POWERED BY 'MAGINATION...

The holidays were wonderful! Christmas has flown by as it usually does. The decorations are put away, the tree is down, the outside greenery is stored...the house looks really bare but it's like having a clean slate to start the new year! ...and ooooooo....2008 holds so many promises! I thought about doing a New Year's baby for the Picture Bookie theme "Dazzle" but instead choose something really different. It's a baby...and His presence really Dazzles and Inspires an entire world. I hope the New Year brings everyone a sparkle that inspires great works of all kinds. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

SURPRISE! Josh caught a PURPLE FISH! This is the front cover for an upcoming issue of Boys Quest (theme: fishing). My nephews gave me permission to use their likeness...how cool is that?! It's an honor!

I've been trying new things in Photoshop this week..messing around with different brushes to get different effects. Watercolor has always been a huge challenge for me and I don't have much confidence with it. When not working digitally, I've always had a mixed media approach to my illustrations. I used to lay down a layer of colored ink or marker before going over it in color pencils. I have a new board book to illustrate so the week of experimenting has given me a few ideas on how I might approach the coloring of the book. The Hiding Place was done (quickly!) using water color brushes and my new favorite...drippy water! My goal is to try and find a way to lay down a color wash and go over it with a brush that looks like color pencil so it looks like my traditional work used to :)

Note: No penguins were harmed in the creation of this illustration.

I loved doing this cover last year for the Boys Quest Camping issue...it was so much fun!

I've always wondered if the mall Easter Bunny would rather make appointments with the kids who really want to sit on his lap!

I've been busy so I dug up some line art for this weeks Picture-Bookies Showcase theme "Trouble."