Little Butterfly

Hello Everyone! I hope this day is finding you well and that the sun is shining in your life. I thought I would share another illustration I did for the Lullaby book that I am currently working on. It's such a sweet and magical book of poetry and song and it is full of the child's imagination. Goodness through and through. The author of this book is a wonderful person and a joy to work with. I think that this is going to be a very special book for those who read it. The illustration below is for the lullaby, "Little Butterfly". I've decided to also post a close up of the detail along with the original sketch. It's amazing how the pencil has a different feel verses the watercolor.

For the rest of this week I'll be back to work on the spot illustrations for "Rootfoot". I will share those in a future post. Be well, my friends.

~James

Another Sneak-Peak and more ACEOs

I have been having a blast so far this year! I've been trying to find ways onworking quicker and on a more daily basis. As I mentioned in my previous posts, I've been working on two children's books along with some other commission work. In this post I thought I would share with you another spot illustration from the tale of "Rootfoot" (Part of a book of tales). This one is of Rootfoot's faithful friend, Willowcrest.

I've also managed to squeeze a little time in for making some more original ACEOs/ Baby Brownies. Here are a couple more of them that I did today. They can be purchased at my Etsy Shoppe if anyone is interested.

Have a great day everyone...stay warm!

Rootfoot

 As I had mentioned in yesterday's post, I am currently work on another book based on some of my past works accompanied by the beautiful writings of D.R. Hartle, a talented writer and a dear friend. This book will be a book of short stories that will be lavishly illustrated with full color and black and white imagery. Each tale has a moral to it and I'm hoping that it will bring a lot of smiles to those who read it. I've always been a big fan of the old  illustrated books of the true classics, those illustrated by N.C. Wyeth, Rackham and others. My hope is to create a book of new tales in the old way.

Above is the painting of "Rootfoot", a painting I did a few years back that inspired a beautiful tale written by D.R. Hartle. Below are some spot illustrations that I did this past week. The tale is about an old tree that tends to the forest saplings and grows weary ....but the tale doesn't end there! I will keep that a surprise.

A book of Lullabies...

I've been currently working on a wonderful project, a book of Lullabies. I've always enjoyed portraying the wonder of childhood in my work and how the imagination thrives in the heartspace of a child. 

This book is no exception. The author is a very special person with a gift of capturing childhood innocence and wonder. It's a real honor for me to be working with her. It's truly a journey. Anyway, below you will find that I've posted a couple of illustrations from this book of wonder.

I've also been working on another project, one that I'm really excited about. I'll share a little bit about it on my next post.

Book Illustration

Throughout my career I've had the pleasure to do a number of commissions, some of which were illustrating children's books. Most of these book projects have been with small publishers and with authors who self published their books. So, I thought I would share some samples of my illustrations from two of these books. A few of the books that I've illustrated are unpublished but I still enjoyed making the illustrations. I am working on a book right now that is about lullabies, a perfect subject now that we have a little one of our own.

MAGIC MARMALADE and the MOONLIGHT FAIRIESUNTITLED BOOK (a book without words)

Have a great day!

~James