Soap Bottle

hello everybody!

i finished another little project recently - friend of mine wanted a soap bottle decorated. i don't have much experience painting glass (much less glass objects that will have frequent contact with water) but after getting advice from a pro i was able to paint and bake this:


the friend i painted it for used to live in the netherlands, so i went with a delft blue theme







anyway that's all - next project: getting read to go to china!!!!

hello friends!

my apologies for another delayed entry, although i suppose that is to be expected with this blog....

anyway i went to chicago recently to attend my sister's graduation and help her move back home! congratulations sister! of course while i was there i had to take advantage of the opportunity to visit the wade center (brief recap: the wade center is a research center/library/museum at wheaton college that celebrates 7 british authors including j.r.r tolkien and c.s. lewis, and my eustace painting was displayed in an exhibit this past semester)

to get there i had to go through a magical wardrobe.... (on a side note, this is the very wardrobe that inspired c.s. lewis ooOOOOoooo)




found the wade center! look how cute it is :P




checking out the area by the lamppost à la lucy pevensie




and last but not least, the painting:




it was quite an adventure :) up next: painted soap bottle, stay tuned..........

greetings friends~

i'm back....surprise!!!! once again i apologize for dropping off the face of the planet. the fact is i haven't been drawing much lately (or actually i've been doing drawings of a different kind - using autocad to make diagrams for patents). unfortunately i've had to put the illustrating on hold for a bit - at least until the author finds a publisher - there have been some complications there. in the meantime i'm doing odd jobs (need a chinese tutor, anyone?) and trying to save up money. my hope is to go back to china this summer, and.....it's official, i will be attending a&m starting this fall to get my masters in visualization! for those who look at that and still have no idea what i will be studying, i will be working with digital media to create art (including computer animation and such). i'm excited but kind of nervous at the prospect of starting school again. we'll see how it goes!

on a side note - i will be turning in my updated eustace painting (which has been printed on gorgeous brushed aluminum btw) this weekend. it's not for anything prestigious - i'm just entering it in an exhibit called "new life in christ" at my church. i thought the scene in "voyage of the dawn treader" where eustace is "reborn" as a human was a perfect, if somewhat graphic, metaphor for that process. it may be a little different from the other entries, but hopefully the viewers will be able to get the message :P

opposites: big and small

"opposites circus"

beginning of the next book :)

FINAL final eustace painting

alright, for your viewing pleasure......



this is it, i'm not going to work on it anymore haha. i finalized aslan's fadeout (he is supposed to fade - makes him feel more otherworldly - plus if i remember correctly he did magically transport to that location in the book). i also changed the surface of the water a bit, and.........i adjusted the boy's skin color. if anyone else tells me it's still too purple i just might cry -_-

just joshin' - but i don't think i will change the skin anymore. i like the way the added orange contrasts with the dragon skin, but i don't want to make him blend too much with the background. so.....there you go :)

3 things.....

1. correction: here is a revised copy of the first image in the story "peep." see the difference? look harder......haha i'm just joshing, i'll tell you - i gave the duck a head and a second leg. my original idea had been for the duck to be sleeping on one leg (which they do) with its head under its wing, but apparently it didn't translate too well. so now it's fixed, and to use a quote from a friend it doesn't look like "half a duck" anymore



2. i drew this while subbing (don't worry, it was an art class and the students were all peacefully working on their own projects). it's an elephant mouse:



and 3. it's official - my "eustace" painting is going to be displayed in the wade center at wheaton college in chicago! (for more information on the wade center go to http://www.wheaton.edu/wadecenter/) in their own words "The Marion E. Wade Center of Wheaton College, Illinois is a major research collection of materials by and about seven British authors: Owen Barfield, G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, Dorothy L. Sayers, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams." (from this link http://www.wheaton.edu/wadecenter/welcome/welcome.html). i'm told the painting will be placed in a c.s. lewis exhibit in their museum :) so exciting! if any of you are in the area, go check it out! the final version of "updated eustace" to be finished and posted online soon.........