Long needed update

Well its been quite awhile since my last post but that does not mean that I have not been busy. For on, I recently finished another mural in a little boy's room. The baby's parents had selected a vintage cowboy print bedding set and wanted a mural on the wall that mimicked the style on the print. For the main wall I painted a scene of all the cowboys gathered around a camp fire. I also included portraits of the three family dogs to add that personal touch. Over the changing table I took the conostoga wagon design off of the bedding set, added a horse in front and had one of the cowboys driving it. And since I had so much fun painting the dogs I had each of their faces sticking out the back! Finally, over the crib I had a cowboy spinning a lasso that spelled out the baby's name. All in all, I'm very pleased with the final outcome.





I've been doing some of my own paintings as well. This one is a panoramic of Harbor Town on Hilton Head Island South Carolina. I go there with my family every summer and this is among one of my favorite places to go on the island.


As well, I've recently opened up an online store on Imagekind.com (the link can be found on my side bar) where I'm selling artist prints of each of my watercolors. I'm very excited about this and if all goes well with my watercolor gallery, I'll most likely open up another for my digital work.

And of course, as always, I've been taking a LOT of pictures.

Rain!

So after a summer of extreme heat and no rain, the trend finally broke and the sky opened up. Finally, hope of a reprieve from the water restrictions we've been under! We know what this means.... Photo-op!

Nothing like raindrops to make everything twinkle.





I'm thinking the last one may make an interesting christmas card. Could be interesting.

The Great Creature Stack-Up!

Latest illustration! I'm not entirely sure where the idea came from, only that I find size proportions between various creatures to be rather entertaining. It's always appeared comical to me that some animals are so huge and others are so small. Also, I've been drawing a lot of moose lately since I did some test projects for a potential job opportunity, and in process I wondered if a moose ever gets things stuck in its antlers, such as small animals of course. ;) This moose may have attracted a bit more than he bargained for with those massive growths on his head. Enjoy!

Book Cover

This is a project I actually completed about a week ago, but I'm just now getting around to posting it. The project was a gift for a friend of mines sister-in-law who had written a children's book about a house and the memories the house holds of all the people who have lived and loved within its walls. At the end of the book the house shoots all of her old memories out of her chimney in order to prepare herself for the next family. As a surprise for this woman on her birthday, I designed a cover of the book for her.


I ended up being happy with the outcome, though I struggled with designing the house. It was a good experience though. Sometimes it's good to attempt something that's a little out of your element.

First Post!

Well this is the obligatory first post. I intend to use this blog primarily as a means to keep people updated on my artistic endeavors. I do also have a website (www.joannasteege.com) but I feel it would also be practical to have a place where I can post images and talk about the process in which I created them. Something a little less formal and easier to update than a website. I may also be posting a lot of photography since I always prefer to take my own reference photos. A lot of my inspiration for my illustrations come from things I have seen and then photographed.

As for what I've been up too lately, I've recently been accepting a lot of mural painting jobs. I do enjoy painting murals and hope to do a lot more in the future. Having to go on site and paint is a nice break from locking myself up in my studio. It keeps you fresh.

The most recent mural I've completed was for a little girls room. She had a new bedspread from Ikea and her parents wanted something on the wall that matched the characters on her bed. Other than that, I had full creative control!

Here's a couple of samples from the bed spread:





Needless to say, the bedspread was adorable and completely up my alley. Ikea always has the cutest stuff. The characters reminded me a bit of the circus so I decided to take various design elements from the fabric pattern and create a carousel for the characters to ride on. I painted this over her bed and then to tie everything together I copied the juggler character and placed him over the window and had his juggling balls fly through the air over the carousel. Here's the final result:




It was a lot of fun to do. I'm a firm believer that kids things are always the most fun. When your designing for kids your allowed to use the full range of your creativity whereas for adults you have to me a bit more restrained and style conscious.

Next I've got an illustration that I'm working on for a friend of mine. Its a bit of a challenge because I have to design a house to go in the picture, and my strengths lie more towards the whimsical than the architectural. All's possible with hard work however and I like the way its turning out. I'll be sure to post it once its completed.