IF- haunt

I bet ghosts really like to haunt; but I don't think the ones haunted like it very much... 

This is also a self portrait (bet you didn't know I was a ghost!). Happy Halloween!

IF- water

Even though I have several works that are related to water, this is one of my favorite pieces. I would still like to do an original work for the IF prompt (we'll see if I get to it!), but for now I will use this.

IF- Mirror

I thought I would post this for Illustration Friday.

swing a giraffe

I'm sure it's been thought of, but hasn't everything? I think it would be nice to have a purple giraffe to play on. 

I drew this eye while watching a video demo and then decided to paint it. I think it turned out nicely.

I think the guy has a lot of very good and entertaining tutorials. He bases several of them on Andrew Loomis' drawing methods. Here is the video I was watching:

knight

I have been making art, I just haven't been uploading it! I had a lot of fun with this one. I have more that I'll post in a little bit...

This one is super tiny, like two inches tall. I like the original drawing better though...

Go Fish!

My three year old wanted to play Go Fish with my five year old (almost). But he doesn't know his numbers very well yet, so the poker cards were no good. I decided to make them some cards for Go Fish thinking I could do it quickly, but the project ended up taking a bit longer (like all day). First of all, our printer wasn't working very well so I decided I would have fun making stamps and color the prints with colored pencils. 

 Here are the cards before color. I really like my fish!

The stamp for the back of the cards, tested on scrap paper.

All twelve colors.

For some reason my three-year-old took a few bites out of the back stamp. Luckily, he didn't swallow. But still, what the heck, is he a boy or a dog?! It's not like he's teething either-he is three! Anyway, I tried to salvage it by going for a corroded/grunge look.

Finished! (I did end up laminating them later)

And they are a success! Little hands- they had to lay out their cards and have a barrier in between (Battleship style).

map sketchbook

I made this book something like three years ago. I harvested the paper from some beautiful outdated aerial maps that were going to be tossed. I've always loved this book but never been certain what to do with it until recently. I painted these in gouache to get a nice opaque color, sometimes I used colored pencils if I want something more transparent. These are so much fun to do!  Enjoy!

returning to the castle

Last year I was having creative time with my boys and I made this for a fun picture for them to hang in their room. I drew it free hand in pen with only one prior attempt. It was very spontaneous and I think it's so cute and loose with fun little details. It's not perfect but I think that is part of it's charm. I drew one knight for each of my sons. You'll have to click on it to see it very well.

Spectrum 18

I noticed in my original post for this selkie painting I mentioned that I had entered it in contests and had not gotten in. Well it wasn't true, though at the time I thought it was. My selkie was chosen to be included in Spectrum 18 magazine! I was very excited. There are so many amazing artists included in their magazine, I feel like it is a huge honor just to make it in! I didn't share this right when I found out because I wanted to wait until it was available for purchase. They send all the artists a free copy, I was so excited to get mine. It's actually been a month or two since I received it. I just got distracted with life and forgot about posting it.