Category Archives: Blog

Painting of Ruby June Captured by the Deep Ones

January 28, 2014Blog, The Amazing Adventures of Ruby Junemsanborn

It has been a little since I posted a painting for the book so figured I’d better get on it again. Truth be told, I was invited to participate in a show with a France theme so very soon, hopefully, everyone will be able to enjoy a larger one of my animal paintings. Regardless, that shouldn’t be an excuse for no posts. Oh, and I got sick. I was holding my 7 month old, who was sick and while I was talking she reached up and put her hand in my mouth. It was like that scene in the Matrix. I could feel the assault wave of germs leaping from her hand into my mouth. Still, no excuses!

In this panel, Ruby June has been discovered on her quest to find the Voice of the Sea and is being hauled off to have a chat with the mighty Coo-Thoo-Loo. Never a dull day for our heroine!

Painting of Ruby June Being Taken Away

January 10, 2014Blog, Selected Works, The Amazing Adventures of Ruby Junemsanborn

Another painting for the book close to complete. I’d call them complete at this stage save for the fact that when I get them all painted and hung and look at them as a whole, there will invariably be things I need to tweak. Still, I’m calling this one done for the moment.

In this panel, Ruby June has displeased the mighty Coo-Thoo-Loo. He has commanded his Deep Ones to haul her off to underwater prison while he continues with his plans to take over the surface world. It is looking pretty bleak for our heroine at the moment but something tells me she’ll get the job done and save us all in the end.

Painting of Ruby June Breaking the Spell

January 3, 2014Blog, Selected Works, The Amazing Adventures of Ruby Junemsanborn

It has been a little while since I posted so I’ll blame the holidays for that. Travel and whatnot has impacted my ability to get stuff on-line. I have been working, however. I mean, when am I not? I told myself I wasn’t going to post any of the paintings of the Ruby June book until I was nearing completion but I have been putting off nearly all my other projects in the hopes that in the next 5-6 months I will be able to bring this one home.

Here is the painting of the Deep Ones freed from Coo-Thoo-Loo’s spell. I might still push on this one just a bit. I’m told some of my panels are a little on the dark side so maybe I can push in a little more light here and there. I sort of like the darker values though. It is a book about Cthulhu after all. Even though I’m making it safe for kids, I don’t want to make it too cheery or bright. Still, I might be able to bring in a little more light on the foreground figures. What I will probably do is get all the panels to this stage and then look at them all together again.

Painting of Santa Following Franklin and Nunu

December 6, 2013Blog, Selected Works, Special Projectsmsanborn

I finished the painting for this years Christmas card. For some reason I always end up pushing the bounds of getting everything done in time. Maybe next year I will start earlier. It is really hard when you are in the middle of other really engaging projects to break away, even when it is form something fun like this. In the end, I do like working on a “one-off” as opposed to all my huge projects. Even this isn’t really a “one-off” as it is page three from what will eventually be a Christmas children’s book about a bear and wild pig that end up helping Santa deliver his toys.

The painting of this one went pretty smoothly with the exception of my using extra heavy gel which seemed to give me more defined and lofty peaks in the texture. In the end I might have to tweak out some things in Photoshop to get all the panels to match for the end book. Other than that, the painting went well. I loved painting those trees and Santa was a lot of fun. Even the little sprig at the base of the tree was nice to work on. The huge expanses of snow were a bit of a drag, though. It was a lot of slow dry-brushing. Still, I’m happy with the results so it was time well spent.

Charcoal of Santa Following Franklin and Nunu

November 26, 2013Blog, Special Projectsmsanborn

Needed to take a break to work on the Christmas card illustration for this year. This also doubles as the third page from my book where Franklin and Nunu (a bear and wild pig) swipe Santa’s sack and end up getting drafted into Christmas service. I figure, when I am done, I’ll have a nice little Christmas book. Then I can start on the other three stories I’ve written for Christmas. Seems like I am never at a loss for material to keep me busy.

In this page, Santa is tracking Franklin and Nunu after they have made off with all the toys.

Vector Image of Chapter 2 Lino Cut for New Book

November 20, 2013Blog, Selected Worksmsanborn

In this image, soon to be a linoleum cut print, our heroine is returning to her home to find the outside lantern lit. A lit lantern means visitors and the prospect of monies, an occasion which always causes the Alopairs to act erratically.

This design caused a bit of trouble. I might still need to plug away at it a bit to clean up some areas. I might straighten out the corn stalks to see if a more structured design will work better.

Vector Image of Chapter 1 Lino Cut for New Book

November 11, 2013Blog, Selected Worksmsanborn

In an effort to keep posting new materials and not fall behind while I am painting all the book panels for Ruby June, I’m doing my best to keep plugging away on other projects like my YA fantasy book about the adventurous little girl named Finch. In this hopefully soon to be linoleum cut print, Finch has recovered her abusive and oafish adoptive father’s wedge. She discovered it sitting mysteriously atop a rock with a carving on it that, when she read it, caused her to black out. It is proving to be challenging to keep the style consistent throughout these designs but I think I’m up to it. We’ll see, the first book has 12 chapters in it so lets see if I can maintain.

I am still editing the book (this is about the fifth or sixth time) and I’m a little concerned I’m taking out a little too much of the art to make it read smoother. Might need one more pass, just to be safe. The writing definitely needed to be edited. I’m finding things now that I haven’t before in my editing so it looks like progress. We’ll see.

All the Ruby June Panels Together at the Value Pass Stage

November 6, 2013Blog, The Amazing Adventures of Ruby Junemsanborn

I arranged all the panels in my studio to get a sense of how things looked together. I needed to see if there were any glaring issues with values not looking right together before gelling everything and getting started on my base colors. As you can see, I already have 2 of the panels painted though I will probably be touching up at least one of them. It was that second panel that I painted that I wasn’t overly happy with and decided I needed to paint all the panels together to keep consistency in color. I started gelling over the panels three days ago and have all but five done as of this post. I will finish them up tomorrow though will probably have to wait for a little before starting on my base colors so the gel can dry. I certainly don’t want to jump the gun.

Charcoal of Ruby June Brought Before the Octopus King

November 1, 2013Blog, The Amazing Adventures of Ruby Junemsanborn

The last panel value pass! I was beginning to think it would never get here. This one didn’t pose too many issues, save for the perspective. Once I get these home, I plan to lay them all out and have a look at them as a whole. Hopefully I won’t see anything that stands out and needs fixing, or at least nothing major that won’t fix itself in the painting stage.

Here we have Ruby June brought before Coo-Thoo-Loo. It looks pretty grim for our heroine but not to worry, I have it on good authority that she comes out the other side very well.

Ruby June Confronting Coo-Thoo-Loo Charcoal Video

October 26, 2013Blog, The Amazing Adventures of Ruby June, Tutorialsmsanborn

Took me a little while but I finally managed to compress three days worth of video recording bites into one long video. Then I managed to speed up the process to less than 5 minutes. Boy do I wish I could work this fast. Here I am demonstrating my charcoal process where I lay down the values before painting. I put this under my tutorial videos even though I’m not really talking about the process. Guess if you look close you can see a little of how I approach my values.