Illustration Friday: Pattern 3

This fall season, be cautious of sudden changes in wind patterns. Especially if you're a squirrel.

Raj Sneak Peak II

Here's another image from Raj The Bookstore Tiger! Mean ol' Snowball is informing Raj that he's not an ACTUAL tiger, but a mere kitty cat. Poor Raj.

Illustration Friday: Pattern 2

Pig and Cow talked late into the night while patterns of moon-cast shadows overlapped and blanketed the empty barn.

Another Raj Sketch

You can tell I adjusted the size of the kitties via Photoshop. Have I sung the praises of Photoshop enough on my blog? I think not.

Puddle

Character Sketch

Illustration Friday: Pattern

Bernice was very jealous of Margaret's patterned hat.

Courage Color Study Via Photoshop

Courage

This is my possible illustration Friday idea - for the theme pattern (or patterns--too lazy to double check). I'll see how it develops. I want to keep working on it tonight but am just way too tired! :-P

Raj in Progress

This yet another Raj spread, but unfinished. I LOVE painting closeups like this and spending hours on the details of the fur and face. Here I just established the basic colors. Over the next day or so I'll keep layering thin washes of paint until it has a nice, rich textured look.

Also I really love orangish yellows and greens together. Most of my work seems to have that color combo in one way or another.

Raj the Bookstore Tiger: Sneak Peak

I've been given permission by the kind folks at Charlesbridge to post a sample spread from the upcoming book "Raj the Bookstore Tiger" written by Kathleen T Pelley. Publishing date is set for Fall of 2010.

Click to enlarge! Lots of details to see.

*edit - added the bat to the cover of the Great Batsby!

Illustration Friday: Infinite

Strong

This was actually for illustration Friday, but I was so busy this week I didn't get it posted in time.

Vitamin D Deficiency

This past summer I began to grow more and more tired and under the weather. I thought perhaps it was my late hours, but the worse it got I realized it had to be something beyond that. I made an appointment for a checkup and got a load of blood tests. Surprisingly, they included a Vitamin D level test. I didn't think a thing of this until the nurse called several days later to inform me I had a severe Vitamin D deficiency. She added that a lot of people have this and don't know it - it's a new wide-spread issue, especially in people who stay inside and out of the sun a lot for their jobs (myself and fellow artists), work on the computer a great deal or play video games. I started a vitamin D supplement and am slowly getting my energy back. What a lucky find - I could have spent years searching for the cause of my fatigue. But thankfully my doctor keeps up with recent medical articles and findings.

Anyways, I thought I would post this for other artists who might be having the same issues and bring some more awareness to Vitamin D deficiency. Maybe even help someone else avoid wasting a season or even years being tired with no explanation. It's a quick and easy test and an even easier problem to treat.

Stay healthy :0)