Auctions are Back!

I have returned to setting up auctions, yet not on Ebay. There's a new creative community I would love to introduce to you called FuzzB.com. It's a mix between ebay, etsy, facebook, and myspace. There are SO many items listed, you could spend hours there. I highly suggest taking a look.

My auctions are listed there, three original pieces. There were no winners last month for the "Summer Breeze" aceo so that has gone up for auction.


"Summer Breeze" 2.5x3.5 original watercolor painting, min. bid $7


"Valentine's Night" 5x7 original watercolor painting, min. bid $15.00


"Faith Fairy Blessing" 5x5.5 original watercolor painting, min. bid $7

I thought about going back to Ebay, bit it's been some time I don't see much of an original painting market now that we have Etsy. But I truly want to offer works at full rate and at a rate that could be lower, giving the customer more choice.

So please go visit FuzzB.com and take a look at all they have. Don't forget to take a look see at my auctions while you're there. Have fun!

In Print

I'm excited to announce that I've been in print twice in the last month or so. Twice! It's as exciting as finishing my first children's book really. The first was a publication titled "MindFlights" (www.mindflights.com). I had submitted my piece "Quiet Time" for their online magazine and it went through to being the cover of their printed publication!

The magazine/book is full of fantasy and sci-fi stories that all come from a Christian stand point or foundation. "Quiet Time" is a perfect piece for this because it's a mermaid reading scripture. I was way thrilled when they told me that the piece was selected. Even more excited when I got the book!


Second I submitted some work to SCBWI (www.scbwi.org). This wasn't the first time, but carefully, and skillfully (hehehe) hand picked some pieces that had to do with letters, writing, and kites. Two of the three I submitted a few months ago reached print in the SCBWI Bulletin for July/August! That made me feel really great about my work and honored. All members of SCBWI receive this bulletin. A great confidence booster!

Adam's Dream - Sketch

While waiting on moving forward with the portrait piece I started to draw this one yesterday. My thought process was like usual. Start with a object/being and then build a story around that. I wanted to do something in regards to Illustration Friday, but the word "Shaky" just wasn't inspiring me. A friend of mine who is expecting was going to commission me to draw a piece for her nursery. Tho that is still something we want to do, now is not the time. So that inspired me.

I started with a little boy on a giraffe. Loved the drawing, but just didn't know where to go with it. Do I put him in Africa? Do I just make it about the boy and giraffe? Or do I put more around them? I wanted to make a story out of it. I went ahead and made the piece 10x8, which gave me a lot of space to problem solve. Now what do I do with the space? I added a castle (Edinburgh Castle to be exact...loved Scotland), but that didn't make sense with the cowboy accessories and the giraffe. The story continued to grow.

I then decided to add the unicorn and a wooden sword on his back. The story started to take shape. This little boy is in a dream, filled with things he loves. The little cowboy (probably fell asleep with the cowboy boots and hat on) mounted the giraffe for a safari, when that adventure was over they walked along the landscape and came to a castle where the boy became a cowboy knight and befriended the magical unicorn, now they're moving onto the next adventure.

The piece was still lacking. What time of day was this dream taking place? It's a dream so anything is possible. There is a large full moon, but the colors in my head are magentas, purples, and blues. The foreground is as if the reader is looking into the dream of this little boy. And of course, I thought it'd be fun to add a fairy knight and some fireflies to add interest and more possible storyline.

Portrait Sketch

My current project is an interesting one. I was given an old photo from the late 1920's/early 1930s of a little girl. The client wishes I redraw the girl and paint it for Christmas. What's interesting is the photo is very old, and difficult to determine what is what in some places. Especially in the face. Photos in that time period were very strong in contrast, and it's difficult to see details. A lot of guess work. Also I enjoyed Googling that time period. Found a lot of beautiful photos of children in that time. To respect my client I am going to keep the photo private, but here are some others similar to what I'm working on of children. These are a bit more clear than the photo for this project.

YWAB - More Paint

Some more paint has finally been added to this piece. The last two weeks have been getting the wedding invitations finished and mailed. And by golly, they're mailed! So I spent a few hours on the piece yesterday and plan to have it finished by the end of the week (no reason not to).

Its now time to get into the details. After establishing all of the basic colors of the piece it's time to get into working up the color, layers, and popping out contrasts. Almost there! :D