Grounded

 

 

 

 

“You talkin’ to me…

You talkin’ to me?

Then who else are you talkin to? ”

 

When Preston Waddlebottom’s flight was canceled, he took it quite personal. It seems he’s suffering from flightless bird syndrome.

 

 

Highlight


“Sing like no one’s listening, love like you’ve never been hurt, dance like nobody’s watching, and live like its heaven on earth.” ~Mark Twain

The ladies at Shady Acres Estate got quite a thrill when Reginald, feeling far less than his 75 years, got up and did the Lambada in the community dining room. The other fellas in the crowd were far less amused.  Did Reggie care…. Heck no! He had a full dance card!

It Started with a Sketch

Often I’m asked, “What medium do you use?”
While I used to use watercolor and colored pencil as my medium… I started painting digitally about four years ago. I try to make my digital work have the same organic feel of traditional mediums.

 

 

 

 

It starts with a pencil drawing, sometimes very sketchy, that I take into Photoshop and clean up a bit. Often I paint over or eliminate the lines altogether, but If I’m going to leave the line work, I’ll ink them first and clean them up digitally.
After I’ve separated the layers, I usually always work over a layer that had been under painted with a darker color. This gives the illustration a luminous quality and helps define the natural contours and highlights. Here, I want them on a white background so that I can paste them into a another illustration later.

Next I paint in the details on a separate layer with a brush that has a texture added to it. This allows some of the under painting to show through and gives the illustration a pastel feel. I always turn the opacity and flow down to about 40. Then I go back and add more details and highlights on another layer.  Clean it up and it’s done. This is a very brief explanation I know, but I’ve learned and continue to learn by playing with my medium and making mistakes….. only now I get to push undo!                                                  Ctrl+Alt+Z… Ctrl+Alt+Z…Ctrl+Alt+Z

www.robertabaird.com

Messenger

                                                       A babe in the house is a well-spring of pleasure, a messenger of peace and love, a resting place for innocence on earth, a link between angels and men.

~Martin Farquhar Tupper

 

 

…. and you thought the stork brought them.   :)

 

Warm Weather Christmas

All I want for Christmas is a real good tan
Take me to the islands
Put my feet in the sand
Rockin’ to and fro with the rhythm of the ocean
Singin’ silent night with the palm trees a blowin’

~Kenny Chesney

2012 SCBWI Tomie dePaola Award Entry ~ Sinking

“The sky is falling, the sky is falling!”

This is my entry for the SCBWI Tommy dePaola Award. It was great fun to work on it! If you click on the image you can see the details better.

The text Tomie chose this year is from Chicken Licken by P.C. Asbjörnsen.
So they went along and went along until they met Turkey Lurkey“Good morning, Goosey

Loosey, Ducky Daddles, Cocky Locky, Henny Penny, and Chicken Licken,” said Turkey Lurkey, “where are you going?”
“Oh, Turkey Lurkey, the sky is falling and we are going to tell the King!”
“How do you know the sky is falling?” asked Turkey Lurkey.
“Ducky Daddles told me,” said Goosey Loosey.
“Cocky Locky told me,” said Ducky Daddles.
“Henny Penny told me,” said Cocky Locky.
“Chicken Licken told me,” said Henny Penny
“I saw it with my own eyes, I heard it with my own ears,
and a piece of it fell on my tail!” said Chicken Licken.
“Then I will go with you,” said Turkey Lurkey, “and we will tell the King!”