Max sketch

I hope you've all been well, I've never been better. Max is three weeks old today, here is a sketch of him sleeping. I'm slightly jealous of Max in this pose, my wife and I have hardly slept at all these past three weeks. I wouldn't change it for the world though, we are happier than I can ever remember.

I'm officially back to work this week and have many projects I'm excited about. I feel a little rusty but I'm thrilled to dust off my oil painting pallet and get cranking on some new pieces in the studio.

My first masterpiece

Max David Bonita
born 8:14am
8.74(lbs)

My best work yet...As you can imagine, my postings will be less frequent this month.
Thank you all for the well wishes, all my best to you.

Todd (The very proud papa).

Cat with Pumpkin (sculpture finish)

I finished painting the "Cat with Pumpkin" sculpture I was working on. He is made of sculpey clay (It hardens when you cook it). I painted him with acrylics and sprayed him with an enamel clear sealant. He will be one of the figures I'm going to submit with a series of Halloween sculptures to a collectibles company. This was a lot of fun to make, I felt like a kid making crafts in pre-school.

The Hurd

Today marks one year since I committed to post my artwork every day for a year on this blog. Although I spared you by not posting some of the art works that I ended up flinging across my studio, I did manage to create 305 pieces of art in the last 365 days. This blog has had over 5000 visitors from over 22 different countries since January '06. It's an amazing medium that allows you to post your art and then have someone in South Africa see it seconds later. How cool is that? How could I not want part of that?

I think it's the first time I disciplined myself to do any single thing every day for a year. The experience has humbled me greatly by discovering once again that it takes constant application of your craft and miles of canvas just to suck at it. I heard a golf pro once say that if you practice your driving, putting and mechanics every day for ten years you just might be lucky enough to achieve suckiness. With that, I look forward to slapping down copious gobs of paint on acres of canvas and smashing many more paintings off my studio wall. Good times ahead...

Todays post is one I planned on posting a year ago, it's the finished catalogue photo of a product I conceived, sketched and posted a year ago. See the archives for January 9th, 2006 to see my sketch of the cow with bunny ears that started this tomfoolery. Since the day I posted that sketch a year ago, this cow has has been painted, edited through product development, manufactured, trade show tested, photographed, cataloged, marketed, shelved and sold in stores nationwide. This image is from the Foreside spring catalog photo taken by Mike Bowker of Bowker imaging (Mac-daddy of light and lens) and features the cow in a glamour shot with the other critters from this collection.

Sledding Poem (finish)

Here is the finished piece for the Sledding poem illustration. This is a sketch that is scanned and then painted in photoshop. I've included a cropped close-up of the children in the foreground.

Sledding poem illustration (crop)

Happy New Year!

Todays post is a cropped section of the Sledding poem illustration that I'm working on for a book of illustrated poems. I should rap this up soon.

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.