... and the winner is...The Girl Squirrel!

 

 Some selections from The Contest.

  I recently had the pleasure of completing illustrations for a 16 page book for Dinardo Design and Heinemann Publishing.  Naturally I was so pleased to have a hand in a book that shows a girl winning. The boys, Chip and Flip, learn in the end that they were outsmarted by a girl whom they had laughed at as not capable, and vow to let Tulip go first the next time they have a contest. I really had fun with the limited palette and expressions in this animal fantasy fiction. I'm hoping to illustrate more girl-centric stories in the future.
  Can you guess how she carried the most nuts?
 

Nutcase

 Illustrations for the May issue of Highlights last year. They've been squirreled away until now for some odd reason. Sometimes  I'm too busy, other times it's just that thing that artists go through.  Letting time pass before looking at the work again.

 The story is about a squirrel who does not like nuts and is quite embarrassed by the fact that he is different.  He attempts to have a big party so that he can give away his huge stash of nuts without revealing his secret. But he is exposed. All ends well when his girlfriend helps him realize that it's ok to like seeds. The art won an "Illustrator of the Month" award.

Chillin' Moves

  Just completed this illustration for High Five magazine. This was a great visualization to beat the heat. Kelley Cunningham, AD extraordinaire. There are 9 hidden F's in the scene. If you can find them, you win a popsicle and a free dance lesson at Thaw Paw Studios. 

SNUG in a SNAG

   I thought I was a nature lover; but the only kind of snag I was familiar with was the kind I get in my sweaters (darn those hangnails), until I worked on this piece.  Snags being, of course, dead trees that serve as hosts to all kinds of animals, fungi and new plants that grow in the rich soil they provide from their decay. This accompanied a page in Ranger Rick that encourages kids to see how much wildlife they can find in and around a snag.  So naturally, this snag is fully occupied.

art created 8-12-11

 

   Mr. Squirrel is a memory portrait of one cutie that destroyed our sunflowers. The one that came right up to my window ledge and gave me that very cute look.  Just checking to see if I was home.

  This is a technique I've used a few times before. The pencil drawing is completed first, then scanned and tinted; then colored in photoshop on a layer in the multiply setting so that the color is behind the drawing. The main drawback in working this way is not having a completed work of original art in color.  But I'm fairly pleased with it, so I'm turning this one into a promo piece.

detail