The Soul of a Tree

"There is no such thing as a great talent without great willpower."
~Honore de Balzac

I'm back after neglecting my blog for a while. Below is a little drawing of a tree that I always notice outside my window. It looks like such a character and I enjoy seeing its changes every season. Yesterday I noticed he looked extra grumpy as the snow piled up on top.

The Soul of a Tree
Colored Pencil on Toned Paper
2011


The phenomenon of seeing faces or shapes like this has been explained as
Apophenia, which "is the experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data."
If you'd like to see some wonderful examples visit this blog post by James Gurney.

Artwork in Sprouts Magazine

I recently had one of my illustrations in the Illustrator Showcase sections of Sprout magazine.
If you're a children's book writer or illustrator this is a great magazine to subscribe to. It is "filled with top editor and agent interviews, how-to articles, illustrator tips and so much more."
To subscribe click Here


Sprouts cover art by the very talented Penny Weber


Illustrator Showcase pages 12 & 13

Painting Progression

This is a post that I've been wanting to do for a while now and just never got around to finishing it. Below is a progression video of one of the double page spreads from Mr. Groundhog Wants The Day Off. Although the video quality isn't excellent I am still happy with the video that I was able to put together. It shows a little insight to how my paintings look from start to finish. I hope you Enjoy watching! :)

Painting Progression video
Music: Alicia Keys
As I Am (Intro)

Chalk Walk

Below are some pictures from a Chalk Walk competition in West Hartford, CT.
I recently participated in a sidewalk chalk competition which was part of the West Hartford Art League's annual ArtWalk. My idea was spontaneous. I came up with it literally that morning and just wanted to do something happy and colorful. It was fun working on such a large scale with only 6 hours to complete it. It was awesome to see all the other artists of all ages participating and turned out to be a wonderful day! Check out more pictures from the chalk competition on the Hartford Courant website here.

Me with my drawing


Hippo in a Ball Pit
Chalk Pastel
2010


Me with the winner of the competition Bonnie Gayle Morrill
Check out more of her amazing art work here

My Book is an App!!

I'm still not quite sure how I feel about this news, but the book I illustrated was made into an app. with Story Chimes. It is designed for both the iPhone and iPad. On one hand it is really neat to see the book in digital format with all the exciting features! On the other hand I will always love a printed book that a child can hold and flip through and hope that they never become obsolete. If you own an iPhone or iPad and would like to check it out Click Here or on the image above and get the app for only $1.99 !

Beach sketches

☀ Sketchbook pages from a day at the beach ☀

Belmar Beach
archival ink pen

2010

Commissioned Portrait from the past

The portrait below is an old commission that I had done a few years ago (before my blog existed). I came across photos that I had taken and since I wasn't able to share it before, I thought I'd do this post. I worked from a really nice vintage photograph and enjoyed painting in a simple monochromatic way, fading the background and drawing softly with the colored pencils. I thought it was a lovely image and had a wonderful time working on it.



Watercolor and colored pencils on watercolor paper

(painting detail)