Category Archives: Commissions

Illustration Opportunities

Growing up, “illustrating a children’s book” was on my dream list (probably right under “workin a Disney”). I loved the work of illustrators like Jan Brett, Chris Van Allsburg, Mercer Meyer, and more. I used to write and illustrate my own stories. In fall of 2020, I got asked by Our Sunday Visitor (OSV) to create the cover illustration for a new Catholic kids magazine called OSV Kids. The January cover was to depict a family inviting home a new baby, so I had my daughters model for photos with an American Girl doll wrapped up in a blanket.

I created the cover illustration with the help of my new iPad Pro and the app Procreate. It was a dream come true. Seeing my daughters holding a copy of the physical magazine bearing their image was definitely one of the coolest experiences I’ve had as an artist.

It was such a positive and rewarding experience, so I was extra excited when I was asked to create another illustration for the centerfold of the June 2021 issue (I’ll try to share that one later when it comes out) as well as the artwork for a new book on the Jesse Tree by Colleen Pressprich (which will also be published by Our Sunday Visitor).

The cover illustration started off as a line drawing that I shaded using dark brown tones. I tried to create all of the tonal values with this brown shade to make an “under painting.” On a separate layer, I added the colors for the girls on top. You can see what the different stages looked like in the above photo (cover image copyright Our Sunday Visitor).

Pianos About Town 2019

For the Pianos About Town 2019 season, I had the opportunity to paint my third piano for the city, “How to fold a paper crane.” I had always loved origami growing up and wanted to make a nod to my Japanese heritage. I love that the pianos encourage spontaneous music making, so I thought combining two art forms together would be a fun take.

This is one of my favorite pianos to date and I hope that people enjoy trying to follow along with the directions.

Wedding Season

I’ve been busy creating a lot of portrait pieces to celebrate weddings and other occasions. I even had the opportunity to paint some custom cornhole boards for a reception.

I love it when I’m asked to create portraits whether it’s for a wedding, anniversary, or other occasion. I truly believe that art is a ministry, so being able to paint something beautiful to be shared in the home of a family is really a blessing.

Many of the podcasts I have been listening to lately have discussed the theme of beauty. It is so important to be surrounded by beauty because it shapes our souls and it shapes our culture. I’m so thankful that I get asked to be a part of the process

Watercolor, 5×7”.
Watercolor, 4×6”.

Mermaid Chair

In July, the Downtown Development Authority asked me to paint an Adirondack chair for Old Town Square. I decided to paint a mermaid because my daughter Holly loves them. The mermaid chair is a perfect addition to the splash pad in the square that lots of kids play in.

It was so much fun to paint and I’ve enjoyed seeing it out and about whenever I’m downtown. I feel so honored to have been asked to work on this project. Thanks for supporting up-and-coming local artists!

Before

Mr. + Mrs. Lowry

Happy one month anniversary to Hannah and Zach Lowry who were married on November 1st at a beautiful ceremony at the Tapestry House. Hannah was a stunning fall bride. It was fun attending and seeing a bunch of my former co-workers and celebrating their marriage.

Both Hannah and Zach have ridiculously kind families (no wonder they both turned out to be such great people). It was really nice meeting everybody.

My go-to wedding gift in always a handmade portrait of the couple. This little watercolor of the happy couple measures 4×6” and I’m glad that the bride and groom said I did them justice! Below is also a start-to-finish time lapse video of the painting process. Enjoy!

“Hannah and Zach.” Watercolor, 4×6”.

Transformer Box: Complete!

It took a little over a month, but I finally did end up finishing my koi transformer cabinet for the city. I’m really happy with how it turned out and I’m thankful that the weather cooperated during the last few weeks.

When I first started the project, it was incredibly hot. So hot that I got sick one of the days I was working on it. The following week, it was so cold that I had to wear long underwear and two coats for shorter painting sessions. That’s Colorado for ya!

I’m so thankful that I had this opportunity to create art for the city and the friends/family who supported me by visiting, bringing me cookies, and helping assist. You can see photos from the process below!

Transformer Cabinet Week 1: Some Like It Hot

I started working on my transformer cabinet mural for the city of Fort Collins on Friday and worked through Sunday. The box is located by the Burger King drive thru on the north end of College and I made pretty good progress on my koi fish mural.

Unlike the Pianos About Town Project, I don’t see too many people. I see everyone who goes around the drive thru and I’ve talked to some of the Burger King staff. They’ve all been super nice (one of them upgraded my drink and said I could stop in for free refills to beat the heat).

The largest side of the box is about 4ftx6ft. I’ve painted large-scale paintings before (pianos for Pianos About Town and my daughters’ nursery mural), but you never quite realize how long a painting is going to take until you start it. I like to mentally visualize what I plan on accomplishing everyday, and I’m definitely not as far as I imagined. That being said, I’m still making good progress and ended in a satisfactory place at the end of my Sunday shift.

The cabinet starts off pre-primed, so it’s ready for paint. I taped off the concrete at the base of the box, grabbed my can of blue house paint, and started rolling the paint on. I was hoping that one coat would be enough for a base coat, but I needed to add a second layer. Setback #1.

Next, I sketched out the design on 3 of the 5 sides with chalk. This took longer than anticipated too because it needs to be identical to the concept sketch. Setback #2.

Setback #3 was definitely the heat. The weather was in the 90s the whole weekend, so it made for interesting painting conditions. There’s a large wall behind the box where the Burger King garbage cans are, so this helped create some nice shady spots but only during certain times of the day (and sometimes only for a few moments at a time). On the second day when I was working on the shading for the crests of the waves, the heat would make the paint dry within seconds. This made for some really interesting “beat the clock” painting sprints.

2 of the 3 days I worked, I also had shifts at Pinot’s Palette. After putting in time Saturday morning on the box and working a class at Pinot’s Palette afterwards, I ended up getting sick. I thought I was going to pass out, my legs felt like I had competed in a cycling race, and I felt slightly nauseous. I collapsed on the couch when I got home, fell asleep for about 3 hours, and finally started to feel better after dropping some electrolyte tablets into my drinking water and taking a bath. Even though I had been taking regular water breaks and wearing my big sun hat while working, the heat still really took it out of me!

On my last day of work for the weekend, I vowed I would head home if I felt heat exhaustion coming on, packed a bunch of electrolyte tablets (“it’s what artists need”), and brought some beef jerky to snack on. I got caught up on all of my podcasts and started listening to an audiobook of The Disaster Artist (hilarious so far).

I’ll be back at it again next weekend! I’m hoping I can finish all the shading on the waves next time, but we’ll see.

You can learn more about Art in Public Places and check out my concept sketch (and the other boxes for the city) here at the FCGov website.

Erin and Darin

A little over a year ago, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law asked if we wanted their dining room table set. It was a high quality table with matching chairs in great condition. Our set at the time was completely mismatched, so we agreed to exchange their dining room set for a portrait painting. Originally, Erin and Darin were interested in getting a portrait of my nieces and nephew, but it was hard finding a picture they liked. Over a year went by, and they finally decided on a picture from their trip to Hawaii.

Building up all of the layers of colors.

It was a challenging painting because of all of the different textures (blowing hair, hat mesh, beard stubble, detailed sunglasses, ocean, etc), but it was a lot of fun to work on. Life got busy, so I had to work on it in small chunks of time over the course of a couple of months. You can see in the in-progress photo how gradual the build-up of layers was (another reason why it took a long time).

I’m beyond excited over the final results! I can’t wait to see what it looks like displayed in their new house.

“Erin and Darin.” Watercolor, 11×14”

Wedding Commission for Nicole

I recently got the opportunity to work on this fun watercolor commission for Nicole. Since it was her “paper anniversary,” she wanted to gift her husband a watercolor painting of one of their wedding pictures.

After she sent me a couple of pictures for reference, I combined elements from her two favorites to create this painting.

Fun fact: we both have the same anniversary date, June 25th, just a couple of years apart.

An in progress picture of the painting in the early stages.

Watercolor, 5×7”

Soccer Field

I was recently asked to paint some concept artwork of the different uses of a soccer field. The images show the field being used by a soccer team, lacrosse players, and picnickers.

I painted the field by itself using watercolors and painted the players and people separately. They were later digitally composited using Photoshop.

The original soccer field painted in watercolor.

The field with the soccer players.

The field with picnickers.

The field with lacrosse players.