Art on display at Logan County Library during month of July

These pics are of Frank and my artwork currently on display at the Logan County Library in Russellville, KY.  They will be there through out July.

My paintings and select list of my published illustrated children's picture books are located in the foyer of the new library building, in a lovely display case.  You can see full size images of the artworks, by going to our website and clicking on the various pages that show a particular image you might be interested in.  The same holds true for Frank's sculptures.

Art show at Logan County Library

Frank's sculptures are located inside the building, by the newspaper reading chairs,  in a beautiful display case.....

Frank's sculptures at Logan County Library

If you haven't already, please stop by and see the lovely new library building, and while you're there take a look at our artwork too!

Thanks SO much to all the kind folks at the library for their help......and just for being such all round nice people!

Talk at Customs House Museum in Clarksville, TN on June 22nd 2014 2-3 pm

This blog post is to invite y'all to stop by the Customs House Museum in Clarksville, TN on June 22^nd at 2 p.m. To join me for a talk about children's book illustration: Draw Me A Story. It is in conjunction with the Customs House Museum display all about The Wizard of Oz. 

 The talk is open to the public just for the entry fee to the Museum.

You can see more about the Museum   here:  http://customshousemuseum.org/  and more about the lovely interactive Wizard of Oz exhibit here:  http://customshousemuseum.org/temporary-exhibits/the-wonderful-wizard-of-oz

I plan tell a bit about my journey thru a little slice of the children's book publishing world. To go along with that I'm posting here a list of websites that I've found most helpful:

My Website: http://www.lyneart.com

Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators http://www.scbwi.org/

Midsouth chapter of SCBWI http://midsouth.scbwi.org/

Predator and Editors website to find out about companies http://pred-ed.com/

Articles about the business of writing/illustrating http://www.underdown.org/

You can find these books and magazines at bookstores or online:

For Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market books http://www.writersdigest.com/

For 2014 copy:

http://www.writersdigestshop.com/2014-childrens-writers-illustrators-market-group

For the Writer Magazine http://www.writermag.com/

For Highlights Magazine info https://www.highlights.com/

During my talk I discuss the importance of laying out your ideas for both the verbal and visual portions of a children's book. To help in that I'm posting a version of a “book chart” used for a 32 page children's book.

Y'all come!

Doing With Out the Lines: A bit about my current illustration techniques

This blog post shares a bit about my current illustration techniques when I'm illustrating a 32 page color picture book.

At this point, my sketches are finalized and I'm ready to paint. I usually do pretty “tight” sketches, (meaning I give enough details in my sketches for the AD to see pretty much all I intend to paint), so at this point there's not to much to adjust.

For instance, in this detail of a page in my current WIP, I have a nice face and hands sketched out for the “mother” character. I take this black and white sketch (after enhancing the dark lines) and print it out (in multiple copies) on a regular piece of paper.

On one of the printed copies,I cut out various main elements of the drawing.....in this case the figure's head and hands. Using this as a stencil, I lay in a light acrylic glaze in the broad stretch of the head/hands. I “cut and repeat” with each of the main elements of the drawing. This is similar to what digital artists do.....laying in different color layers....bounded by a fill line for the selected color.

After the glaze is dry, (about 15 minutes or so) I will remove the stencil and using the light box light coming thru the black and white drawing, the bristol board, and the colored glaze, I will lightly sketch in the main features of the head and hands. I use a watercolor pencil for this step, as it will easily erase as I proceed to paint in the face.

Now I remove the board from the light box, and start painting from the right side, using the watercolor pencil lines for guides. I start painting in the features of the head, using light glazes to build up the face. I use brushes, sponges and finger tips to get the look I'm going for. 

I will do more to the face and hands after I've put in the other surrounding components of the scene. Here's how it looks after the first color pass.

After this I will lay in more of the components of the page in the same fashion.

  

A Question of Stripes; Part Deux

A Question of Stripes

16 x 20 inches 

acrylic on cloth on masonite

This blog post is to show off a recent painting and to tell a bit about it's “second chance”

A while back I did an experimental painting called A Question of Stripes. At the time I painted it, I called it “finished”. But I never did feel that it was quite “done”, but other illustration work intruded.

At the first of this year I had a bit of a lull in my illustration work, so I came back to this piece. I decided that it needed a figure......but I had a bit of a problem.....”bumps”. The painting had been done over some linen material, with woven ridges in the cloth. These ridges were great for texture and breaking up the colored stripes.....but would be murder to paint a figure over.

So instead of doing away with a section of stripes for a proposed figure.....I decided to elevate some of the painting surface to accommodate a figure. I drew my figure and decided to have her interact with the background lines.....as I'd done for the flowered question mark.

I slowly built up layers with Golden Gel Medium, in the outline of the girl in the striped dress. After it reached the level of the black line I was building it over.....I painted the gel medium with a layer of gesso. I now had the figure base all laid in and ready to paint. I painted the girl with acrylic glazes and I was now REALLY finished with this piece.

was lucky enough to have A Question of Stripes juried into the Customs House Museum's National Juried Exhibition: Figuratively Speaking ......on display May 8-July 13, 2014. The Customs House Museum is in Clarksville, TN.

Paint My World

Paint My World

16 x 20 acrylic paint

This recent painting is a bit out of my comfort zone. It features some realistic elements, but has combined them in more of an abstract style.

I like painting realistic historic buildings, like these:

but I usually paint the entire building.

In Paint My World, I decided to show just a section of the stonework of an old building, receding into the shadows of “times gone by”. I showed the young girl painting her ideas (plants, flowers, florescent colors) over the dull cold stones of the past.

I like the combination of buildings and people to tell a story or show a viewpoint. Using this kind of “story telling” lets me indulge in painting “some of my favorite things”. I also like the idea that, in our own minds at least, we might color the world to express our dreams.

I can't seem to stop myself....I HAVE to tell a story

Detail of Raindrops Keep Falling on My.....

I started out working as a “fine artist”.....i.e. I painted for myself and to enter juried shows and sometimes show at sidewalk art fairs. I painted in one of the three standard genres....still life, landscape or portrait. I loved realistic painting, and painted mostly from my photos. So far so good.

Then little bitty stories began creeping into my compositions. At an early age I'd been exposed to all the great historical illustrators thru National Geographic magazine, with lush many page painted spreads. So in my own painting, I began to go outside the “fine art” genre, and painted things with historical themes. In painting historical, I was well on my way to telling stories.....about history.

Fair enough. So.......I began to segue over to illustration. Here, I was commissioned to actually “tell” stories, whether for magazine covers, cards or children's books. But I was still using the “fine art” style to tell stories. This is both good and bad. Good because the “fine art” look did indeed find favor with certain publishers.....bad 'cause it takes a LOT of time to complete final artwork.

Lately I've been having my cake and eating it too, (no calories involved)! I've been planning colored pencil pieces that combine aspects of (still life, landscape or portrait) with a quicker “illustrative” style I.e. “telling an itty bitty story.” My style is still mostly real.....sometimes with just a bit of artistic license. And I'm working hard to “find my whimsy”.

Case in point,this recent colored pencil piece......”Rain Drops Keep Fallin' on My.......”.

It has elements of a still life (leaves), landscape (surrounding ground) and portrait (chipmunks), yet these three things put together, with some red coloured rain drops dripping off a polk berry branch does tell a itsy bitsy story.

To the great amusement of his grinning friend, a busy, full cheeked chipmunk is about to get splashed with a colorful bit of nature. I showed how I got such highlights on the top leaves in this post: http://lyneartblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/white-on-blackhow-do-you-get-there.html

It's a side step from other work I've done..... I'm learning a lot......and it's a lot of fun to boot.

So I guess “it's a good thing” that I just can't stop myself!

 

All my Ducks in a Row

Detail of All My Ducks In A Row (left side)

This is just a bitty post about a recent coloured pencil piece, All My Ducks in a Row.

7 inches by 20 inches

Colored pencil (with a dab of gouche) on black illustration board

(This is the full piece.....it's a bit long for the blog format.)

I finished it just in time to get into the U.S. Bank Celebration of the Arts 2014 Art Show, at the Kentucky Museum in Bowling Green Kentucky....and even managed to score a itty bitty award for “Works on Paper”. I so appreciate the Kentucky Museum's and U.S. Bank's hard work to make a lovely show “happen”. 

Detail of All My Ducks in a Row (right side)

I wrote a brief post http://lyneartblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/how-not-to-draw-to-make-your-picture-pop.html about this piece, while it was a WIP.