Month of Love

I was very happy to be able to participate in this year’s Month of Love. You can see all of the fantastic art at www.monthofloveart.com. Every year, the art gets better and better. The participating artists have been discovering new things about their work, experimenting, getting more ambitious, and have been getting a lot of recognition from the work they produce for the challenges!

The first challenge was “Heroes.” I immediately thought of the character Alanna, from Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness Quartet. I first read that series when I was around 12 or 13, and I thought Alanna was this incredible, strong female character, which I hadn’t seen much of in the books I was reading. Also, these books, as well as Ms. Pierce’s other books, inspired my career, since they were exactly the kind of books I wanted to make illustrations for.

“The Lioness,” 7? x 8?, watercolor and acryla gouache on Arches watercolor paper

The next challenge I participated in was “Weapons.” The Evil Queen loves herself so much she would kill Snow White in order to maintain her status as fairest in all the land. I used gold watercolor for the first time with this piece (the scan doesn’t quite capture the shine). I am also painting a companion piece for this of Snow White.

“Poison Apple,” 8? x 9?, ink, watercolor, and gold paint on Arches watercolor paper

The third challenge I participated in was the surprise Leap Day challenge – “Seasons.” Last fall I saw a beautiful albino squirrel in Northampton, MA, and decided to make a fantastical portrait of the squirrel as an “Autumn Spirit.”

“Autumn Spirit,” 8″ x 10″, watercolor and acryla gouache on Arches watercolor paper

I’m really happy with my paintings. It was a bit tiring to have to work on them in the midst of client projects, but also refreshing! I burned out a bit working on the tarot deck, and it was great to get back to working on personal pieces.