An Angry Gesture

It's not too hard to come up with angry/frustrated gestures for my character lately. 

All I need to do is look out the window.

And the news says more to come in a few days?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

Voices in my head...

The illustration above is one that I did for a calendar a while back. Recently, an art director pointed to the watercolor on the dog's back and said, "You know what?... this is... act-tualllly... a raaaaather... sophisticated... little... illustration?"
The surprised tone of her voice inferred that I had mistakenly made something good. And, that nothing else she had seen of my work had been blessed by the same naive error.

And now, even though time has passed, each time I paint the spot on the dog's back in the book that I'm currently illustrating I hear that voice. "You know what???...."

Here's a big hug to all of us who hear voices in our heads. I hope that we all continue working happily until the good words are shouting waaaayyy louder than the whispers of snarky critics and reviewers!

Surroundings

Cold and snowy outside.

Warm and colorful at my board.

Back to work!

Soaring

I did this little painting to make into a thank you card to send the art director at Harcourt Houghton Mifflin.

It's not really from anything in the book (The Adventures of a South Pole Pig), but I loved the idea of Flora (the pig) soaring into the sky with a red balloon!

Reborn

Big news! I have an all-new web page design thanks to the fabulously talented Ken at Rain Shadow Web Design! He is both brilliant and PATIENT. 

I began by saying... "I want it very simple".

"Easy". 

"Just artwork". 

"And here's some old wallpaper that you might want to use for the background". 

"And I'm going to send you some artwork for the homepage--- maybe some frames". 

"And a cat... 

or two... 

 or three...". 

Ahhhhhh thank you, Ken. I love it. It makes me smile! Hope it does you, too. Please check it out at

at JBReinhardt.com

---ation

In order to have creation we need inspiration.

Motivation.

Imagination.

Observation.

Determination.

Not procrastination.

Push Me Pull You...

It's been a Push Me Pull You kind of day.

Kind of week even.

Do you remember that wonderful creature from Dr. Dolittle? The Push Me Pull You--- a llama with a head on each side of its body. Unless it worked together, it couldn't move...

The kids are back in school.

Activities have started back up, and, as you read in my last post, I've had deadlines. Hence, the Push Me Pull You effect.

For example, if this gets done...

Then this does not.

If I do this...

 

Then this is what happens.

'tis the season. It's all good and will work itself into a chaotic rhythm before I know it.

Until then, Push Me Pull You.

Studio Shots #1

I love seeing where people work. Especially creative people. I.e. I love peering in to studios. So I will let you peek into mine. But here's the deal... As much as I love seeing studios, I dislike contrived spaces. Cleaned, over organized, Martha-esque--- because I just don't believe it's true. So come, here are some little snippets of where I work, and what I see, what I love, and what I do.

This is my chippy, metal storage shelf. A sweet friend brought me this lovely card from her trip to England. I made the magnets for my Pop Pop not too long before he passed away. That's a copy of a beautiful, old photo of him. And, those of you who are familiar with my etsy shop, know that I named it Age Before Beauty because it was one of his favorite expressions.
I hope that you have "a triumphant day..."