Baby Groundhogs

Here are selections for another easy reader book I just finished. The story follows a family of groundhogs as the babies venture out of their den for the first time.

They enjoy munching on the green grass for a time before escaping back to the den when a fox appears. I tried to give the little guys some personality despite the need to portray them as realistically and not stylize too much.

I would rather have made them more animated and characterized, but the art direction dictated they be "real" groundhogs. I think I struck the right balance between real and cute.

Once again, I made all the preliminary drawings traditionally and then scanned and painted them in Photoshop.

Cactus Drawings

I am working on another easy reader book about animal life in the Sonoran desert. I just finished up the drawings so I thought I would show a few.

The book switches from one animal to the next and includes sound words on the right side page to introduce the next animal before you turn the page. The text blocks will go in the large open sky areas on the left hand page.

I enjoy doing these sort of nature themed projects and this one should be a lot of fun to finish up. Now I wait for approvals, hopefully with no revisions. Fingers crossed.

Aunt Mame's Sheep - Finished

Aunt Mame's Sheep - Oil; 18.75" x 11' by Greg Newbold

Just finished up this painting for a private commission. the buyers are my Aunt and Uncle and the place and subject mean a lot to me. I spent countless afternoons after school taking care of these animals on my Aunt Mame's property. This scene portrays the upper end of the property in the part of the pasture we called "the grove" since we had annual family Easter weekend barbecues up under the shade of the trees. It's always a fun thing to depict something that is so close to my heart and I admit I will miss this one when I deliver it to them later this week. My wife says I will now need to do another version of this subject for our house. Fine with me.
See the progression of this painting here