL PROCEEDS go to one of these two non-profit charities: The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies and The International Bird Rescue Research Center. The buyer donates directly to one of the charities, ensuring that all the money goes to the relief effort. They then send the email confirmation and the art is shipped out to them. The copyright notice is for the web only and won’t be on the prints, but they will be signed.

Note: There are still two paintings from my original series available for purchase here (the seagulls and the pelicans). Both paintings are 2.5″ x 3.5″ and are the actual paintings, not prints.

seagulls and pelicans