School's out!  Woo hoo!  I did this study of a mantis from a photo-  I took a whole mess of photos of one we had here at the house as a pet.  My son named her Katrina the Bikini Girl after the notorious American Idol contestant.  I'm not exactly thrilled that my eight-year old has a crush on her... anyway, I am fascinated by mantises and how sentient they seem to be.  I think they came from another planet, or perhaps they're animatronic.  They don't seem to move like anything else.  Summer school will be starting next week, and I will be finishing off some of the illustrations from the 32 page dummy book we completed in Sequential Art- Children's Book class.

Two down, one to go!  Wednesday is the last class of the semester, and I'm still working to get all of that work done.  I did this little spot as the last assignment in my Special Studies Illustration class.  Cliff (the professor) clued me in to how cool spots are.  I tend to think of finished artwork as square, in a frame.  It's so freeing to edit down to what's really necessary.  When I started this idea, I had sidewalk, telephone pole, and a larger cast of characters (ant, mantis, slug.)  It's fun to reduce!  

fairies and bugs

Here is the other buggish piece.  It makes me laugh, hope you enjoy it too.  I did the spot of the fairy because I'm trying to work on more spots- I'd love to get some work doing children's magazine illustration.  I will post some bug spots (?!) next week as I finish them.  We're in the final week of grad school, well, for the semester at least... wish me luck!

The homestretch!  Almost done with the semester, and totally stoked from all of the work I've been busting out.  Nothing like a little pressure... anyway, here are some bugs.  I'll post Bugball now, and New Arrival when I get it off of the watercolor board.  Bug spots to come, as well!

Here is the last in the Surfside Girls location paintings- this is the Burger Dude, Sam's dad's restaurant on the sand.  The monster is just silly, I taught art in Ethan's classroom yesterday (trying to enlighten second graders to light side and shadow side, and using color in shadows, phew!) but I've been working so tightly it was fun just to let go.  Only three more paintings and a dummy book to go before semester's over in two weeks.  Go Kim!