Family Portraits

This year for Christmas I thought I would try something that I have wanted to do for years. My sister Amanda and I thought it would be great to have family portraits. Here they are, my siblings and I in order of birth. Next, I'll paint my parents. Amanda is the first painting, I am the second, then Rebekah and Johnny!

Seagull for Tiff

I was practicing a few techniques when my Aunt asked if I had anything that might look good in her office. Well, how about a waterscape? I added a quote from Emily Dickinson, one of my favorite poets.

To sleep perchance to dream

The third in the Daycare series! This little girl was also one of the kids from the daycare. When I brought in the painting she very casually pointed out that of course it was her in the painting since it had her castle. I didnt realize before hand that she had a castle in her room at home.

Fairy Drummer

The last painting created for the daycare. The model was one of the children and a delight! I really liked the simplicity of this piece.

A Ship in the Woods

The second painting for the Daycare. I wanted to show children turning one world into another by simply pretending it to be. Its the sort of thing that my siblings and I did all of the time without the help of computer games.

Link to Snare the World in Words

Marybeth was and is my chumb from my scampering about days of childhood. As friends we defeated dragons, escaped from evil headmasters, and saved the world from wicked magicians. Now a days she is learning to fight different forms of evil by completing a degree at law school.

Check her out! http://kilerkki.livejournal.com/

Studio Art

Polar Bear sketch

An interior study for the story East of the Sun West of the Moon.

The Little Mermaid

Cover art done in Advanced Illustration. The model is Princesse Derose. This is one of my favorite pieces! I love anything to do with the ocean and Princesse is a very good friend. If you have never read the original story of the little mermaid, look it up. That will explain where the dagger comes in. This is one of five illustrations that were to feature various ethnic growps in traditional fairtales. Every child should be able to see themselves in a fantasy!

The Frog Prince

Completed as a wrap around cover in advanced illustration. The model is Lindsay Jardine, a friend and roomate from college. Frogs are always fun to paint!

Study of two artic foxes.

For an independent studies class, I worked from photos to paint with a mixture of gouche. watercolor, and ink. Cute aren't they?

Fairy with light.

Same independant study assignment. This is a painting of Le, a past roomate. Gouche wash off involves doing a painting and then actually washing most of it off! A bit risky but what the Heck.

Elk Study

This is actually a detail of a much larger painting that has not been finished. In the end, I hope it will become an interior page for the story of the snow queen. Done completly in watercolor.

East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

This was the last wrap around piece completed for advanced illustration. The model was a classmate named Messia. This has always been one of my favorite stories!

Aesop's Fable illustration

This was a watercolor piece done in intro to illustration. "The cat, the mouse, and the rooster" was one that I had never come across before, so I thought that it would be more of a challenge to paint then one I was more familair with. I think that my favorite piece is the mouse's red scarf.

Child abuse in watercolor.

This assignment was to show a conceptual piece. I chose child abuse, and used a model that a met whose family had survived the Rwanda genocide of 1994. He had such beautiful yet sad eyes.

Avenging Angel

My little sister is in the Marines, and I think the idea of her as a stain glass avenging angel has been somewhere at the back of my mind for the past two years.

The Beauty and the Beast

My first cover for advanced illustration! The model is my sister Amanda, and the model for the beast happens to be my brother. Don't worry. He doesn't really look like that in real life.

Cinderella

Advanced illustration, this modle is the sister of the fairy painted above. Khan was also my roomate a while back. I still like the idea of the kitchen maid stepping out of a dreary background and into the lighter spring of the border.

Reading into the imagination.

This is the first painting in a series comissioned for a daycare run by Alyson Cox in Perrysburg. This new daycare offers a wonderful opportunity to parents who need a safe, nuturing place for thier children during the workday.
Good luck to them with all of thier endeavors!