3x3 Bronze Medal for Badru and the Beanstalk!

I was recently notified that my series of paintings for Badru and the Beanstalk has received a bronze medal from the 3x3 International Picture Book Show! I'm super excited about this because this project is something that I've been working hard on as part of my thesis for the past two years. Being my first real foray into the picture book market, I'm honored to have my work recognized amongst the thousands of entries that I'm sure 3x3 received from across the world. You can see a list of the other winners here.

Many of you have seen one or two of the paintings I've done for this series before, but i've kept a wraps on the others because I wanted to wait until it was closer to my thesis show. But since that's only a month away now, here's the four illustrations that were awarded by 3x3:

Stealing the Chicken 12" x 22" oil on masonite.

At the Door to the Great House 12" x 22" oil on masonite.

Climbing the Stalk 12" x 22" oil on masonite.

Badru and the Giant 12" x 22" oil on masonite.

These illustrations are part of a whole book that I am slowly putting together, and hope to have published in the future. I will be writing more about these paintings individually over the next few months after my graduation from the Hartford Low-Residency MFA in Illustration Program. Also, I will be talking about the other half of my thesis which has not been shown yet. So stay tuned!

Spectrum 21!

Today I'm happy to announce that my painting "Badru and the Giant" was accepted in Spectrum volume 21!! You may remember my post from last year about the competition and my acceptance for the first time ever. I am completely honored and excited to be included yet again in this year's edition. As well, to have one of my personal pieces from a project that I care very much about gain recognition makes it that much nicer. 

Thanks to all of the judges and congratulations to everyone else!

Badru and the Beanstalk Final

A while back I had posted my sketch for the first piece in a series i'm working on for part of my MFA thesis. The setting is "jack and the beanstalk," with an orientalist twist. I'm still figuring out the logistics of this project and how I want the whole thing to work, but for now i'm just working through some of the initial images in the story. So here's the final for the first one.

12x22.5 Oil on masonite

If you're going to be at Spectrum Live this weekend you can also see the painting in person, as well as many other originals, sketches, and prints that I'll have with me.

MFA Adventures - Badru Sketch #1

Lately, i've been steady working both on freelance jobs and some images for my projects as a part of the Low Residency MFA in Illustration program at the Hartford Art School. If you remember back to this post I had done a quick book dummy for an alternate version of Jack and the Beanstalk set in an Orientalist setting. I may or may not continue with it entirely as part of my thesis project, but I still enjoy a lot of the imagery. So I figure I'll at least do a few of the spreads as paintings. Here's my first sketch for one of the paintings.