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!

1 Sea Turtle

2 Hermit Crabs

3 Brown Pelicans

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 Two: blue

Step Three: Yellow

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

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!