Cardinals Acrylic Painting

Finished this painting tonight!  It is fluid acrylics on a 14 by 20 inch sheet of coldpress watercolor paper.  Had a lot of fun painting it and I had to do very little adjustments to the scan.  I will paint a couple more paintings over this winter break - another wildlife one and a portrait.  Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

Front Cover Finished! All illustrations for my book are done!!

My book is almost done!  All the illustrations are finished, all that remains is the logo and font.  I will have to talk to the printer company to figure out printing costs and then make adjustments to the colors to get the illustrations print-ready.  The last step will be a kickstarter but that will go live sometime early next year - probably in February. 

 The front cover has a little more extra rendering than the other illustrations.  I also did a little more rendering digitally as well mostly on the rabbit's armor and fur.  Overall, it came out well, I look forward to working on the logo and font next.  Be on the lookout for my kickstarter early next year!  I will make some announcements a few weeks before it goes live!

Special Thanks, Finished Illustration

 I finished painting this illustration last night.  Scanned really well and not many adjustment layers were needed.  Love how this one turned out, it was originally supposed to be the back cover, but it feels better as the special thanks.  Only one more illustration to finish which is the front cover!

Back Cover, Finished Illustration

I finished painting the back cover today.  It was originally intended to be the front cover but after a critique, it was suggested that I make a new front cover where the hero is standing instead of sliding on his back.  Painting this illustration went fairly smoothly, there are a lot of opaques in this one - the fire and dust are almost completely opaque.  It is much harder to paint smooth flames using transparent paint.  With opaque paint I can get much smoother and softer blends with the flames.  Quite a bit of adjustment layers in the scan since yellow-oranges always create an issue.  The scan matches the original fairly well.  Only two more illustrations to go!!

Title Page and Dedication Page, Finished Illustrations

I finished painting the title page a couple days ago.  The dedication page was finished about two weeks ago.  I worked on adjusting all the colors of the scans this weekend.  Not too many adjustment layers were needed and I am getting faster at the process.  Only three illustrations remain!  I will work on the special thanks page next.

Page 1 Finished Illustration!

I finished painting page one yesterday and got it scanned tonight.  Luckily, I did not have to do that many adjustment layers.  It scanned quite well so what you see in this digital image is very close to the original.  All of the interior pages are done!!  I am quite happy, only five more pages to go and the book will be almost done!  I start teaching next week but I still hope to complete two illustrations in September and two more in October.  Hopefully I will be able to finish the final illustration in November. 

Lesson planning for teaching takes a considerable amount of time so I am not sure if I will have all the art done in November.  Friday's and Saturday's are exclusively lesson planning days which shortens the amount of painting time I have in a given week.  Regardless, if I do not have all the paintings done by the end of November, it will most certainly be finished before the end of the year arrives.

Pages 24 and 25 Finished Illustration

I finished painting these this Saturday, got them scanned and adjusted all the colors today.  Not a whole lot of adjustment layers needed on this one thankfully.  These are the final interior pages of the book, I only have to finish page one and then all of the interior pages will be done!  All that remains after the last interior page is done are the front cover, back cover, dedication, title page and special thanks.