Cat with Pumpkin (Sculpture in progress...)

Bussy time of year, I hope you all had a nice holiday. I found some time to tinker with this small sculpture of a "Cat with a Pumpkin". I'm working on a small series of Halloween and Christmas sculptures that I will ultimately submit to a collectibles manufacturer. This piece will be pulled together with a little paint when I find the time.

Folk Art Santa Advent Calendar

I designed this advent calendar for the Foreside company (see my drawing of this in the January archives...Jan 16 I think). My Mother gave this to me as a Christmas gift for my unborn son who should be with us in a few weeks.

Whittle Babies scuplted ornaments

I finished sculpting and painting four "Whittle Babies" for Christmas gifts. The one on the left is paper pulp and the rest are sculpey clay. Sculpey is a soft clay that gets hard when you cook it.

Sledding Poem illustration (Sketch)

The good folks at Houghton are keeping me bussy and I'm forever in debted, I've wanted to work for them ever since I was in art school. Here is another illustrated poem assignment, I'm posting the sketch and a close up of a section of it. The finished piece is 11x17" and will be painted digitally after I recieve feedback.

Beach Bums (finish)

Finished this pencil drawing commission of the four children on the beach. 11x14 graphite on paper.

Beach Bums

I'm just about done with this piece, I just have to add another boy and some backround elements and it's a wrap.

Thank you for writing about commissions, I am currently booked up for Christmas and will be unable to finish any further requests for the Holiday. Please feel free to write to me for future drawing or painting commissions at my regular email address: tmbonita@comcast.net

Beach Bums (drawing in progress...)

I started this Christmas commission last week and I'm happy to have the time to jump back in and finish it this afternoon. I'm posting a section thats just about complete. It's a graphite drawing on printing press paper. This printing paper has a really nice tooth to it that gives a warm texture to the finished drawing.

If you would like to commission a drawing or painting for this Christmas feel free to send an email to my regular E address: tmbonita@comcast.net

Kite cover illustration

I finished this second cover for Houghton Mifflin this morning. This is a digital painting I did in Photoshop, painted over a scanned pencil sketch.

*(This morning I added a word verification security device to the "Post Comments" page to help prevent spammers. I've been getting a lot of spam lately and this is one of the ways to combat it. If you'de like to leave a comment, please feel free to do so as usual. The only difference will be the extra few seconds to complete the word varification. I'll keep it up for a week or so and see how it affects my torturous spam influx).

Cat cover illustration (Finish)

Finished this cover for Houghton Mifflin today. On to the next one...

Boston Red Sox baseball player (Drawing)

I had fun drawing that ball player yesterday so I thought I would do another. I went online and checked out what a turn-of-the-century Red Sox uniform looked like, this one is similar to the 1908 season (circa Cy Young).

My moleskin sketchbook has this slightly yellowed paper in it that enhances that nostalgic look I was seeking in this drawing.

Ball Player (sketchbook)

Trapped in the Toyota dealership for much of the afternoon waiting for my car to be repaired. Waiting rooms are torture, the only thing worse is shopping. Anyhoot-I came prepared with my small portable moleskin sketchbook (it's only 3.5 x 5.5") and doodled this 'ol time baseball player. I love the uniforms of the turn-of-the-century game and there is just something about the poses and posture of the people of that period. Not to mention the fat-daddy mustaches some of them sported.

Witch with Pumpkin drawing

I'm in this mood to scuplt Halloween figures...not sure why but here is a doodle I did of a Witch and a pumpkin that I'm considering sculpting.

Boo Mobile

I finished the Cat in the car sculpture, I'm calling it the "Boo Mobile". I added this cat holding a Jack-o-lantern on a staff and slapped some paint on it. I'm thinking of adding a flame paint job on the hood, still thinking that one over. I pictured the car black with flames but then I painted the cat black and liked him that way. it would have been too much (I think) to have a black cat in a black car. Flames could look cool on the purple...I dunno, we'll see, maybe it's done.

Cat Cover (approved revision)

This is the approved revisions for the cat cover. I'm going to color.

Kite sketch (Book cover illustration)

Just finished this sketch for the other book cover for Houghton Mifflin publishers. I just emailed it to the art director and now I'm just waiting on revisions or the green light to go to finish. Just like yesterdays sketch of the cat on the pillow, these started out as pencil sketches, scanned into the Mac and tickled with Photoshop using a Wacom tablet. I'll color these in Photoshop when I get the go-ahead.

Cat on a Pillow (Book cover illustration)

This is hot off the computer-"Shazam!" It still blows my mind how quickly we can zap info and imagery to one another. I just finished this sketch for a cover assignment for Houghton Mifflin book publishers, fun stuff and I've always loved drawing cats.

Car sculpture

I started sculpting this small car with clay, paper pulp, metal and some plastic parts of a broken toy. It still has a ways to go, I plan on adding a cat sitting in the drivers seat and adding flames in the paint job.

Folk Art Santa Platter

Folk Art Santa dessert plates

Here are the Folk Art Santa dessert plates. I'm including my original illustration design of the four plates.

Folk Art Santa serving tray

The Foreside in Kittery, Maine is carrying a bunch of the Folk Art Santa dinnerware, including this serving tray.

Folk Art Santa Mugs

These are the Folk Art Santa Mugs set of 4. I'm posting the original sketch as well.

Whittle Baby (in progress)

Work in progress seems to be the story of my life. I actually like the chaos of a lot of projects going at once, it keeps it fresh and interesting for me.

I started in on this small clay and metal sculpture of a new born baby holding a small heart that I will ultimately attatch to his hands. From these photos you can see the early stage of the construction. That wire coming from his head will be a clasp that I will tie a ribbon to after I paint him. The finished product will be a christmas ornament.

I used to whittle these from balsa wood and give them to expecting mothers as gifts, thus the name "Whittle Baby" (Thats copywritten man, so don't steal my bazillion dollar idea). Alison and I are expecting our fist child in January so I plan to put this in her stocking. (She doesn't read my blog that often, so it's likely she won't read this). I'll post the finished ornament after I paint it.

Folk Art Santa Hors'Douvres plates (set of 4)

Currently available at Foreside retail. This image is the catalogue photo taken by the master of light and lense, Mike Bowker.

Folk Art Santa Cookie plate

Here is another piece that I'm told is now available at Foreside retail stores. It's from the Folk Art Santa collection I designed, this is the Cookie plate.

Monhegan Island Sailboats (almost done)

I layed in all the local color and started giving form to all the elements. It's stretch and pull time to pull this all together. it's close to being done.

Folk Art Santa ornaments

These are small tree ornaments and table ornaments of the Folk art santa figures availale at currently Foreside.

A spike of Green (Finish)

Here is the finished illustration for the "Spike of Green" poem. This is a scanned sketch that I painted digitally in Photoshop using a wacom tablet. The final painting was extended on the left and right to accomodate the insertion of the poem. I also put the little girl in jeans instead of the cute little church outfit she was wearing in the original sketch.

A spike of Green

I just got an assignment from Houghton Mifflin Publishers to do a prototype illustration for a forthcoming childrens book of poems. This poem is called "A Spike of Green". It's a short and sweet poem about the innocent and gentle connection between this girl and her budding plant.

This is the sketch I submitted. It has since been approved with some changes, I'm painting the finish right now. I'll post the completed painting tomorrow.

Folk Art Santa

A few friends I used to work with at the Foreside Company recently mentioned that Foreside had filed chapter 7. It's always sad to hear of a small company going bankrupt, an unfortunate sign-of-the-times for the smaller home decor operations. The good news is that the retail stores are still open for the time being and hopefully they can manage to hang on and slowly rebuild the empire that once was.

Before I left, I designed a line of Christmas items based on a bunch of "Folk art Santa" characters I illustrated. The line includes an entire set of dinnerware with plates, serving trays, mugs, bowls, chip-n-dip plate, a cool cookie plate with three dimensional figures on it, etc...It also includes a number of tree ornaments, table ornaments in various sizes and styles, metal ornaments, a large resin figure card holder and several other items.

I went to the Foreside retail outlet in Kittery, Maine last night and saw a limited number of these items and was told they expect there will be more available before Christmas at all of there retail stores.

Today, I am posting the original Folk Art Santa illustration and one of the resin figures that is currently available at Foreside. I'll post more of the dinnerware and other items when I get word of there availability.

Greenland Sky study

It was unseasonably warm so I thought I would sneak out of the studio and do a quick outdoor study. The light changes extremely fast at sunset so I slapped down paint as quickly as I could to get an impression of the light and moving cloudes over Greenland, NH. It seemed every time I looked at my canvas and returned my eyes to the sky that the light had dimmed and the clouds had rolled along. It was nice to be outdoors again.

Monhegan Island Sailboats (...In progress)

Monhegan Island Sailboats (Underpainting)

I'm finally back in my studio-under-the-stairs with the spiders and strange smells...right where I belong.

I transferred a drawing I did of two sailboats cruising by Monhegan Island and layed in a warm underpainting. This is a 16x20" gessoed wood board. I'm going to experiment with a slow dry medium that I read about in the December issue of American Artist magazine. The article was about one of my favorite American figure painters, Malcolm Liepke. I've always admired the smooth consistency of his paint and his fluid brushwork. He uses Linseed oil, Poppyseed oil and a few drops of Clove oil. It's supposed to stay wet for weeks and allow longer wet-in-wet working time, we'll see what happens.

Pink Caddy spot illustration

I love you for your pink cadillac
Crushed velvet seats
Riding in the back, oozing down the street
Waving to the girls
Feeling out of sight
Spending all my money on a saturday night
Honey, I just wonder what you do there in back of your pink cadillac
Pink cadillac (insert Clearance Clemens saxaphone solo...)

I actually get the willy's from that song. Sorry Bruce, I know you read this blog and I like your music but this isn't your best work.

Todays post is a spot illustration of a Pink Caddy, slightly charicaturized.

Book bag spot illustratiions

Still cranking out spot illustrations for Fridays deadline, here are a pair of book bag paintings I did last night.

These are pencil sketches that I scanned and painted in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet. The Wacom tablet is a digital miracle. It's a pressure sensative stylus (looks just like a pen) that I draw and paint on a 12"x12" tablet surface. It responds to the subtle pressure of my hand, I can bear down for a fatter line or gently caress the surface for a thinner, more expressive line, etc...

I still have to make an image with the same considerations I would using traditional mediums, it's just less messy and quicker to remedy mistakes. Instead of using turps to wipe out an oil painting error, I can "command>Z" and back up a step...blah, blah, blah...it's real fun, trust me.

I do love the balance of painting in oils some days and then working digital on other days.

Running Late

Todays post is a children's illustration drawing, "Running Late".

Baseball

Todays post is a small oil painting study of a baseball from life (6x8"). Even though my studio under the stairs has spider webs and a strange smell, it was nice to steal a few moments and get down there to do some oil painting.

I've been busy lately coloring spot illustrations for Fridays deadline. I'm sparing you and I the monotony of posting spots everyday but I will put up a few this week.

I hope you are all well, I have been missing our more frequent correspondance and I'm looking forward to sharing some cool projects with you all. After this Friday, I hope to join the daily painters movement. This is a group of artist accross the country and world who have committed to painting every day. I can't think of a better way to improve your craft than constant application. Check out the inspiring work some of these artist who are producing on a daily basis:

DAILY PAINTERS GALLERY

Vintage baseball mit study

This is an oil study I did today of a vintage baseball mit. I'm trying to figure out a composition for a small finished oil painting...maybe a ball in the mit, perhaps the mit is angled differently. Don't know yet, have to sleep on it.

Let them eat cake...

I've been slammed with work and life and missing my oil painting easel. Today belongs to more childrens illustration sketches though. Here is a drawing of a girl with a birthday cake.

Good deed.

Here is another illustration assignment I just finished for Harcourt Publishers. This is a magazine piece and was painted digitally in Photoshop.