oh man - the mural was fun, but i definitely lost some of my working with photoshop momentum. sorry this is so late, everyone, i seem to have gotten slower again. the kids are now blonde (request of the author). i'm not sure how i feel about the second image :( but i really need to make progress on the other layouts, so....here are layouts 1 and 2 for now.

the mural is finished!

wooooo here it is! i apologize that there is a head in the corner (i'll photoshop it out soon, but i wanted to go ahead and post what i had) there were little kids running around all over the place. i would have selected a different image - but the angle here really turned out the best. i am no expert photographer *sigh* but the kids were adorable :P

well, i had a friend in town visiting so work was a little slower this week. but here is a possible first layout for the next book - i'm just waiting on the author's approval before i proceed. finish the mural tomorrow! (hopefully)

mural - part 2

wooooo more pictures! and more monkeys - the blonde one is now finished. and there is a girl monkey! (request of the boy's older sister). almost done! but i won't be able to go back and work on it for a week, so expect more book illustrations :P

the mural - part 1

i started the mural i started the mural! i had a lot of fun today getting my hands dirty using real paint again :P my clients wanted the tree painted in the corner bridging both walls, which has proven quite tricky (i think the trunk turned out surprisingly well, but the perspective on the branches....fail) anyway, there will be monkeys, a crab, small island, water... i wish i had a room this cool as a kid.

okay, so here is what's happening:
i'm taking a photoshop break! yayyy time to get away from the computer and do some real painting. i start the mural tomorrow (monkeys and a palm tree on a desert island and stuff) - should take a couple days. i'll post pictures of that when i finish. also, the official count now is 6 books - 3 due in november and 3 due in march. looks like i'll be busy for a little while :) i'm changing up the style a little bit on the next one (or at least adding a real background). the first image is almost complete - i'll post that soon as well.

one down! a million other projects to go! not really, but a fourth book got added, so i'm kind of back to where i started XD not that i'm complaining - i'm always glad for work. anyway, just waiting for final approval by the author for this and then 1 book is done!

one more to go!

one picture left! on this book at least - and this is only one of the short books. i have a potential mural painting job in a nursery. will i have time to finish all of this and make deadlines? stay tuned and see!

time for blue cars! here is "dancing a jig jacob."

hi everybody!
i think i've hit my stride :) i'm not working super fast, but i definitely have a steady rhythm going. here are a few more layouts - going through all the different colors.

here are 1 1/2 more layouts. there will eventually be a boy in the picture with the orange cars. hopefully his smile will be a little less creepy. almost had another illustration job after these three books, but....that didn't pan out. sad day. still, i'm truckin' on with these, truckin' truckin' truckin'.....i'm tired, can you tell?

kitty

well this has nothing to do with anything i'm supposed to be working on, but here is a starving kitty. much more fun to draw than cars :P

it's going slowly but surely....but mostly slowly. cars are not my friend @_@ here's the completed drawing of the character and the second layout with his vehicles. and a special shout-out to a certain friend who gave me an awesome new wacom tablet - you know who you are!