I don't know if the whimsy lettering counts toward the word "blur", but the premise of "confusion" in the letter to Santa Claus lends well to the way that he brings things into focus.
“All I want for Christmas is to nreal how to reab!” 
“Can you reab what I reab?”, is an inspirational holiday poem that resonates with struggling readers, teachers and parents alike as it follows one boy’s magical journey into literacy. The poem is published in Reading Today and in the book, Christmas Miracles (St. Martin’s Press). The author, Madeleine M. Kuderick, has also been invited to present a live reading at the International Reading Association’s Southeast Regional Conference: Liberty through Literacy, November 2009.
I too was inspired by Madeleine’s poem and created this illustration to celebrate the event. Sometimes stories like these take on a life of their own, therefore I thought a picture book moment would capture her words nicely. Or perhaps release the words, finally, as would be the Christmas wish of this special boy.
To read more, go to my links to visit Madeleine's website.
I've been busy in the last week working on a special Christmas postcard/poster for an event that I'll talk more about later.
The finished Koi pond is now on my webpage if anyone would like to see the final. I had a great time working on it and made some major breakthroughs with Corel Painter to save some time.
I'll post again soon.
Hope you all had a safe Halloween.
Work in Progress:
I’ve been working on this all day. I actually went back and redrew the scales because the pattern was off. It’s been much easier to digitally paint over the pencil drawing since fixing it. I haven’t added the final texture yet. So far this image is much brighter than my last on because I’m pulling more pure color like when use real color pencils. So far I’m pretty pleased. Hope you like it.
Welcome!
What an appropriate word challenge for Illustrator Friday.
Please stop by my new website and visit awhile.
And as I mentioned before, don’t let that long-eared critter concern you.
He’s rather harmless.
Strength of Character.
This piece is much darker in color and in mood from most of my work. I was trying something different, perhaps because the Halloween is around the corner. A lot of stuff out there for kids is more edgy so I thought I’d try something that didn’t feel like Disney. It’s probably not a strong piece and feels more like an underpainting, but sometimes I like the unfinished look.
Hope you like it.
My new website is up! I was able to keep the rollover feature (I hope that's working for everyone.) I’ll be adding more to my Digital Portfolio soon so come back and visit.
Enjoy and don’t worry about that long-eared woodland critter. I’m pretty sure he can’t hop over your fire wall.
Pinocchio is a cautionary tale all around.
I’m a little hesitant to post my progress of the illo. I took a break from it while working on the new website design. I’ve reworked the cricket. The first one was a little creepy. I’m worried that Jiminy is looking a bit roach like. But crickets are more often black, although mt dad fished with tan ones. Disney’s cricket has a greenish face…that’s a grasshopper to me. Also I need to be careful of the line quality of the cricket compared to the line on Pinocchio. The line work on him is softer, although that may change as a rework the color. I guess an image looking overworked isn’t just reserved for real media.
I must proceed with caution.
Bad ideas ripen well
Ready to hit me.
“Ouch!”
Grounded ideas
Make spoiled imagination
Taste better than pie.
“Yum.”
AJ
