A Walk in the Park

Risky (studio assistant/partner in crime) and I went for a walk at the local park. I'd never seen the lake completely frozen over before so I took a couple photos:



On the left is a bird who had bore himself a hole to fish out of. Looked like he was catching plenty because he was constantly eating and picking.



The ice was bluer than the sky it was reflecting.

More Layering

After I let the below illustration dry for an hour or so, I went back and intensified colors, smooth things over and added more details. I consider this one done!

On My Desk

Yeah..... this desktop has been through years of Higgins ink abuse, sorry about that lol.
Another illustration from "How Much Does God Love You" - it's taped to the desk so it dries flat. In the left-hand corner is chapstick...which I don't use because it's the flavored kind. And it feels more like I'm rubbing sticky honey on my lips than anything helpful.

Also, some good news. I got a job with Babybug magazine--yay! And I get to draw piggies. What could be better than drawing piggies? Not a whole lot! :0)

Book Sample

From How Much Does God Love You tenderly written by Michelle Medlock Adams

I used all sorts of fun mediums for this one: black ink for the sky, acrylics for the stars and watercolor and pencil for everything else. A very challenging and fun piece!

Doh! Missing Blogs Links For My Pals

Ok a while ago I tried to move some of my blog links over to that widget that allows you to show the most recent posts of each blog, but decided halfway through that it would take me hours to transfer them over. So I moved them back and lo and behold it seems I'm missing some of my previous links (favs too!). Please let me know if your link has gone a-missing because I do NOT remove links unless the blog is no longer in use or someone hasn't posted in their blog for over a year or something. If it's gone, it's a mistake and I would love for you to let me know (please please pretty please?)

Borders!

Wow it's a Cow was in the Border's Baby section!

If I reach ninety years of age, and I'm still a children's illustrator, I'll probably always take photos of my books when I find them in stores. It really is a surreal sort of feeling and I don't think it will ever get to be old hat.

Blogs I'm Diggin'

Scott Nelson

Full of wonderful sketches, insightful posts and of course, eye candy galore.

A Couple Moleskine Sketches

Book Layouts

Flower

Illustration Friday: Renewal II

The summer reading program renewed Katie's interest in books. Although, she still found it difficult to complete books she had started and instead preferred to have several going at once.

Illustration Friday: Renewal

After a short fight over a juicy fish, their friendship was renewed.

From The Sketch Book

More Penguins

Illustration Friday: Pioneer

Penguin quickly learned why he was the first to fish in that particular pond.

News! Wow It's a Cow : Bestseller's Category : Farm Animals #28!!

...on amazon.com

I feel like this squirrel right now :0)))

Link! (It's probably going to change a lot in rank up or down, but for right now, that's where it is)

Guess What Arrived Today!

Sorry about the flash in some of these photos! The book isn't officially being released until January 1st, but I was able to buy this copy off of amazon.com already.

Mean Ol' Borris

I only had enough time to take a quick picture of this in low light - I'll replace with a better scan a bit later today.

New Story, New Character Sketches

I just finished writing a picture book manuscript over Christmas break so am now at the stage of figuring out what the characters are going to look like. Oh, and by the way, I've learned that I love drawing penguins! Those charming, doughy little creatures can be so expressive.

Small Website Update

I made a little animated GIF with the sketches in the post below and added it to the front page of my main website: paigekeiser.com

Or you can see it right here--you have to click on the image to see the actual animation: