Watercolor practice

I may make my next painting a watercolor painting, or I may start with watercolor and then paint over it digitally. I'm a little rusty, so I'm getting some practice in with elements that will be in the painting. Crappy picture, because phone+watercolor+nighttime = bad photo.

Master study finished

Been working on this Howard Pyle master study for a few days in my spare time, I think I'm gonna leave it for a while. There's some unfinished areas, but I'm happy with it. I LOVE the colors in Howard Pyle paintings, it's hard to find those happy accidents when you're working digitally, it's like we have too much control. This is why I've always liked the palette feature in corel painter, I kind of wish photoshop had something like it, it allows for random color mixing, and discovery of new colors.

New kids book spread

Just finished the last spread for my kids book in progress. (not the last spread I will do, but chronologically the last spread of the book) It feels good to get this one done because there were some challenges involved in it. Next up will be a painting based on a scene from Locke Lamora... I THINK. Unless I pick one of my sketches instead. Anyway enjoy. This will be up on my print shops as well.

BABY!

So... I found out what I'm having. It's such a relief to find out honestly, it's natural to pick one or the other and staying neutral is so hard to do for so long and now that it's known I can just KNOW. I decided to announce it with a quick drawing, so enjoy! Also I have to finish my next painting this weekend, and the long doctor's visit has left me tired so this will be a challenge.

More master study progress pics!

I know, it's another one, and it doesn't help that I've been working on this slowly. I'm also doing one of my kids book spreads and I designed a coin for a military friend of mine. It's been a surprisingly productive week considering I also find myself trying to chaperone my son's Battle of the Books team. Crazy life. Good life, but crazy life.

There are actually 3 other designs for the coin but I like this one the most. I don't think he's gonna pick this one though, as it doesn't have many of the images associated with his command.

Perfection

I see a behavioral therapist right now, my hospital provides it free while I'm pregnant and it's been really nice. I got an assignment from her, which was to illustrate my ambition and perfectionism. More specifically the negative aspects of my self inflicted obligations. I liked how it turned out, we'll see what she thinks tomorrow.

New painting!

My goal this year is to do finished illustrations more often, and I finished the first one right after getting back from my trip down south. This one started as a sketch at the playground when I was thinking about change, and pregnancy and the year ahead and staring at tree branches, and this idea came about.

 

This painting will be added to both my Etsy Store and my INPRNT shops.

tree-branches.jpg

Crawfish and Louisiana

Hey guys. I just got back from a trip to my hometown, which I haven't visited in over 10 years. I saw many family members that I hadn't seen face to face in a decade and it was all very wonderful and emotional and an interesting way to start off a new year. I saw the place I lived from birth until about 5 years old (my grandparent's house) and basically soaked myself in memories for 9 straight days. Also my cousin got married.

While there I did a little sketching which you can see on my facebook or twitter but mostly I spent time with people, and ate a lot of crawfish. Almost 5 pounds of crawfish. I love crawfish guys. SO MUCH.

I'm back today so Etsy shipments are back to normal and my print shop is back up and running again and I'm back to doing sketches. Here's today's: 

They're so weird looking, but they taste SO GOOD.