Allinart

Well, Lemons

2012-01-26T10:35:00.001-08:00

So those of you who tune in often know that I've been talking about getting a massive illustration project released soon, more details to come, ect. and so on. Unfortunately it's been pushed back until sometime in February- hopefully no more than that!

It's still a little frustrating to have to keep so much finished work in the dark, more or less, but fingers crossed that this gets worked out soon so I can share with you guys my biggest project to date!

Illustration Friday- Prepare

2012-01-18T11:59:00.000-08:00

Midnight snacks during hibernation require a lot of planning!

Illustration Friday- Grounded

2012-01-12T13:22:00.000-08:00

You'd think, what with the lack of visible eyes, that moles would have the perfect poker face.

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-23T10:00:00.000-08:00

It's always a marvel to me how magical a Christmas tree looks given how tacky with a capital T the individual components are. The fake tree, the ornaments held together with superglue and string, the garbage-bag-green string of lights and of course, tinsel. Then you put them all together and it's beautiful.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Off we go!

2011-12-17T12:02:00.000-08:00

It's time for me to putter off into the sunset, towards family reunions, Chicago weather (snow, snow, wind, ice, more snow), holiday parties and, of course, eggnog. I'm planning on doing a bit of a photo safari on the blog since my illustration style isn't portable in the tiniest bit.

On the publishing front, word is that I should be able to make an announcement just before Christmas, so stay tuned!

'Tis the Season! (to get some knitting done quickly)

2011-12-02T15:00:00.000-08:00

A little bit of a holiday watercolor doodle, mostly inspired by how I really need to finish up on my own Christmas knitting. December really snuck up on me this year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-23T14:06:00.000-08:00

Profoundest apologies for vanishing into the ether! The combined juggernaut of work and life squashed me flat. But there will be updates in the near future of great interest, including the big reveal of what may be my most massive project to date! (Hint for the excessively curious: go check out Byrne Publishing)

But in the meantime, I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Illustration Friday- Disguise

2011-08-31T14:53:00.001-07:00

Glumph's Rules for Interplanetary Travel:

#11- Put some actual thought towards blending into the native population.

Illustration Friday- Influence

2011-08-22T11:50:00.001-07:00

It's a few days early, but- Happy Birthday Dad!

Falling off the map

2011-08-18T13:50:00.001-07:00

Well, I did vanish into the ether for a while, didn't I? My apologies for that- I've taken on some very large illustration projects (and hopefully I'll be given the go-ahead to talk about them soon!) and the deadlines tackled me into the ground.

Anyway, a tidbit of interesting information for you! If you should happen to be in the Portland, Oregon area anytime fairly soon, you might want to consider going to see the International Rose Test Garden in Washington Park. Everything is blooming and beautiful at the garden right now!

Illustration Friday- Stay

2011-07-11T13:31:00.001-07:00

Sit! Stay!

Illustration Friday- Shadows

2011-06-08T13:31:00.000-07:00

Illustration Friday- Asleep

2011-06-01T09:57:00.001-07:00

Every Child An Author/Apology

2011-05-27T10:15:00.000-07:00

I’ve been posting a few things I’ve worked on from Every Child An Author and I feel I ought to give a bit of background information on that as well as give an apology. More on that in a bit.

Every Child An Author works through schools to publish child-written stories. The general idea being that a school sponsors the book, there’d be a school-wide contest and the winning stories would be published. As a kid, I’d have given my left arm for that kind of opportunity!

Where I come in is that Every Child An Author gets professional illustrators to do the covers for the books. It’s a lot of fun and I enjoy helping out with the project. With the safari piece there were a lot of interesting conversations about which/how many animals were going to make it into the final piece. (I'm glad the giraffe made the cut).

Awhile back though, I posted one of the cover paintings that had been based on concept art from one of the contests and -as I usually don’t go into detailed copyright information in my blog post- I accidentally neglected to credit the young artist who created the concept. My apologies, that was not well done of me; I should have remembered to do so! But let’s fix that right now:

Based on the concept art of Taylor C, age 12, Houston, Texas.

Again, my apologies and congratulations on having your concept art chosen for the cover!

Illustration Friday- Soaked

2011-05-25T14:07:00.001-07:00

A meditation on the condition I often find myself in about nine months out of the year.

Illustration Friday- Safari

2011-05-17T14:05:00.001-07:00

Yet another book cover painted for the Every Child An Author project that fit the theme of the week perfectly. Out of all the animals in the painting, the giraffe is my favorite; he has such an earnest yet goofy expression!

Illustration Friday- Lesson

2011-05-04T15:45:00.000-07:00

House Building 101: Choosing proper wolf-deterring materials.

Illustration Friday- Bicycle

2011-04-26T15:09:00.000-07:00

Whee!

Illustration Friday- Journey

2011-04-20T10:38:00.000-07:00

The (abbreviated) life cycle of a salmon.

Illustration Friday- Bottled

2011-04-12T11:17:00.000-07:00

A year has passed since I wrote my note

But I should have known this right from the start

Only hope can keep me together- Sting and Police, "Message In A Bottle"

This painting is one of many book covers I've created for Every Child An Author; it fit this week's theme so well, I couldn't resist!

Artist’s note: A few of the book covers for Every Child An Author were based upon designs that were the winning entries in school run art contests. The idea being that children would be able to see their drawing turned into a professional illustration- this painting is one of these. My apologies for the oversight in the original posting- the concept art that this painting is based on was created by Taylor C, age 12, Houston, Texas.

Illustration Friday- Duet

2011-04-07T10:04:00.001-07:00

Why fight like cats and dogs when you can sing instead?

Illustration Friday- Toy

2011-03-30T10:05:00.000-07:00

Bruno was expecting lots of Meaty Chew™ treats for putting up with this indignity.

Illustration Friday- Cultivate

2011-03-23T16:55:00.001-07:00

On the first day of spring, come join us at Robinson's Worm Farm for a special family outing. Help cultivate the fields and you can have all the plump, juicy worms you can eat!

Illustration Friday- Stir

2011-03-15T16:36:00.000-07:00

Every day Spoon would come by just to stir Mug up while he was trying to read the paper.

...Bad pun, no biscuit?

Illustration Friday- Warning

2011-03-07T16:50:00.000-08:00

This foraging venture into the woods certainly wasn't going to end well.

Illustration Friday- Swarm

2011-03-01T14:47:00.001-08:00

It was the perfect disguise; the bees would never suspect he wasn't one of them.

Illustration Friday- Layer

2011-02-22T14:00:00.001-08:00

Bundle up, it's cold out there!

Illustration Friday- Sweater

2011-02-16T14:13:00.000-08:00

This is from the archives, but boy did it ever fit the IF topic. And I think that everyone- at least once- has had that little gift-opening moment of 'you really, really shouldn't have.'

Illustration Friday- Reverse

2011-02-10T09:55:00.000-08:00

So is it white with black stripes or black with white stripes?

Illustration Friday- Surrender

2011-02-01T15:39:00.000-08:00

Lesson of the day: Thieves should never even think about swiping Officer Brown's snacktime treats.

Illustration Friday- Dusty

2011-01-25T11:08:00.001-08:00

Always remember to clean underneath your bed! Those dust bunnies can get out of hand pretty quickly.

Phooey

2011-01-24T15:19:00.000-08:00

Given that Chicago was my last point of origin, there's only one response to the Packers win over the Bears yesterday: Phooey!

If anyone wants me, I'll be sulking in the corner of my studio.

A Grand Adventure!

2011-01-21T12:17:00.000-08:00

So, as I promised, news most exciting! In the upper right of the blog, you will notice a new link: Allin Art Etsy shop. Indeed! I am now selling reproductions of my artwork as greeting cards. In the future there will also be art prints, gift tags and perhaps some original art.

So wander over! Have a look! And if there happens to be an illustration you'd like to see on a card- drop me a line, I'm working on the next batch of prints.

Illustration Friday- Chicken

2011-01-18T16:04:00.001-08:00

Starting off my 2011 Illustration Friday year with my favorite type of illustration: cutely horrible. It's comforting to know that my sense of humor is as warped as ever.

For those of you who regularly tune in to the art blog, keep your eyes peeled towards the end of the week- some news is coming up that I'm very excited about!

The Holiday Shuffle

2010-12-23T13:33:00.000-08:00

Well, it's almost that time of year again, so to those of you for whom Christmas is your holiday of choice: Merry Christmas! And to everyone for whom Christmas is not your particular cup of tea: Have a good weekend and take advantage of the excuse to sleep in!

Illustration Friday- Prehistoric

2010-12-08T13:53:00.000-08:00

The strange (and most likely prehistoric) creature known as the Loch Ness monster. Her friends call her Nessie.

Illustration Friday- Savour

2010-12-01T11:58:00.000-08:00

I'm not certain if it's the Canadian in me showing, but a nice big mug of tea on a cold day makes everything a little bit better.

Illustration Friday- Sneaky

2010-11-23T11:50:00.001-08:00

It was important for every turkey to be as sneaky as possible in the month of November.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Illustration Friday- Burning

2010-11-16T14:13:00.001-08:00

It's one of the best smells in the world, after you blow out the candle- melted wax and smoke over the sugary note of frosting.

Illustration Friday- Afterwards

2010-11-08T13:46:00.000-08:00

They went shopping for hours just for the perfect outfits. Afterwards, dressed in their new duds, they sat around doing what they did best- preening.

Illustration Friday- Spent

2010-11-03T14:39:00.001-07:00

Something a bit different this week for Illustration Friday! "How could he have spent it all already?"

Illustration Friday- Racing

2010-10-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

Because everybody knows that as soon as you find out which house is giving out the full sized candy bars, the race is on. Happy Halloween everyone!

Illustration Friday- Spooky

2010-10-20T16:37:00.000-07:00

Instead of going with the traditional elements of spooky (witches, ghosts, all the usual creatures that go bump in the night) I went more towards what I find creepy: really heavy fog. Being outside in a real mountain-swallowing fog bank gives me the willies.

Illustration Friday- Transportation

2010-10-12T14:56:00.000-07:00

Even though the snail's top speed was 0.03 mph, it was still an exciting race.

Illustration Friday- Beneath

2010-10-07T11:05:00.001-07:00

It wasn't such a bad place to live, even if the people upstairs were so very, very noisy.

Illustration Friday- Acrobat

2010-09-21T10:23:00.000-07:00

Why yes, I do realize what an awful, terrible, dreadful pun this is. Never stopped me before!

By the way, there most likely won't be a new Illustration Friday piece from me next week. Vacation time, and where I'm going the internet is a rare and skittish beastie. I've managed to do Illustration Friday every week for over a year, so it's time for a bit of a break!

Illustration Friday- Proverb

2010-09-15T11:53:00.000-07:00

A penny saved is a penny earned, and a penny earned means that the next time the ice cream truck comes by, you can get as many ice cream sandwiches as you want.

Illustration Friday- Dessert

2010-09-08T12:35:00.001-07:00

For Illustration Friday this week, I thought it would be fun to create a companion piece to an earlier IF painting:

Illustration Friday- Immovable

2010-08-31T15:13:00.001-07:00

The mice had been at it for hours and nothing was working. Pulling, shoving, even trying to bribe the rotten elephant, it wouldn't budge one inch away from its seat in front of the mouse hole!

Illustration Friday- atmosphere

2010-08-25T09:59:00.000-07:00

(Bad) Atmosphere.

Illustration Friday- Star Gazing

2010-08-18T14:21:00.001-07:00

Some fresh art for Illustration Friday!

"The educated canine society met every other Wednesday night for a bit of star gazing (mostly trying to locate Canis Major) followed by some amateur opera."

Illustration Friday- Caged

2010-08-10T13:16:00.001-07:00

It was a bit of an understatement to say that things had not gone according to plan.

Illustration Friday- Artificial

2010-08-04T13:45:00.000-07:00

This week's offering looks a bit different compared to the usual paintings for Illustration Friday, but it's more about having jury duty this week than it is about stylistic experimentation.

Illustration Friday- Double

2010-07-28T15:36:00.000-07:00

Illustration Friday- Breakfast

2010-07-20T16:09:00.000-07:00

Illustration Friday- Diary

2010-07-15T11:41:00.001-07:00

Now for this week's Illustration Friday story hour!

Excerpt from the diary of Dr. Victor the Rather Weird:

Shipment of lenses and squid finally arrived. Soon I shall be able to craft my army of mechanized feral weasels and those fools at the university will rue the day they kicked my brilliant self out. Hah. Haha. Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha- (diary continues for the next three pages in this fashion).

Illustration Friday- Giant

2010-07-07T15:16:00.001-07:00

His best dreams were all larger than life.

Illustration Friday- Satellite

2010-06-30T10:50:00.000-07:00

Time for another Illustration Friday and also another terrible pun! So I present to you: 'Satellite Employee'.

Illustration Friday- Paisley

2010-06-23T10:21:00.000-07:00

Once again it's time for an Illustration Friday story!

'Anna's teddy was quite possibly the ugliest teddy bear there ever was, and that was why she loved it best.'

Illustration Friday- Ripple

2010-06-15T16:14:00.001-07:00

In honor of warm weather finally deciding to show up: a cone of fudge ripple ice cream. Now with the bonus feature of the exceedingly smudged original line art!

Illustration Friday- Trail

2010-06-09T12:08:00.001-07:00

The trail of his footsteps lead into the distance behind him, marking the way back home.

Illustration Friday- Slither

2010-06-02T11:42:00.000-07:00

Illustration Friday- Early

2010-05-25T15:47:00.001-07:00

An early morning scene for an upcoming mini-show. Emphasis on the mini; cramming an entire landscape into a two by two square is rough going.

Illustration Friday- Equipment

2010-05-18T14:56:00.000-07:00

Amusingly, this fairly describes my week so far- grab the art equipment and go go go! And it's only Tuesday yet!

Illustration Friday- Fearless

2010-05-12T13:55:00.001-07:00

Nate thought that bears made the best boxing partners.

Illustration Friday- Cocoon

2010-05-05T12:04:00.000-07:00

Fresh art for Illustration Friday- picking thoughtfully at technique this time.

Illustration Friday- Ahead

2010-04-28T17:12:00.000-07:00

It's a lot of hard work (keeping ahead).

Illustration Friday- Detective

2010-04-21T15:37:00.000-07:00

It didn't take a Sherlock Holmes to deduce that great-aunt Edna was somewhat upset about what had happened to her dining room ceiling.

Award Winning!

2010-04-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

So I get to call myself an award winning illustrator now, how's that for a good way to begin the week? The Somersault Snack company's Santa Fe Salsa package design- illustration by myself and design by the excellent Kubly Design firm- has won a 2010 American Package Design Award! So if you look in the March 2010 issue of the Graphic Design USA magazine:

And turn to page 74, you'll see this image:

This is fabulous in so many ways, not the least of which is when looking through the magazine I noticed that there aren't many award winners that are illustration-based designs. So that my illustration helped nab an award is a heck of a thing.

Illustration Friday- Linked

2010-04-14T11:54:00.000-07:00

Illustration Friday- Dip

2010-04-07T14:59:00.000-07:00

Every second Tuesday, the strawberries would go for a swim.

Illustration Friday- Rescue

2010-03-31T14:05:00.000-07:00

Illustration Friday- Expired

2010-03-22T16:51:00.000-07:00

Illustration Friday- Subterranean

2010-03-18T14:45:00.000-07:00

One of the year's highlights was when Uncle Dan visited The Underground. Sure, he really was 'in the belfry' (whoever heard of a fruit bat living in Iceland?) but he told the best stories.

Illustration Friday- Brave

2010-03-09T14:07:00.001-08:00

It was truly prey reserved only for the bravest of hunters; the pure cunning and ferocity of the wild sandwich was well documented.

Illustration Friday- Perspective

2010-03-02T15:43:00.000-08:00

Illustration Friday- Propagate

2010-02-23T12:02:00.000-08:00

"Divide and conquer."

Illustration Friday- Adrift

2010-02-17T10:26:00.001-08:00

Well, things certainly could be worse. True, being set adrift was no picnic, and it seemed as though a storm was starting up- with no land in sight. But at least seasickness was never a problem and there were plenty of fish about. Though the only fish he could see around the boat at the moment were the ones with large grey triangular dorsal fins...

Illustration Friday- Muddy

2010-02-09T14:12:00.000-08:00

Let the other pigs do nothing but wallow. Myrtle would much rather work on her backstroke.

Illustration Friday- Focused

2010-02-04T12:14:00.000-08:00

Fresh art for Illustration Friday!

"Boris was smart. Motivated. Focused. Poised to become the greatest mouse- chasing cat of all time. Which didn't mean beans when the rotten rodent refused to come out!"

Illustration Friday- Clumsy

2010-01-27T11:36:00.001-08:00

Well, I can't have been the only artist out there to knock over a jar of paint onto a partially finished piece, right?

Artist's edit: Looked at the comments and seems like I should have clarified. (Sorry folks.) The paintings I do for Illustration Friday are all entirely new work (except when I'm on holiday- you have to take some r and r!) so the spillage on this particular artwork is entirely deliberate. The text is referring to some works in the past where I did indeed have to scramble to fix up a klutz attack.

Illustration Friday- Wilderness

2010-01-21T16:28:00.000-08:00

"You know the rules. You hit the ball; you get the ball. Even if it is sitting in the middle of a really creepy patch of wilderness full of lions, tigers and bears. And poison ivy."

Illustration Friday- Confined

2010-01-13T14:06:00.001-08:00

He had two priorities at the moment: first to figure out how to get out of the box and then to track down whoever had stuffed him in there and trample them soundly.

Illustration Friday- Renewal

2010-01-01T13:21:00.000-08:00

A new year and a fresh look!

Illustration Friday- Pioneer

2009-12-25T12:43:00.000-08:00

Happy holidays everyone!

"Sir Theodore Rex was a pioneer in the field of star collecting, heading out every night to gather the rarest and finest with his two assistants by his side."

Illustration Friday- Undone

2009-12-18T10:57:00.001-08:00

Now that the last string holding him back was undone, he could finally go and see the world the way he had always wanted to.

Illustration Friday- Hatch

2009-12-16T15:02:00.001-08:00

Ruby was certainly a very dedicated chicken, but no-one else in the barnyard wanted to hang around long enough to find out what would hatch out of something that looked like that.

Illustration Friday- Crunchy

2009-12-08T13:41:00.000-08:00

It was a lot of work to crack open the tough exterior wrapper, but the delicious crunchy filling was worth it.

Illustration Friday- Entangled

2009-12-01T10:03:00.001-08:00

The current champion (Sir Bear, a pekingese in New Jersey) currently held the record at seventeen wraps of the leash around his owner, but Bob knew that with a little practice he could beat that, easily.

Illustration Friday- Music

2009-11-23T13:45:00.000-08:00

Now that I've finished this up, I just know that I'm going to start drawing up the laughing dog, the dish and spoon, and the jumping cow just to complete the set.

Surprisingly enough, not Illustration Friday!

2009-11-18T13:57:00.000-08:00

Most of the time it seems that I'm too busy actually working on commissions to report about them in the blog- but working on that, here's one of the latest ones! The Somersault Snack Co. rung me up to create a cowboy for them for their newest flavor of healthy snacks. For every flavor of snack, they have a different character on the packaging. The wrinkle on all this though, is that I wasn't the artist for their first three characters...

I worked many a test patch to figure out how to work my usual style so it would mesh well with the existing characters and yet still look like my own- and I do admit to there being one or two moments of hair pulling over it. The final piece worked out beautifully and the folks at Somersault are happy with it, so I'll be able to look forward to seeing bags of snacks with my artwork gracing the front!

Illustration Friday- Unbalanced

2009-11-17T13:55:00.000-08:00

A piece on the dangers of unseen real estate? No, it's Illustration Friday once again!

'The view was fantastic, which quite made up for the, er, unbalanced foundation.'

Illustration Friday- Blur

2009-11-10T14:09:00.000-08:00

Something rather different this time out for Illustration Friday- mucking about with technique instead of story construction.

Illustration Friday- Skinny

2009-11-05T14:00:00.000-08:00

It very much seems that the world is designed for the skinny and there is a definite limit on how much space your body is supposed to occupy. I mean, consider airplane seats...

Illustration Friday- Fast

2009-10-29T11:07:00.000-07:00

It was infuriating! No-one ever considered for a second that he might actually have to work at being fast just because he was a rabbit!

Illustration Friday- Frozen

2009-10-22T13:48:00.001-07:00

The last of the warm weather has passed; the sunny days, green grass and taste of yummy frozen treats have departed. Unless of course, you happen to live in Florida or suchlike.

Illustration Friday- Flying

2009-10-14T16:07:00.000-07:00

Illustration Friday- Germs

2009-10-08T14:58:00.001-07:00

And because his nose was three times the size of everyone else's, colds hit him three times as hard.

Illustration Friday- Pattern

2009-09-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

He may have been stuck as part of the wallpaper pattern, but they could never make him fade into the background!

Illustration Friday- Infinite

2009-09-24T15:44:00.000-07:00

There were an infinite number of things to think about that were more interesting than the math test.