Eagle painting

Another eagle painting #2 in my series of 4. I started this painting a while ago and decided I really needed to finish it while I had the time. It's more of a study in color than a rendering of a bird, its always a challenge to try to keep the color interesting and relevant. I like how it turned out.

Another Raven painting

Here is another raven painting for a (hopefully) upcoming book, I haven't painted animals for a while and had forgotten how much I enjoyed it, I used to do a lot of wildlife art. This painting is based on a poem by David L. Harrison poet extraordinare... He is the author of Pirates and Cowboys the two books we worked on together. Hopefully Ravens/Crows or something of the like, will be our next book.

The Raven

This is a painting I did as a sample for a new project, I wasn't thrilled at first with the idea of doing a book about Crows/Ravens but after this painting I can't wait to draw and paint more of them. I wanted to do a creepy Raven ( because I think they are creepy) and I wanted the bird in a creepy place, It was great fun to work out the drawing of the bird adjusting it's gesture to capture the attitude and beak position that  I wanted. I like the colors and purposely kept them dark and monochromatic, I really like the touches of red here and there. It not often I get to do samples and so I tried to have fun with this one. Anyway, hope you like it and I get to do a whole book of Ravens...
here's hoping,

Dan

Happy New Year

I just wanted to say Happy New Year to all that follow me, It's been a tough year but we are still kicking and have survived for the time being, I have my health and my family and the good thinks I enjoy, can't complain. I am really looking forward to some incredible projects this year and hopefully I will make some significant paintings. I will you all the same.
Happy 2013, may you recieve all you deserve.

Pheasants Forever cover

I do a lot of work for this magazine and really believe in what they do, I created this painting for their 30th anniversary. They are a great organization and the projects I get to do for them are usually loads of fun. If you want to join or just check them out, click here.
Hope you like the painting. I think I will be offering prints for sale of this one.

Nielson ratings (The ChristmasTrain)

The Christmas Train: A True Story by President Thomas S. Monson  (Illustrated by me) cracked the Nielsen BookScan Overall Top 100 Chart today at #83 across ALL BOOKS non-fiction and fiction combined.

Juvenile Overall Non-Fiction #5

Juvenile Overall Non-fiction Bio/Autobiographies #1.

This is pretty exciting for me, this will be the first time I've had a book that I illustrated (that I'm aware of) on this list. I suppose the author has a fair amount to do with the whole thing but at least I have some coat tails to hang on to and drag along for the ride... woo hoo...

Jenny Phillips CD's

I have worked with Jenny Phillips the singer songwriter on several projects, this is one of the latest ones. As always she is great to work with and her music is very inspiring, check it out here. The painting was from a recent book, she liked it and wanted to use it for this cover, It's always nice to reuse images and keep the proverbial ball rolling.