Spread from Babybug Magazine

I've updated my website with tons of new sample pages from my books!  Take a short break from the holiday rush and check it out :) Paige Keiser Illustrations

Motor Duck with More Detail

I felt like the motor duck illustration was a little too sparse so I added some brighter colors and more detail and exchanged my Illustration Friday image for this new one.

Illustration Friday: Mail

Same idea in a couple different styles:

One Night In Bethlehem - Promotional Spread

From the touch-and-feel book "One Night In Bethlehem"- release date to be announced!  For this book I outlined the illustrations using a carbon pencil - which is like charcoal but easier to sharpen (tips don't break off) and doesn't smear as easily.

My New Studio Companion, Alfredo

Introducing Alfredo the studio mouse.  He was supposed to be a "feeder mouse" at Petco where people basically buy them for their snakes/lizards to be eaten alive. :-(  But now he's going to have a long (well, mice only live 1.5-2 years) happy life. (Video is available in HD - just adjust the settings on the bottom right).

What is Alligator In Search Of?

It's a secret!

Thanks so much for the feedback from my last post, it was VERY helpful!  XXOO :-)) I still haven't made a solid decision yet, but it will probably reveal itself the more color experiments I try.

Argh!

I'm going through my usual process of driving myself insane trying to choose a style for my manuscript.  Friends and family are no help either because everyone likes something different.  As for me, I'm leaning towards the pen and ink mostly because the story is VERY goofy and silly, and has lots of scenes that will require dramatic crying and whining (in a humorous way).  A there's nothing like the magic of a dip pen to cook up emotion with the flick of the wrist (after drawing something a 100 times first of course until it's right).

But then again, I'll probably wake up at 4am and change my mind.  It's times like these that I really wish I had one style that I knew and loved and could call my own.  Maybe one day...

Gator Bites

Illustration Friday: Sneaky

Baby bear snuck into his big brother's room, and played with his sibling's prized, red Matchbox car.   He was careful not to get applesauce on it this time. 

High Five Cover!

This is the September 2010 issue :)

Going to the Gift Shop

Illustration Friday: Sneaky

Well I truly enjoyed drawing this one, but unfortunately the crosshatching/shading with a pen was hurting my wrist (I've had tendonitis for years).  I was thinking though, maybe I could crosshatch bits at a time, and rest and stretch my wrist every few minutes.  Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

*EDIT*  Just added another version done with charcoal, colored pencil and watercolors.

More Alligator Drawings

 

More minor changes to Alligator's character design.  Dots for eyes, more color and texture on his skin, looser line, and no bottom jaw (to make him look even sillier).  

Alligator Sketches Ahead!

Illustration Friday: Burning

Little Red Bird was riding the gator's tail at a burning speed, until the gator stopped.
"Giddyup!" said Red Bird.

"At a burning speed"--hmmmm, I think I just made up that phrase, I can't find it on google lol.  Oh well it's staying. 

(Sorry about the triple post on Illustration Friday, I couldn't get my link to work)

Sketchy Sketch

My Birthday Present!

Well, it's not my birthday until the 13th, but lookee what I'm getting from my parents, oh boy oh boy!!  An original watercolor painting by my absolute favorite illustrator, David McPhail. 

Fox in Socks Video Log Episode One -The Creation of "Wabbit Suit Inc."

On My Desk

Spooky

Nighttime Shenanigans

Oh YEAH?

Illustration Friday: Proverb

There is no greater calamity than being consumed by greed. - Chinese Proverb

Project

A funny video about the self-doubts and worries that come with working on your own personal projects.  Just a quick warning, there are a couple curse words in this video for those that are offended by that sort of thing.  This is definitely a film for the older folks.  Enjoy!

Sketches

Sketches for a magazine assignment!

This Warms My Heart

I found this on youtube completely by accident: a couple of little ones reading my book, "Wow It's a Cow"!

a Little Tiger has been Released!

Look What's Popped Up On Amazon.com/Barnes & Noble!  Raj The Bookstore Tiger is available for pre-order!  

One Night In Bethlehem - New Book

This is a sketch from a new touch-and-feel book I'm working on entitled "One Night in Bethlehem".

I'm sorry this blog has been collecting cobwebs recently, but there's been illness in my family and quite a bit of stress this year.  Things are looking up though, and once again my drawing desk is calling for me (it's been very quiet for the most part).  I'm happy to be back working and enjoying the feel of a pencil in my hand, and the smell of paints and watercolor paper.  It lifts the spirits!

Of course there aren't many ailments in life a good Daniel Craig picture can't cure:

I'd Choose You Sketch

Some of My College Art

I thought I'd post some paintings from my photo-realism phase :-) The bottom two were done with gouache.

Meet Newell

This is my first softy design :-) He started out in a sketchbook, and ended up quite a bit different than I had planned.  His first look was kind of contemporary, but as I put his materials next to each other, I realized he was going towards a classic direction.  He definitely has a bit of my illustration style in him which was what I was hoping for.  Alright I promise my next post will have some actual illustrations (seeing as this is an illustration blog)--I guess I just needed a creative break from drawing.

Birthday Present

This was a tough one to make for me because it's advanced for my level....and I kept having to look up sewing machine info on youtube to figure some things out, but boy was he worth it!  I got the pattern from a site called Funky Friends Factory--tons of adorable animals patterns there.  Not the typical craft patterns either, these designs are very special IMHO.  Anyways, this is for my Mom's Birthday.  I did a portrait of the lil' platy on a tag I made too.  Phew!  Now I'm going to sleep for about 16 hours (yeah I kind of forgot to go to bed last night, at least, not until 6am.)

Doggie Made From Socks

I'm especially proud of one of the arms--which was sewn with a sewing machine!  The rest was hand-stitched, although I think from now on I'm a sewing machine convert: much faster and with perfectly even stitches to boot.  It took me several hours of youtube videos to figure out how to thread and use the thing--much more complicated than it first appears. 

Don't worry Risky (my Jack Russell Terrier), this pup is not going to replace my favorite studio assistant!

My First Softy!

Well, the first one that worked out anyway (design was from a book called "Sock and Glove").  As you can see I'm a beginner at sewing, but I'm slowly getting better.  I eventually would like to design and sew my own animal characters to have around my desk and give to my nieces too!

And here is the start of a doggie - he still needs his ear sewn and I'll be adding a little spot around his eye with embroidery thread!

Advanced Copy!

I got my advanced copy today of "How Much Does God Love You" and I couldn't be happier with the printing, design, font, everything!  Ideals Publishing did a great job on this.  Release date is set for September!

Pen and Ink Question

Hi all, I was wondering if you could help me out with a dilemma.  I've been attempting to dilute my inks to get a a softer look to my outlines.  However, when I do this, it changes the consistency of the ink so that it doesn't flow through my dip pen very well.  Does anyone know of any inks that come right of the bottle this way?  A soft gray, or brown yet are not 'watery'?  Any help would be much appreciated!

Comment Issues

Hi Everyone, just wanted to let you know that I keep getting an error when I choose to publish moderated comments :0( Argh!  First and foremost I don't want you to think I'm skipping over or ignoring them -- I'll google the issue and see if I can come up with something.

Also when I place my title image (which I sized in photoshop to match the width of the blog) using the widget feature it shrinks it down automatically.  Grrr.  Lol.  Anyways, wish I knew more about code but it all looks Greek to me.

For now I'm turning off comment moderation until I can get this sorted out.

_______________________

*******AHA!  For anyone else having this issue, I found a quick fix.  Don't know if this will work for everyone but, I went back and published the post again.  The comments magically appeared, hooray!  

And as always thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to post a word or two :-)

___________
Another update--I got the comments to appear on the post itself, but on the main homepage, the comment number is still 0.  Things that make you go hmmm.....

Illustration Friday: Giant

My Dad looked so tall to me when I was little (he's over 6ft).  And of course I also believed that my parents knew all the secrets of the universe-- and that one day when I grew up I'd know them too. 

The Sculpture

Leap!

This is another character sketch from a super-duper top-secret story I wrote.  Ok it's not that top secret, but here we go:

Barnyard Animals + Fancy Setting = Fun

And one last sketch to complete the marathon of drawing for the day.   I'm doing lots of experiments to figure out which style would be best for the two books I'm working on.  It's actually been a great deal of fun along with the nice side effect of really pumping up my creative energy before I embark on sketches for one book, and final art for the other. 

Ah, Nutellaaaaa

I just wanted to take a moment to sing the praises of Nutella.  The stuff is simply from heaven: chocolate and hazelnuts mixed together into a spread....yummm...  The taste and smell bring back memories of my childhood when my mom would make peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches for school.  I unfortunately cannot keep this stuff in my house save for special occasions--otherwise I end up on the couch eating it straight out of the jar with a big spoon! 

Thought I might also add a little history of Nutella:

*Was created in the 1940's by Pietro Ferrero, a pastry maker.  Chocolate was in short supply back then due to World War II rationing, so he added hazelnuts to extend the chocolate.

Now, thanks to Alicia Padron's post about chocolate I'm sooo craving this! LOL