Noah's Ark sets sail!

I'm finally finished with a new portfolio piece! This will be my image for this coming year's Picturebook. I've included the sketch so you can see some revisions -- mainly the dragonflies that didn't make it.

It was pretty much impossible to create the sky gradient around the doves and butterflies, so I lay them in last. I wasn't sure how the stylized water was going to work, but I like the way it turned out.

Belated Valentine's Greetings

Maybe I should add a little Lincoln beard to this guy, since it is more of a President's Day bear than a Valentine's Day bear. I sketched this and painted it "quick & dirty" in Photoshop to feature on my handmade valentines.

My next post will be my Noah's Ark design that I'm working on for self-promotion.

Favorite pieces from "The Moving Carnival"

Here are my three favorites pieces from "The Moving Carnival", my latest early reader from Picture Window Books. I was asked to do these in soft pastel, so I needed to work rather big. For those of you who are familiar with soft pastels, you know how challenging it is to create fine details in chunky pastels.

The first is a tiny little spot image, and the original is about 4 by 4 inches. So, you can imagine that the other two are pretty large -- roughly 24 by 15 inches.

This was a challenging project because of the subject matter. We follow along as Rosa and Luis spend the day at a traveling carnival. Lots of rides and crazy perspective!

Hope you enjoy!

New Year, New Book!

Happy New Year, everyone! I'm happy to announce that my second illustrated book, "The Moving Carnival," will be released very soon from Picture Window Books. When I submitted the cover art, I was really curious where the design team was going to put the title. They did a really great job -- especially picking up the oranges and yellows.

Next post - my favorite pieces from the book!

Holiday Card: It's finished!

The holiday card is now finished! The final design will have a red border and foil accents. I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

Holiday Card: Work in Progress

Here are my little guys for the annual McKay holiday card. I sketched them out on a legal pad, in case anyone was wondering about the lines. I swapped the kids around in Photoshop, and did a very rough color study.

Now I'm undecided about the background. I could just have a nice, simple design on white.

Originally, I pictured them in pastels, but now I think I'll use my mixed media technique. Hopefully I'll have the final done soon!

Illustration Friday: Hats

I know, I know -- I've dragged out this oldie but goodie from my portfolio archive. Come on -- how can I NOT use this?! It remains a favorite of mine, since it represents one of the first times that I "got" soft pastels. I'm still debating about having prints made of this one.

I'm working on the holiday card for this year, so I should have that ready to show soon!