Greta jacket painting finished

Last week's painting for the jacket of A Photo for Greta is all done and mailed off to the publisher. Here is how it finished up:

A Photo For Greta jacket painting in progress

I've been busy working on the paintings for A Photo for Greta, here is the jacket painting in progress:










The rest next week! Stay tuned!

Greta painting finished

Continued from last week.

Greta painting in progress

What a lovely weekend it was, full of joy and beauty and the most amazing wedding cupcakes I have ever seen! Congratulations Grace and Alex!

Back to work on A Photo for Greta...







I'll put up the rest next week!

Desmond the cowboy

Another painting in progress post for you from Disappearing Desmond!

Disappearing Desmond continued

Apologies for the late post, I spent the morning in Connecticut at a school visit, and the afternoon at a book talk given by the lovely Alison Morris at the Smith College Campus school- a follow up to the book fair yesterday where Grace and I presented and signed with a bunch of local author/illustrators. It was a busy day considering I usually sit at my drafting table all by my lonesome (with the possible company of my cats), and a needed break before the final stretch to my deadline.

Anyhow, here is the conclusion to last week's post about one of the Disappearing Desmond paintings. Just a few more to go, all the art will be done less than two weeks- eek!

When we left off I had just started to repaint the figures over the background layers:



Next I filled in the snowman and Desmond, dressed in blue to blend into the shadows:



Then I worked on the two figures behind him, beginning patterns on their clothing:



More layers, on the trees especially:



And the finished painting:

More Disappearing Desmond in progress

The sketch:



First washes of color:



Layering color:



Layering background tones:



More background layers:



Begin painting in figures and trees over new background:



More to come next week!

Desmond painting part 2

Here is the rest of the process for last week's Desmond painting:

Still building layers on the character's faces (maybe the bunny should have spots?):



The word balloons get outlines and the bunny is better grey:



Building up the layers of paint in the word balloons, Desmond's face, and his outfit:



And some final touches... the character's clothes get patterns and "hi" finishes things off:



Of course the painting is never done until the day of the deadline, I still may tweak the colors or add some little details. I was thinking Desmond might need a little something extra to spiff up his outfit. What do you think? A hat or a flower on his sweater vest perhaps?

Another Desmond painting in progress

Thanks to all who came out for the RISD sale on Saturday, it was a great day. Be sure to join Grace and I at the holiday sale in December!

Now back to painting (deadline is ticking)...

Here is the sketch I started with, its a new Desmond after he has given up hiding for the joys of friendship:



After transferring the general shapes of the sketch (so I know where to put the highlights and shadows), I started on the background, a nice green:



No, green is not good. No green. How about orange:



Better I think. Warmer and more celebratory. Now the characters get their first wash of color (after I transfer the sketch once again):



Word balloons too:



Starting to layer the color in Desmond's outfit, and some of the faces:



Stay tuned for more next week!

Desmond jacket painting

Thanks again everyone for your input on the back jacket sketch in last week's post. Here is the version we decided on, and the front cover too. In the end we thought it made sense for Gloria to be on the opposite side of the fence as Desmond, as though she is tiptoeing up to the fence looking for him...

New Desmond Painting

Sketch and painting for Disappearing Desmond (click to enlarge)...

Disappearing Desmond painting part 2

My apologies for taking so long to post the last half of this "painting in progress". A couple weeks ago I posted here about how this painting began... when we left off I was layering the color, mainly in the background:



Next I built up the figures some more, and tightened up edges:



Then added details like the beach goers in the background, and the shells and sand in the foreground:



When it all came together the painting looked like this: