Feral Boy

This is a cover for a book I recently finished painting.  My son Cole did some modeling for me in a white button-up shirt holding a broomstick.  I'm happy with the way it turned out, though I think Cole is disappointed that I didn't turn him into Darth Maul.

Lady Atwell

Yet another interior book illustration, this one, of the ever-elegant Lady Atwell. I’m not sure if she is a real person or not but she is described as a pretty classy gal in the book. Anyway, I like how it turned out so I thought I would post it. Some day I would like to post something that is not work related but until then I am just glad to have a job that allows me to draw and paint all day.

The Innards

I have been terribly unproductive over the last few months, in terms of my personal creative work, so I thought I could at least post some more book illustrations for anyone that is interested. My last two posts were cover illustrations for two books I have been working on and these twelve are the inside (chapter illustrations) for one of those books (the one with the kid, a horse, and the battle at the Alamo).

What color was George Washington's white horse? Brown.

This is another book cover that I was working on at the same time as the last one I posted.  Though, this one took a bit longer because I got carried away making the horse look as realistic as possible and then I had to do that with the rest of the illustration so that it would all look stylistically unified.  Anyway, it is for a Virginia historical fiction and the chap on the horse is supposed to be a young George Washington.  The guy in the background is a mystery but you'll have to read the book to find out who he is.  For that matter, I will have to read it too because I don't really know anything about the books that I am illustrating.

Book Cover

I work full-time as an in-house illustrator for publishing company in Pleasant Grove called American Legacy Publishing. That's right, I get paid to draw and paint all day! Right now I am working on a series of books and this is an example of one of the covers. I created it from start to finish using Photoshop. It presented me with a lot of challenges but I'm happy with how it turned out. I had intended to deliberately avoid posting any work done at my job because I wanted my blog to motivate me to do my own creative work on the side. However, lately I have been doing a lot of extra work from home and I didn't want to go too long before posting something new. So hopefully I will soon find some time to do more of my own stuff because if I don't you can expect to see more examples of what I am doing from 9 to 5 every day.

Ode to Penny Fathrington

On the surface, this may seem visually complex. But in actuality, it is the simple expression of my exalted emotions regarding one Penny Fathrington. He is at once mysterious and comfortingly familiar. With a sticky hand full of moist ribbon candy he has warmed hearts, healed homes, and reintroduced the famed Hogzilla into his natural habitat (the farmer’s market). Thankfully Penny’s angelic stories have begun to make their way from the original aging parchment and leather pelt pages to the digital realm of the blogosphere. And you can now enjoy them by clicking here!

In The Beginning

Starting a blog was my only goal for 2008 which is nice because I won't have to do anything for the rest of the year! My intentions for having a blog can be best summed up by the artist Henri Matisse who once said, "The artist has but one idea. He is born with it and spends a lifetime developing it and making it breathe...and I move along the course of the picture's creation, pushed by an idea that I come to know only gradually as it develops." I have always hung on to that quote because I feel like it really illustrates the way I feel about my work. In me, there is this constant hunger to create something and all of my sketches, drawings and paintings feel like attempts at capturing what exactly that 'something' is. Anyway, I just thought a blog would be a great way to keep me developing my personal work and sort of record the evolution in the process. I sort of feel like Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams trying to figure out what I am supposed to build and I imagine you looking at my work with the same confused looks his neighbors displayed when he started mowing down his corn field.

These are a few pages from my sketchbook that show my "style of the month." The contrast between tight/refined drawing and a loose uncontrolled line really interests me. I enjoy the thrill of potentially destroying a drawing in an attempt to infuse life into it.