The Singing Springing Lark

I painted this as a Christmas present for this pretty great person that I know. It is an illustration from this fairy tale.

Illustration Friday, Pioneer

It's been so long since I've posted. I've been pretty busy with projects that I'll probably post at some point, but in the mean time here is a quick sketch I did for Illustration Friday's topic "pioneer".

Here in Utah there is a lot of emphasis on the pioneers that settled the Salt Lake Valley so that is what I thought of first. I really admire all the people who risked leaving their homes to settle somewhere totally new and different. Since my ancestors first left Europe to come to the United States and then were among those that walked to Utah I wouldn't be where I am with out them. Since I rather like it here, I'm super glad they did it.

Check it out!

Here are some images from two books I illustrated last spring.




And here they are in real life if you want to check it out.
Piece of Cake
Up Up and Away

You have to read the small print on the cover to see my name, but still, pretty cool, eh?

Something Completely Different (Sort Of)

Here is the image I did for the next play at the Empress. It's different then the illustrations I usually create, but I really enjoy fitting the "style" of the art to the job it's going to. I had a lot of fun with the texture as usual and then did the color in Photoshop. This show opens the 16th of October and if it's anywhere are near as good as Arsenic and Old Lace then we have something to look forward to.

Arsenic and Old Lace

Here is my latest poster for the Empress Theatre. I thought some of you might like to see it.

This is me...

...I'm working really hard. Ok, ok I know it looks like I'm being sarcastic but it was a hard day. Really. Maybe you can't tell from the picture but I'm working on thumbnails for a picture book. Oi, it makes my brain hurt just thinking about it.

However, lest you feel bad for me and my hard hard life, here is what I did the day before.


I needed help with my character design for the book, so I rode my bike to the animal shelter and drew these. Have I mentioned before that I have a crush on my pocket watercolor set? Well... now you know.


And just for fun, here is my view of the Iron & Wine concert I went to last night.

Yes, I did draw while the concert was going on. But can you blame me, all those fun looking people were in front of me, and as you might be able to tell I couldn't really see the stage. The music was pretty fantastic too so all in all it was a good night.

Just for Fun!

I finished this illustration the other day just for fun.

Apparently I'm stupider than I thought

Here is the latest Empress poster. The show opens on the 31st. It's looking to be a pretty good one, and it was a fun poster to do.

Now I ask you, why is it that every summer I suffer through a sunburn instead of putting on sunscreen. It's like this really simple lesson that I don't learn summer after summer. Isn't this the definition of being really dumb? (probably)

I.F.-Shaky (warning this post may contain spoilers)

The House Of Clennam comes from Charles Dickens' book Little Dorrit. It is the house where Mrs. Clennam lives with her servants and it's totally creepy and shaky and at the end it falls down. Sorry to ruin the ending but really it's Charles Dickens' so you can pretty much conclude that there is a lot more to the ending than a house falling down. It has murders and secrets and all that. So really I didn't ruin it.
I did this sketch with pen and watercolor.

If you like to scrapbook or make cards...

...check this out!
Sherrod Studio
I did the little illustrations for the stamps.

Pro 4 way stops, The Weeks Adventures, and My Favorite Holiday

I am Pro 4 way stops. I really enjoy how even they are for all involved. A great invention those. (my opinion of course. I know some of you are against 4 way stops. Too bad.) I bring this up because it was one of the more deep and important (I am using sarcasm here) conversations I had with my friend Erica on the way down to Colonial Days.

This is an event it Provo Utah that is part of their 4th of July celebrations. (Yea! for Independence day! My favorite holiday) I did some watercolor painting and chalk art for the event. Now I'm exhausted.



This is me and Shawna in our fabulous colonial costumes. You can see a little of her chalk art on the ground behind us. She's a great artist check her website out. (Go on do it. It's good)



Here I am working on my chalk art. The two girls in the background are my sisters Kezia and Lariah. I recruited them towards the end to help me fill in some of the larger areas of color. I was so tired and just wanted to be done. They did a fantastic job.

Here is the finished art. It's not the best picture, it's hard to get a good angle on a picture that big, but you should get a good idea of what it looked like.



Not too bad for my first attempt at sidewalk chalk art.

Now I'm off to wash my knees (They are pretty green from the day's exploits) and zonk out until tomorrow. Yea!! Tomorrow I love the 4th of July! I love parades! I love fireworks! I love barbecues! I love this country! Oh I'm getting excited just thinking about it. Have I mentioned that it's my favorite Holiday?

Oh Boy!

Colonial Days

This weekend I'll be doing some chalk drawing at the colonial days event in Provo. I thought I give you all a peek at a couple of the watercolors I created to sell there. If any of you want to drop in and see me I'll be there Today and tomorrow from 4-6.

It's a Hate, Hate, Love Relationship

Yesterday I came upstairs after a couple of hours in my downstairs studio/bedroom and found a fabulous package on the kitchen table for me. Was it the travel set of watercolors I recently ordered from ASW and am anxiously waiting for? No,it was copies of a book illustrated back in March. A little book of short stories that I did a cover and interiors for. Here are a couple of my favorites.




Mostly it was pretty darn exciting to get the books and see my stuff but at the same time there's that part of me that hates the whole thing. I mean, there are my illustrations in a book. I did my best on them at the time but now I can see so much that I could have improved. Ulgh! (isn't just how it goes) In fact I feel like I'm being a little risky sharing these pictures because of that part of me that hates them. (I mean, really I hate them.) But there is also a side of me that really likes them the compositions are fun and, heck, they are in a book, a real book. So...I guess that side of me wins.

I'm such a Blog slacker.

Sorry, I've been such a blog slacker lately. So much has been going on, including a couple of funish projects I've been working on. Maybe sometime I'll show them to you.

So, here is some of what I've been up to. (In Washington DC)







Most of the sketches are form Mount Vernon. The last sketch is of some of the people on the flight home. Besides Mount Vernon I also go to see, a car on fire in Missouri, the National Gallery of Art, the Freer Gallery, (my favorite, tons of Whistler paintings, so great!), the Ruby Slippers, (who wouldn't miss out on those), and the White House. (Lucky me! Thanks again Thad!)
And there was a lot more to see but I only had 5 days and it's exhausting doing that much sight seeing.

I know that is only one week out of the four I haven't posted so what else has been going on? Well it may or may not have included seeing UP multiple times since it's come out. GO SEE IT! It's brilliant!

Illustration Friday- Theater

Ok so really this is kind of cheating. I did this poster for a production of See How They Run that is coming up this Summer at the Empress. So even though I didn't create this illustration specifically for IF, I'm posting it any way. I decided it was worth kind of cheating because (1) I haven't posted in a couple of months, (2) and this is one of the only things that I've done since that I can post right away, (3) and it goes with the Illustration Friday theme more or less.

Hopefully there will be more soon. I have done a bunch of work in the last couple of months so it seems like sometime soon I should be able to share some of that too.

Go see the play!

I've been waiting to post this. I did it a couple months ago for the Empress Theatre's production of Guys and Dolls. I really like how it turned out and I'm excited about the play too. If you think you might want to go see it there is more info on the theatre's website. The play starts February 27th.

Something about Clowns

I feel like I should say something about clowns since I am posting a clown illustration and all. I don't really have much to say about them though, except that the face paint makes them a little harder to draw, (try making a person look sad when they have a smile painted on) and I've been in the mood to draw them lately. But here is a cool thing, when I was "researching" for my clown illustrations I found a blog written by someone who loves clowns so much he can't stop talking about them, Pat Cashin's Clown Alley. If you ever want to know anything about clowns you can probably find it there. It was totally handy for me.

So now, instead of saying something about clowns, I'm gonna say something about people. I love that we/people can just really like stuff so much that we learn about it and write about it and love it and can't get enough of what ever it is. I love that most of us can become a little crazy about random things. It great, and you never know if maybe some of the stuff you are a little crazy about could even be helpful for other people too, like when they/she might want to draw a clown or two.

Sketches are still better than nothing

It's crazy how time flies. I keep meaning to post all kinds of things and not getting the stuff I can post to posting point. Thus we see that today you just get to see some more from my sketchbook. I've been having fun with it lately so I think it'll do for now.

On another note. I totally broke a hundred bowling yesterday. First time ever. My score was 101. Yippee!