Christmas Portraits

Among all the busyness that comes with the holidays, I've been busy doing these portraits for a friend of mine. Tia's kids are adorable and her and her husband wanted illustrated portraits of them for Christmas. So fun! And I had a blast doing them.Trae is 5 and has tons of personality - I'll admit, he was the hardest for me to finish. Pictures are sometimes hard to capture the right smile or the right pose. But after combining a few photo references, I'm happy with how it turned out.

Kira is 3 and seems like a little spit-fire! She loves to dance and loves anything girly. Favorite color is pink - that's my kind of girl!
Dax is 1 and is so adorable! I don't know how Tia gets him to smile so much, but he's smiling in every picture I've seen! Just a happy baby!

Lifesaver Christmas

So, growing up, my mom had this Santa Clause, which my aunt Cindy made, with lifesavers for each day as a countdown to Christmas. It was a fun little tradition, and we kids took turns until Christmas day eating the lifesavers. I wanted to create one of my own, so I designed this:

This is a fuzzy picture, but the "Lifesaver Nativity" turned out really good. I made one for my sister Courtney last year, and I wanted to make one for myself too. So here it is. I did the illustration, then transposed it onto the wooden board. Thanks Grandpa Roger for helping me cut out the shape. I love it and hope that it is a cherished tradition in my family too.

Kat Von D of Piggy Banks

I thought I'd do a quick post of a silly thing I did at work the other day. We had a fun activity to decorate pigs, and there's a contest on the best design. My Kat Von D is good, but there's some other very creative ones!

Afterward

A couple of weeks I posted for the topic Racing. I had some constructive comments that helped me with the finished design, and this is the product "AFTERWARD". Not sure if I like the change though... though I think the rabbit needs to be positioned 3/4, I like my first drawing better. Thoughts?

Junio - Felicidad

One of my old classmates Adam Taylor got a bunch of us BYU-I illustrators to help his brother out with his Eagle Scout Project. He's constructed a coloring book with a page for every month and a corresponding word (in both english and spanish) for kids in Honduras. Very cool project! I was excited to submit this illustration for June!

Illustration Friday - Racing

Racing! This topic was for Illustration Friday - I've never tried to illustrate the story of the Tortus and the Hare . I am also loving the fall colors lately and they are falling on the ground - making things beautiful! I'm not sure if I'm quite done - so I'd love to get some critiques.

Halloween Cutout - Spooky

I thought I'd post this little project I worked on this week. A friend was in charge of the Halloween cut-out scene for their carnival that they were putting on at the church. After looking all around town - she couldn't find anything! So - she called me! I told her it would be a cinch, named my price, and came up with this little number. I had some initial sketches, then painted it onto a 8'x4' piece of particle board - she was having the faces cut out later for all the kids to stick their heads in. I think it turned out pretty good and she was very happy with it!

Beneath

When I was little, I was afraid of all the creepy crawlies beneath my bed! Here's a little drawing to better illustrate my fears!

Old Fashioned Coke

As usual, I'm late on Illustration Friday. This was last week's word "Old Fashioned". I took the reference from a very bad previous illustration. Even in this simple illustration, it's greatly improved from the original. Hope you like it!

State Fair Dessert

As promised! I had some fun with this piece - doing an acrylic painting then finishing up some details on Photo Shop. My scanner at home is not big enough to scan the painting (acrylic on 9 x 12 board), so I had to take a still picture with my camera - I'm happy with the end result though. I really liked working this way - traditional then digital!!! Oh fun!

This is what the acrylic painting looked like before the digital painting went over top. I had my paints on the table for a week, but didn't find the time to finish - I cleaned them up and decided to do the rest digital.

IF: dessert - fair food!

Illustration Friday's topic is "dessert". It's FAIR time around these parts, and the one thing us

western gals like is our fair food! Turkey legs, fried twinkies, chocolate covered bacon... this year's new flavor is a hamburger that substitutes doughnuts for the buns! Wow! But the ultimate fair staple has got to be the "Tiger Ear"! They are known by other names of course, scones, elephant ears and I'm sure many more. My fav!!!

I ran out of time this week, I'm half way through the painting, but I have all intentions of finishing this and making it a great illustration! The unveiling will have to be later.

Red Poppies

I love poppies - they are such a delicate flower yet are so bold in color. I think they look pretty good against this teal background. This looks great hanging up in my living area, accented against all my brown furnishings.

Babies are so fun!

I've had a couple of little projects on the side lately. One - a baby announcement, and another a baby shower invitation. These were both fun projects and great people to work with. I've finished both the paintings and incorporated them into digital prints. Here are the finished pieces.

Finished paintings - The watercolor painting above of the baby boy is sold - it will look so cute in a little nursery! The one below has first dibs to it's commissioner of course, but if she doesn't want it- I'm quite fond if it!

Below is the invitation - commissioned by Tia Jolley for her sister's baby shower. So cute!

Detectives

I really liked my bff theme from last week, so these same bff's are here to solve a mystery, what it is, let your imagination run! I'll definitely want to color this, but I'm impatient and want to show everyone!

Linked

This was one of my most favorite things to do when I was younger! Roller blades are so 90's! YES! Me and by bff Katie would stand on opposite sides of the neighbor's driveway (because theirs was the smoothest of course) and we'd run (roll) toward each other, link arms and spin in circles and REPEAT! Love it! Ah, memories...

Illustration Friday - Dip

Care for a Dip? Just a fun little sketch for the night.

Gate City Fine Art Gallery

Last friday I had three of my pieces featured in the Gate City Fine Art Gallery (pictures from camera phone). The night was very fun! Thanks to all those of you who came out and supported me. I love the energy of Friday night art walks! It's a fun and creative atmosphere to be in!

My last post was of the watercolor I did titled "Limited Materials." The whole theme of it fit together: A scrap piece of watercolor paper that I didn't want to waste, the painting of a girl making art of mud, and I finished it off by mounting the piece on scrap wood I found. Polish it off with a piece of acrylic glass bolted to the whole thing and the entire theme fits together. Very fun!

Limited Materials...

Here's a fun little watercolor I just finished. The little phrase "Sometimes Limited in Materials... Never Creativity" was ironic because I painted on a 400 lb scrap piece of paper that I didn't want to waste. I use what I can!

There was a Illustration Friday topic of muddy a couple of weeks ago, I didn't get it done in time to submit, but I'll use it for something else someday. I love it! Watercolors translate so nicely into digital images.

Focused: Stronger than I ever knew!

I thought this would be a great tie in with IllustrationFriday, the topic: Focused. This week I finished my book! I've been working on the illustrations for this book by Shelley Hanson for over a year now (working through my senior year of college and through working over 40 hours a week since graduation). I'm so ecstatic to have it finished! Shelley is so happy with the project and is excited to start marketing it. It can be purchased on Lulu.com or simply click here. Here is one of the last illustrations that I truly relate with, I feel strong, strong for finishing what I started, strong for doing something that will benefit others, and strong for saying yes to this challenge.

This story was written for a real little girl named Rylee, who was diagnosed with leukemia when she was under two years old. Shelley is using the profits to ease the burdens that this family is facing. I'm happy to be a part of this great cause.

I love my job because it allows me to be creative! I'm a marketing specialist at Idaho Central Credit Union and I got a new project last week to make some artwork for a Visa letter they are putting out! FUN! I really hope it gets approved! it looks better on the letter than with this funky blue background.