My latest piece of art is this Geisha illustration that was created as a tutorial in Advanced Photoshop magazine issue 89. The image was created entirely in Photoshop using the Pen, Marquee and Brush tools.

The image was created over a two week period (a few hours a day since I had other projects) and started with a simple pencil sketch of the geisha that was scanned into Photoshop to be used as a guide or blueprint for the final piece of art.

A big thanks goes out to editor, Adam Smith for assigning me such an awesome project and keeping me on point during the process. So go out and buy the magazine when you get the chance.

Here is a painting I recently finished called “Forsaken.” It’s a personal painting of a female warrior and her monstrous companion that I’ve written some short stories about (not sharing the short stories yet). I plan to create additional paintings featuring these two characters. This was created with oil paints on board and is 16″ x24″.

Here’s another batch of drawings I received from children after a school visit where I presented my Welcome to Monster Isle children’s book. It looks like these kids had a lot of fun creating their own monsters. These drawings are so creative! Enjoy.

Hi everyone! I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I have been busy with many projects. One of those projects I worked on late last year has finally arrived in stores. Thumb Wars: The Ultimate Guide is a thumb wrestling activity book published by Klutz/Scholastic for which I created all of the illustrations, along with some of the text treatments and some page layouts. The team over at Klutz, Jill Turney (Art Director) and Eva Steele-Staccio (Writer & Editor), made this an amazingly fun project to work on. Officially the book hits stores in February, but it is already showing up with various online retailers. The book even comes with a really cool, unique glove for you and an opponent to wear while thumb wrestling. So go out and buy the book!

The book at Klutz

The book at Amazon.com

I just finished the third piece of art in an ongoing, personal series of illustrations featuring decorative creatures. This one is Asian Walker. The other two pieces in the series are Mayan Walker and Indian Walker. Mayan Walker is also featured in Creative Quarterly issue #20.

When you get your first award for writing or illustrating, it’s a big deal. A very big deal. A mega big deal. So you can imagine how proud I am that my daughter won her first book award!

Antonia took second place in the 2010 Wisconsin Association of School Boards’ Write and Illustrate Your Own Picture Book Contest! Her awesome creation, The Mummy Comes Moaning, was judged one of the best among 342 entries state-wide. She competed in the 4th & 5th grade division. Along with a certificate of commendation and a cash award, her book will travel the state to be displayed at the WASB Fall Regional Meetings and the State Education Convention held in Milwaukee in January of 2011.

Toni put so much thought and time into her project. She had to meet strict requirements and deadlines. She created her book from scratch, hand-binding it herself. She wrote and rewrote her story. She sketched and painted and added various media to creatively illustrate each scene. She devoted many evening and weekend hours to turn in the best book she could. In the end, it was a masterpiece, and she’s incredibly proud to see that work rewarded.

My wife, Silvia, and I couldn’t be happier for her. Congrats to you, Toni! Well done!