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Monday, June 28, 2010

Sea Bird Satellite Location in the Country

The sea birds have set up a satellite location in the country while the Gulf oil spill is being cleaned up. Have you ever seen seagulls, pelicans and chickens all under one roof? Me neither, but here’s how I imagine it would look:

The chicken coop has a few visitors.
The chicken coop has a few visitors.

The prompt for Illustration Friday this week was “satellite,” and the prompt for the CBIG Blog this month was “country.” I decided to combine the two in a painting for the ripple blog (to help animals affected by the oil spill). Click here for more info or to purchase this painting.
There’s still a whale print and two paintings, seagulls and pelicans, by me for sale from previous weeks.

Friday, June 25, 2010

paisley whales make ripples

The prompt for Illustration Friday this week was paisley. I’ve never really been a paisley person, but when I read the word for the week, I thought of a whale illustration I’d done a couple of years ago (probably because I’d just finished some paintings for the ripple project):

Happy Whale
Happy Whale

I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to do so I just started working. I made paisley-like swirls and filled the centers with fishies, sea turtles and jellyfish. Then a couple of happy accidents happened and I decided to create 2 paisley whales:

Paisley Whale #1
Paisley Whale #1 (Unhappy)

Paisley Whale #2 (Singing)
Paisley Whale #2 (Singing)

I’ve decided to donate digital prints of these three images to the ripple project. Click here for more info or to purchase these images. Each print is 3″ x 4″ and sells for $10. ALL PROCEEDS go to one of these two non-profit charities: The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies and The International Bird Rescue Research Center. The buyer donates directly to one of the charities, ensuring that all the money goes to the relief effort. They then send the email confirmation and the art is shipped out to them. The copyright notice is for the web only and won’t be on the prints, but they will be signed.
Note: There are still two paintings from my original series available for purchase here (the seagulls and the pelicans). Both paintings are 2.5″ x 3.5″ and are the actual paintings, not prints.

seagulls and pelicans
seagulls and pelicans

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Four ripples for IF and gulf oil spill relief

Last week I heard that illustrator Kelly Light had started a sketch blog called, Ripple Sketches, where artists could donate art to help the animal victims of the gulf oil spill. Each piece of art is 2.5″ x 3.5″ and sells for $10. ALL PROCEEDS go to one of these two non-profit charities: The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies and The International Bird Rescue Research Center. The buyer donates directly to one of the charities, ensuring that all the money goes to the relief effort. They then send the email confirmation and the art is shipped out to them.

I started sketching right away, thinking that it would be a quick project. Ha. I kept painting and painting and painting, until I felt the pictures were ready to be sold (see the painting process below the finished pictures). It took me a week to paint these four paintings, and in the meantime, Illustration Friday chose “Ripple” as the word for the week to encourage more artists to create ripple sketches for Kelly’s project. There’s a lot of really really great art and more keeps getting added each day. So far Kelly Light and other artists have helped raise over $3000! At $10 per piece of art, it’s a real bargain and helps a great cause. Here are my four ripple paintings (link to purchase these paintings.): Update: The Sea Turtle and Hermit Crabs have sold. The Pelicans and Seagulls are still available!

Sea Turtle
1 Sea Turtle

2 Hermit Crabs
2 Hermit Crabs

3 Brown Pelicans
3 Brown Pelicans

4 Seagulls
4 Seagulls

All four paintings are done in acrylic paint and are 2.5″ x 3.5.” Here’s the painting process if you want to see how they were created -

Step One: sketch
Step One: sketch
Step Two: blue
Step Two: blue

Step Three: Yellow
Step Three: Yellow
Step Four: final color
Step Four: final color

Because I always like seeing how other artists work, here’s my paint palette when the project was complete (I kept the acrylic paint wet by putting it in a Ziplock bag between painting sessions:

Paint Palette
Paint Palette

For more information on how you can help animals in the gulf by purchasing art, or to purchase these paintings, please visit this page on the Ripple Sketches blog. Thanks!