Mask Shop

   
     I don't know if this one is quite done.  I have a feeling I'll be going into it and tweaking things here and there but it's not going to have anymore extreme changes. I'll be submitting it to a SCBWI notecard contest within the next couple of weeks.
     This is the result of a few things coming together.  I had taken a photo of a mask shop a couple of years ago.  The photo didn't turn out great but I liked the idea. Then, I was driving through Covington, Ohio last year and saw an empty building on a street corner.  I took a photo thinking I would paint that building and then fill the windows in with the items from the mask shop.

     This is what the painting was looking like when I ran out of steam.  There just wasn't enough going on in there.  When the opportunity of the notecard contest came up (they want an illustration depicting my favorite season and THIS is it) I decided to take a photo of the unsuccessful painting and liven it up a bit. I dropped it into Corel Paint and added all the fun stuff.

Talent Show poster

I haven't posted for a couple of weeks.  I've been busy with a few projects including this poster for a local talent show.  The picture below is the first one I did a few months ago for the sign-up.

SEPTEMBER

Another redo, and another chance to use that autumn background from my last post. The first time I posted this idea was two years ago. Here it is:

I've come a long way in my skills.  This older one was just intended to be a sketch, and it's done in acrylics with no digital enhancements.  I put the idea aside and figured I would come back to it eventually. This newer one was done half with pencil and paints, half on the computer.

I Love Autumn

Here's one that I just did for myself.  I had painted a really pretty abstract background with acrylic paints quite a while ago. Today I sat down to sketch out some ideas trying to figure out what to do with it.

Once I had an idea, I dropped it into the computer and got to work experimenting with the different layers.  I have had several miscellaneous things going on this week, things unrelated to art, and was feeling pretty unproductive.  Now I feel better.

ENCHANTED

This is a redo of a post from May titled Nighttime. The SCBWI has a word prompt this month - ENCHANTED, and my mind immediately went to enchanted forest.  Then I remembered this piece I had done and thought "hey, I'm more than halfway there. I'll just make my forest more enchanting!"

Here's the May post: