Taking a "mini" break.

I'm in between children's book projects and have a few days to work on miniature paintings. Here is the latest mini.

Prairie Dog with selected frame.

I think the title will be: Prairie Dog. It was painted with acrylic paint and is 3x4 inches. I started the painting last January as a demonstration piece at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art (on the campus of St. Petersburg College in Tarpon Springs, Florida).

Painting demo for Miniature Art Society of Florida (MASF).

Working from photo reference.
I  purchased the magnifying visor for painting miniatures but they just didn't work for me... returned them and went back to a hand-held magnifying glass.

I hope to finish a couple more miniatures in the next few months. I'll need a few more "mini" breaks.

BEEP! It's a studio, full of wet paint.

Here is a sneak preview of my newest book, in progress. The title is BEEP! It's Bedtime by Christina Geist, to be published by RandomHouse.  Like many of my other books, I started with an underpainting in acrylic paint, followed by a couple of coats of matte medium. Then it's time to slap on the ole' oil paint.

Each book project requires about twenty pieces of art and some of them are very time consuming if there is much detail involved. A book takes several months of work and somewhere in the middle of the process, I start to feel a little overwhelmed. I usually paint in a production line sort of way, mixing a few colors and hitting several paintings with that paint.

Back and forth, from one painting to the next. Hours turn into days and days, into months. I'm lucky to know what year it is. Anyway, I'm getting close to the finish on this book and all of the paintings that seemed incomplete for so long, are now starting to come together.

I'll show more when everything is finished.

By the way, it is still 2015, right?

Hello, Dolly!

I just received a letter from Dolly Parton. One of my books, Not Your Typical Dragon has been selected for the 2015 edition of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library program in the US and Candada. 

This is so cool! They get selected books into the hands of thousands of kids. What a great service! Dolly Parton ...thank YOU for inspiring children to "Dream More, Learn More, Care More & Be More"...SA-LUTE!

Toledo Museum of Art "Best in Show"...

I have a painting that is hanging in The Toledo Museum of Art .If you are in the area and can navigate through the snow, check it out. The show is a collection of animal illustrations from the Mazza Museum: International Art from Picture Books.

One of my childhood favorite book characters will also be in the show. Clifford the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell. My painting is an illustration of me as a young boy and my dog, named Scat.

This illustration is from the book, titled: Speak!: Children's Book Illustrators Brag About Their Dogs (compiled by Michael J. Rosen, Harcourt Children's Books,1993)

The show ends July 5th so go when you won't need the sled dogs.
...enjoy!