Illustration Friday: wide

My submission for Illustration Friday's "wide" theme is a work in progress and one of my signature "Houscapes". This seems like a very wide house to me, I would not want to have to clean this place... it has a lot more detail that will be added such as total landscaping, everything on the house will be detailed out with scroll elements on all the railings and front door, light fixtures, etc. When I initially draw the house I delete all the landscape and add in the dirt and cement even if it gets totally covered up by plants, shrubs, trees, flowers and pottery. I just like it to all be there. So this will be totally different when I post it again. There are two very tall and phallic cypress trees that adorn each side of the doorway and lots of beautiful bushes and trees flank the home. I am working on a few jobs at once, I designed and painted a School House diecut candy box for a confectionary company, it will be filled with candy and given as gifts from students to teachers for the end of the year Thank You's. I will post it soon. I enjoy working on one type of work for a few hours and while that one dries I move to the next one.

I did see this guy and 4 of his buddies moving towards my neighbors garden... and I saw a beautiful young bobcat making it's way through the yard. Rat always lets me know when there is wildlife in our vicinity because he has a unique muffled bark reserved for wildlife and all the hair on his back stands up, it is hilarious!

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day Mom, i love you!

Illustration Friday: electricity

My submission for Illustration Friday's "electricity" is from a greeting card that I made for Marisol. It has a gift certificate to "Come over to my house for holiday cheer" it was rejected for being to dark. Candlelight versus electricity is an easy choice for me because I am usually painting pretty detailed work so I need good light. I have 365 halogen lights in my studio and they are the best purchase I ever made. It is like daytime in my studio late at night. Here in Topanga several times a year somebody driving up Hwy. 27 hits a power pole and suddenly no electricity. I am super prepared for this situation, I have lots of candles, alternate light sources, batteries, a portable dvd player, a radio with cd player that runs on batteries, etc. We have a big-time disaster preparedness program for all residents having been faced with fires, floods and earthquakes, you can see them here and here.

Illustration Friday: seed

My submision for Illustration Friday's "seed" is one of my Marisol greeting cards and the interior is a gift certificate that promises love and friendship.

Illustration Friday: wrinkles

This is Rothschild and he is an English bulldog. He is my Aunt Hattie's dog and I included him in one of my paintings for my HomeMade calendar. He has a brindle coat with lots of wrinkles and we think he is beautiful. Rothy is my submission for Illustration Friday's "wrinkles" theme.

p.s. below is an x-rated shot of Rothy, I know this might embarrass him but it is hilarious! He is happy to see his Mom.

Illustration Friday: Primitive

Flaming "O"'s are a primitive tribe of birds known to love a good show tune. "Flamingo Follies", my submission for Illustration Friday's Primitive theme.

sorry for the fuzzy pix, this painting is large and behind plexi-glass.

Illustration Friday: Fail

When you paint happy pictures you generally don't have a lot of pieces that pertain to "fail "so I can only reflect on my own failures and there have been a few. Some are too personal and painful but the sting from this project has long dissipated. I talked about this in a post quite a while back and submitted a different illustration because I had to come up with several illustrations in a 24 hr. period. This illo was for Celine Dion when she got her gig in Las Vegas and was securing art for merchandise in her gift store at Caesar's Palace. This was something I thought she might like as she was a new mom, so I put a little boy in it and my goal was to create these vintage-like-Vogue-like covers that would emulate her and her passion for fashion. Obviously different from my usual fare, but the good part was she really liked them and I received an email telling me so. It was a very long drawn out affair and after a certain point I took a pass. It was good to know I could still stay up all night and crank out some art. For Illustration Friday's "Fail" theme

click on image for a closer view..