Tyrus Birthday Painting

My little booger had his first birthday over the weekend. It was exhausting, but lots of fun too!

One of my presents to him was this quick little elephant painting...

5" x 7" cel vinyl acrylic on watercolor

Birthday Butterfly

My son's buddy, Emma just turned 1. I told him to play it cool, but he wanted to impress this older woman, so he asked his dear old dad to paint her something pretty. Birthday party theme was butterflies, so this is what I came up with spur-of-the-moment. I was going for that sun-drenched look, but didn't quite nail it like I wanted. Somewhat tricky with real paint, I found.

Good thing 1 year olds aren't too picky about that sort of thing. :)

Birthday Butterfly - 4" x 6" cel vinyl acrylic on watercolor paper

P.S. The subtle fade you see in the background is a wash and was intentional, not some scanner voodoo.

Birthday Mouse

My pal's little boy turned 1 recently, so I did this spontaneous little painting for him. It was a quick and slightly painful exercise in gouache, which I'm not quite as familiar with as cel vinyl acrylic. Maybe I'm spoiled. Or just a big sissy.

A BIG tip of the hat to Don Shank (who does these little birthday paintings SO MUCH BETTER) for the inspiration.

4" x 6" gouache on watercolor paper.

Ninja Sketch

Quick ninja drawing for my friend Phil's birthday. First time trying out some cel vinyl ink. Goes on even smoother than it's cousin, black cel vinyl acrylic.

4"x 6" cel vinyl ink on watercolor paper.

Site + Oldness

I recently put up a temporary page while I work on my final illustration website. Please click on the image if you'd like to stop on by. The full site will have a similar feel.



In other news, I'm officially a year older. Feel free to party amongst yourselves in my or Bruce Willis's honor. Happy Birthday, Mr. Willis!

Birfday Dragon

My niece Alyssa just had her 4 year birthday, so in keeping with tradition I wanted to paint something for her. We recently watched home video of her telling her little sister a completely made up bedtime story, in which a sheep rode on the back of a pink dragon. You see, the sheep's legs were "too too short" for it to run, so the nice dragon helped it out. Painting solved! Here's the result.

Please be aware the colors are off, because once again I mixed in some radiant paint. I did my best to tweak in Photoshop, but the subtle highlight on the dragon's skin doesn't show. What can ya do. Maybe you can see it in the photo a little better. Reality lies somewhere in between the two (closer to the scan).

6" x 9" cel vinyl on watercolor paper.

The photo.

Another Niece Birthday!

Yep! Another niece's birthday, another paintin'. My niece Ashley turns two next month, so I did this.

6" x 9" cel vinyl on watercolor paper.

Here's the munchkin. She's even cuter in person, if you can imagine that. :)

He's no Chester

Quick update. My honorary niece (my niece's cousin who lives with them) is turning 6 in a little over a week, so here's what I painted for her. Cheetahs are her favorite animal. I have 17 more paintings to do before Christmas, so I'd better get busy! I'll update some as they happen (don't want to risk spoiling the surprise).

6" x 9" ink and cel vinyl acrylic on watercolor paper.

Birthday Ballerina

My niece Madison turned nine on Tuesday, so I wanted to draw something nice for her birthday. I struggled with what to draw but decided on a ballerina, because she's a really good ballet dancer and because I thought it'd be a fun challenge. A good chance to practice my lady drawing, which needs a lot of work. My gift was well-received by both she and her parents, which made me feel good. Hope you like!

This of course means is that we have a winner in the guess the theme contest! Andy guessed right, and will be receiving a requested new Michelangelo TMNT doodle. Thanks to all who participated!

I'm saving some of those other ideas for later, btw.

Here's the final. 6" x 9" higgins ink and and cel vinyl on watercolor paper.

The sketch ready for transfer (made a couple changes during).

Inked lines. I left the image unadjusted so you can see the paper texture.

Madison looks like a deer in the headlights, but still cute. I look pale, but still fugly.