Poster for Martian Horses

Martian Horses will be playing on Friday, February 4th!

please click to enlarge poster for show details

This was a really fun poster design. I busted out my exacto knife and did some serious paper cutting.

swirly smoke

teeny tiny bug parts!

two down, just a few more to go...

phew!

I painted the paper with acrylic paint
and wrote some of Jimmy's lyrics on top.

more bugs in the clouds of smoke...

Andy and I stamped the printed posters with the Martian Horses logo, and here they are drying.

Hope you can make it to the show. It's going to be a good one. =)

Kiwi Collage

Introducing... Kai the Kiwi!

(To view the study, sculpture, drawing, and vector graphic for this portrait, please view a previous post.)

Kai the Kiwi

I almost gave up on this one, because I didn't like the drawing I initially did. I sat on it for months!

In a way, it was a good break from the book project, and I was able to focus on some other interesting artwork. I feel refreshed from the break and am excited to be back at it.

lesson - If I'm unhappy with a piece, sometimes it's best to take a step back and find a new approach.
discovery - white outlines on the animal is an interesting look that works well for night scenes!
challenge - choose an animal based on an interesting behavior, and illustrate that behavior.

In the end, I think it turned out to be my first successful night-time portrait! I feel good about meeting that challenge.

Happy New Desk!

There's nothing like ringing in the new year with a visit to IKEA. Thanks to my new VIKA BYSKE. I now have enough table space in my studio to sew, draw, and much more!

I love my VIKA BYSKE

working on Kai

I also mounted samples of all my fabrics and organized them by color. It's already helping me choose better gradients for light and shadow in the portraits.

Happy New Year!

Change of Plan

After much thought, I've decided to make some major changes with regards to my book. Due to some issues I was having, I will no longer be doing an alphabet book, but a trilogy of animal books. Each book will have 15-16 portraits (instead of the whopping 26.)

click to enlarge and read the details

The first book will be entitled Animals on Land which will include most of the portraits I've done so far:

Byron the Bullfrog
Fae the Fox
Ira the Ibex
Jamal the Jaguar
Kai the Kiwi
Lauren the Loris
Quinn the Quail

Talia the Turtle will be in the second book, entitled Animals under Water.

One of the main benefits of this decision is that each book and its respective exhibition will have a cohesive environment, which will hopefully draw the audience deeper into the atmospheres I create.

Another perk of this change is that I can now work on any animal that inspires me! I don't have to worry about what letter it's name starts with anymore. So, please do keep sending suggestions of your favorite animals. Pretty much anything goes!

After all three books are done, I may still put together an alphabet book. I'll even have the option of re-using some of the 45 animal characters that I will have already created.

I feel good about this new direction. Things are making more sense to me now, and I feel a new excitement about this project!

Kai the Kiwi

After a long break, I'm finally back to work on my book. Here is my work so far on Kai the Kiwi. Hope you enjoy!

the study

the sculpture

the drawing

the vector graphic