I'm Still Alive and I Still Illustrate

Just thought I should make this post so anyone who stumbles across this blog may know that, despite the time lapse, I have not, in fact, fallen off the face of the planet. I am still an illustrator but I've been employing my substantial skills (please note my humble sarcasm) in making on- demand drawings of princesses, kitties, doggies and dinosaurs. My current clients are one precocious almost 18 month old and one strong willed 3.5 year old, both of the female variety. I am itching to pick up my paint brush once again, so feel free to give me a monetary excuse to prise a portion of time away from my little princesses. That is all.

Aria's (and Sariah's) most recent painting

I finished this painting back in June and then, thanks to a certain then 15 month old adding her own creative touch, refinished it in July. For reference I used a snapshot taken by my friend Joseph Ostenson while serving his LDS (Mormon) mission in Italy. I supplemented the original photo with online references since the original picture was small and had some construction going on. This is the Milan cathedral and square in Milan.

This piece is gouache on illustration board. It was fun to become reacquainted with gouache although also frustrating to work with a medium so easily corrupted by creative little minds with paintbrushes and water. :)

Retouched and Finished

Here's a snap shot in natural light of the newly retouched and finished "Success." This is the image I will use to print (taken by a professional photographer but color corrected by me).

Finished Work for Eco Ellie: Live, Love, Lead

This is the story of Eco Ellie (copyright Kellogg), an elephant learning about conservation. She and her grandma want to help humans know how to help the planet. I think the illustrations are pretty self-explanatory. The main character's color design is based on the plush toy that is intended to accompany the book. Cover Illustration.

Eco Ellie and her grandma.
Problems.
Conserve Energy.
Buy Local. Conserve Water.Ride a Bike.Recycle.

Be a Leader.

Leave a small (mouse-size) carbon foot-print.

All works are copyright Kellogg. I ended up having to sign over all rights. Basically, I was doing work for hire, without knowing I was doing work for hire. I do have co-authorship. Live and learn, I guess.

Book Cover

My latest endeavor. This is a sample of the cover art for a book I'm illustrating. I know, what's with the elephants, right? Acrylic on Illustration board.

The Latest and Greatest of the Elephant's Child Series

No Success Can Compensate for Failure in the Home

I painted this for an art contest. The writing is Chinese, but the family is Japanese, but who can tell by looking? The Chinese characters read "Renhe Chengogong Dou Bu Neng Mibu Jiating de Shibai" or 'No Success Can Compensate For Failure in the Home." I won grand prize!
Oil on Masonite.

Sneak preview

This is a variation on the formerly posted "Elephant's Child" illustrations. I did all the studies flat, for color and design purposes, and now I'm toying with modeling. The modeling was done in photoshop.

look! I CAN paint!

It's a rare occurrence, but I really like this piece. She was a great model. I believe this was three 3 hour sessions. Oil paint on canvas paper.

editorial illustration for article "the Cute Factor." Acrylic.

This isn't my usual style, but I was trying to imitate the 50's Coca-cola girls. I figure this is the reality of always drinking Coke.

Digital painting, Corel Painter.

This and "you are what you eat" are my usual acrylic style.

You are what you eat.

Just something I painted in my oil painting class. It loses some of its quality in the scanning process, unfortuntely.

Ariart

This is a series of studies for my bfa senior project, illustrations for the story "the Elephant's Child" from Rudyard Kipling's "Just So Stories."

"In the High and Far-Off Times the Elephant, O Best Beloved, had no trunk. He had only a blackish, bulgy nose, as big as a boot, that he could wriggle about from side to side; but he couldn't pick up things with it. But there was one Elephant--a new Elephant--an Elephant's Child--who was full of 'satiable curtiosity, and that means he asked ever so many questions."

The first thing that he found was a Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake curled round a rock.
''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but have you seen such a thing as a Crocodile in these promiscuous parts?'
'Have I seen a Crocodile?' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, in a voice of dretful scorn. 'What will you ask me next?'
''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child, 'but could you kindly tell me what he has for dinner?'

'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile, 'for I am the Crocodile,' and he wept crocodile-tears to show it was quite true.
Then the Elephant's Child grew all breathless, and panted, and kneeled down on the bank and said, 'You are the very person I have been looking for all these long days. Will you please tell me what you have for dinner?'

Then the Elephant's Child sat down most hard and sudden; but first he was careful to say 'Thank you' to the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake; and next he was kind to his poor pulled nose, and wrapped it all up in cool banana leaves, and hung it in the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo to cool.
'What are you doing that for?' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake.
''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child, 'but my nose is badly out of shape, and I am waiting for it to shrink.'


"So the Elephant's Child went home across Africa frisking and whisking his trunk. When he wanted fruit to eat he pulled fruit down from a tree, instead of waiting for it to fall as he used to do. The rest of the time he picked up the melon rinds that he had dropped on his way to the Limpopo--for he was a Tidy Pachyderm."

"Then that bad Elephant's Child spanked all his dear families for a long time, till they were very warm and greatly astonished. He pulled out his tall Ostrich aunt's tail-feathers; and he caught his tall uncle, the Giraffe, by the hind-leg, and dragged him through a thorn-bush; and he shouted at his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, and blew bubbles into her ear when she was sleeping in the water after meals."