Illustration Friday: Communication

The digital communication era is a thing of wonder, but it is also a bit of a curse. It's an easy way to stay in touch with friends and family, and it can introduce us to those we may never meet otherwise. But, it can also distance us from those we are closest to, and the world right outside our doors.

Illustration Friday: Gravity

For all the children of the world the big event ends on the 25th with the opening of all their presents, but for the elves and Santa's reindeer that is just the beginning of a week long celebration with cakes and cookies, and lots of egg nog. It never fails that every year Blitzen tends to overindulge during the festivities. This is bad news for a flying reindeer since gravity's pull feels much stronger on a full belly. So, he usually stays grounded the rest of the year until his personal trainer gets him back in shape for the next big night.

This may seem a bit past season, but Christmas has never ended for me. This is the time of year when we're creating next year's designs. I was trying to come up with some holiday patterns when this fellow ended up in my sketches. I was thinking of traditionally painting him, but decided to work out the colors digitally, and bring in a little scanned texture.

Has anyone ever had figgy pudding? I found some recipes online, and I was just wondering if it would be worth trying to make it for the holidays next year.

Illustration Friday: Crash

When I woke up this morning....well, I guess it would be yesterday now...anyway, all reports on the radio were suggesting if possible, it would be best to stay home due to snow and gusting winds. I'm not always one to do what I'm told, but that sounded like an absolutely marvelous idea! So, I used one of my vacation days, in order to have my very own snow day. It seemed like a good idea to avoid crashing into a snow drift. I decided in the spirit of the day to have fun with it, and enjoy myself. The first plan was to go back to bed, but I was too wide awake because I had already decided that this would be a painting day, and I was eager to get started. Since I had the time I fiddled away on the sketch longer than anticipated causing a late start, so I ended up finishing just a little while ago.


I had been wanting to experiment more with acrylics for quite some time, so it was good to finally follow through. My paint supply is a bit lacking at the moment, so I had to supplement with fabric paints to give me a broader color range. I did a thin value study wash, and then played with thicker layers of colors over the top. I'm fairly happy with the result. It felt good to have my fingers covered in paint again. All in all it was a good day. Maybe we'll have to have another blizzard next week. :)