My artwork appearing in new book from Schiffer Publishing

I received word yesterday from Renee Mallett, an author, that at least one - but perhaps two of my artworks appear in a new book called Fairies, Mermaids, and Other Mystical Creatures (Schiffer Publishing) ... click the book title and you can see the book on Schiffer Publishing's website.

I was very excited to submit work for this book, because I know Schiffer Publishing from my days working for Waldenbooks and I know they only make very high quality books. Schiffer is mainly known for their military history books.

If you want to order or pick up a copy in your local bookstore, then an easy way to order is to use this ISBN 9780764328039 ... that's all you need usually. They can look up the book by that number. When it is available from more sources, I'll link it here.

The new book's cover

What Really Happened in Colonial Times will be released soon.

I was excited to see what the book cover will look like. It doesn't seem to matter how many times I see my name on the cover of a book, I always get excited. It still feels incredible that it's my name on there.

The artworks on the cover have been tinted by the book cover designer. They also sometimes do reversed images of the artworks for use on the cover...for instance, the one at the bottom is Pocahontas, and I think I drew her facing the other way. They often find it works better in the cover design to change the positioning of the portrait subjects. It doesn't bother me at all, as long as it makes the cover more attractive, that's an important thing for book sales.

Want to see more of this series? Hop over to http://bramleybooks.com for all the details!

mucho motivated

I was overly-motivated today. Can you be overly motivated? I don't know!

I got a lot of art done, now it's a matter of photographing or scanning it and sending the images to clients to approve. My right hand feels a bit crampy. Well I had my 15 month old finally down for his nap and I went for it with all the gusto I could. I drank a couple glasses of iced tea and worked on that caffeine buzz.

I finished a colored pencil portrait, laid down the base for another colored pencil portrait (that one is a re-do because I didn't like the first version). I have to hold off on that one until I can get to the store to get the right pencils (ugh, frustrating to have to stop on it)

....so to not let the time I had go to waste, I did three illustrations for the new book, What Really Happened in Colonial Times - I think that's what it's called anyway! It's the 3rd book I'm illustrating for http://bramleybooks.com. The portraits I did are: Catherine (Katy) Ferguson, Narcissa Whitman, and Rachel Revere. They are only 4.75" x 7.75" in size so they don't take a super long time for me to complete....well, scratch that... I guess that depends on my frame of mind and how many teas I have consumed! I also probably shouldn't say they are totally done either, because we'll be adding something to help each portrait follow a theme for the book. I haven't figured out exactly what that will be yet...perhaps some leaves in a semi-border. I only planned to do Catherine Ferguson and Narcissa Whitman's pictures, but once I got going, I didn't want to stop. The portrait of Rachel Revere (Paul Revere's second wife) was so enticing to do. All I had for art reference was a picture of a miniature painting - I think a brooch...but very very tiny and I had to work with my graphics program to get a larger version of it that I could somewhat see well. I am very excited about what I have drawn so far.

Then, after a snack (coming down off the sugar/caffeine buzz lol) I worked on a baby portrait in graphite pencil (only black and white)...I have that one almost done but waiting to hear from the client about how to draw the baby's hair - what a GORGEOUS baby...I can't wait to share the portrait when it's done! She's just absolutely precious. I know it's coming along well when I start baby talking to the portrait drawing (sad, isn't it LOL)

I'll be able to share all these artworks in the Portraits in Progress blog once they're done and when I have time to resize them etc for sharing later on.

I don't know why such motivation hit me - I think I was determined to actually get something DONE! I was so aggravated that I couldn't seem to get my son down for his nap - I can't figure out when his naptime is anymore. I really need to get him on a daily schedule and regimen so I don't go nuts...it would be more fun for him, too.