how I do

I thought it would be interesting to give you all a little behind the scenes look at how I do some of my work. What seemed like the perfect opportunity occurred when I was working on a page I recently completed for my book. I can't show you the whole page, but I've chosen a closeup of the detail of the rug(and kitty coincidently).

First, I work up the final sketch, as follows.

Then I determine what pattern, colors, etc I want to use for each detail. You can see that I decided the rug should be a woven one and sketched in the marks. I also started to play with the colors.

Next, I painted the six different woven rug sections. I had to make them substantially larger than the actual drawing of the rug in order to fit in the detail. Over the acrylic paint I drew the marks with an ultra fine point black Sharpie marker. I then scanned in the painted pieces.

Lastly, I placed the pieces onto the page in Photoshop. I had to manipulate the connecting edges of the straight and curved pieces to give them a seamless appearance. And tada! You have your finished rug.

Everyday Predator

I'm back! I never really went anywhere, I've just been working hard the past year on my children's book trying to get it ready to submit to publishers. But from time to time an occasion rolls around that calls for me to create something unrelated to my book. Such was the case months ago when two of my friends ran off to Vegas and got hitched. This was their wedding present from me.

Most people who know me know that I love Predator. And Alien and Mad Max, etc. But Predator is especially awesome. And I have some big plans for him, when I find the time. This painting is what I hope is just a precursor for some serious awesomeness to come.