Greetings ladies & gents.
Here are a few samples of recent projects of mine.

1.  Designed a set of altar rails, with helpful adjustments by the carpenter, Toan Tieu.  The stained glass windows feature biblical scenes in the foreground and San Francisco architectural landmarks in the distance.  And so, for four painted panels inserted in the design, I featured the four Gospel writers in the natural Bay Area landscape.
Woodwork: Oak. Painted panels: Acrylic and gold leaf on linen, mounted behind glass.

2.  A few pages from Catholic Churches Big and Small.  Acrylic, colored pencil and ink on paper.

3.  An illustration for an essay on prison ministry - from the book The Jesuit Post, an anthology of Jesuit writing on culture, politics and religion.  Ink and acrylic on paper.

And much, much more at:

http://www.stefansalinas.com/

Stefan Salinas

Clare's Costly Cookie

I am thrilled to announce the publication of the first book illustrated by me: Clare's Costly Cookie by Julie Kelly!

It's a story about a nine-year-old girl who loves cookies and finds her siblings annoying sometimes, so she talks to Jesus. The dialogue narrative becomes an introduction to Christian meditation for children.

Check it out here!

Nativity book

When I first joined this blog, I posted a couple of pictures I had done for a children's picture book of the birth of Christ.  Well, thanks to the ministrations and energy of a friend with drive and energy, my manuscript and pictures have been put into an actual book, which is now available on Amazon here.
I am thrilled to pieces that it is a real thing.

God is good, in so many ways!

St. Francis Xavier coloring page

I'm starting a new project: a coloring book of the entire Liturgical year. Beginning with December because the First Sunday of Advent is around then and it's simpler to go month by month, the first page I did is St. Francis Xavier, whose feast is December 3rd.

The Future of Children's Books?

Very interesting article with a collection of short looks at interactive children's books.



See the article and the rest of the samples here. 
As with everything else what it means to be an illustrator, particularly for children's books, is changing. But I can totally see spacegirl Zita in an app like this.
Ben? Are you listening?

I am new here.

My name is Vicki Sheridan.

Thank you for letting me join this group.

Whenever I read a psalm that says something like, "Make a joyful noise to the Lord," or, "Play loudly with all your skill," I believe that--because I am not very musical--I am being called to draw or paint with all my skill. That realization has come late. I am a mother and grandmother who has some God-given talents which I did not adequately nurture. I thought they were MINE, to use for my interests. It didn't occur to me until about 2005, when I saw the film Andre Rublev, that my talents were given to me to use for God. In the movie, someone says to Rublev, "God has given you a talent; it is a sin not to use it." That struck me.

Then, the following year I was struck again. My son Seth Fisher was a comic book artist. He had art skill also, but unlike me, he worked and worked it, making it better and better, and did truly beautiful work. Then in January of 2006 he was killed in an accidental fall.

After that, somehow it seemed to me that I needed to take up art in a serious way, to work at it and make it into something that I can truly use to make a joyful noise to the Lord. My interest has always been illustration. I would dearly love to illustrate children's books. But it's only recently that I have started doing work in color. So I have a lot to learn about using color. I have drawn a book of the Nativity story, and had it rejected once. I haven't given up, but I have some other projects in mind, and with limited time, I have shelved the Nativity book for a little while. I am posting a couple of pictures from it here.

I have a long way to go, but I am willing to keep working at it.

Hail Mary, Full of Grace

I have wanted to try and do an illustration of Mary for quite awhile, so finally got down to it tonight!

Golden Age Illustration

"Golden Age Comic Book Stories" is another terrific source of vintage illustration. A recent post included the art from "Deep Water Days" illustrated by a half-dozen different greats including N.C. Wyeth and Frank Schoonover and one I had not heard of before Richard Rogers.
These pen and ink illustrations, a nice compliment to our earlier "Rembrandt" post are by Richard Rogers from "Deep Water Days."

St. George

A while ago I posted the ink drawing for this piece. I thought you all might like to see how it turned out.

Prayer Book Illustrations

Hello,
I was wondering if anyone on this site had been chosen to illustrate the children's prayer book planned by Partridge Hill Media. If so, I would love to see some of the illustrations, if you can share them.
Thanks!

Inspiration: Trina Schart Hyman

It was when I was pretty small, maybe five or six, when I was first allowed to pick out books on my own at our local library, a small collection of books above the post office in town. The elderly librarian came in a few times a week to reshelf the books that people had returned, but otherwise you were on your own. You made a stack, wrote down the titles in the librarian’s notebook along with your name, and promised to bring them back within a month or so. If you didn’t, she would look up your name in the phone book and call in a reminder.


The book that I borrowed the most was “The Pumpkin Giant.” Based on an English folk tale, it told of a terrifying giant with a pumpkin head who ate fat little boys. The story, to me, was secondary. What I loved were the illustrations, showing the gnarled hands and feet of the Pumpkin Giant, his collection of skulls, and all the other macabre details that boys love.


The illustrator was Trina Schart Hyman. Inspired by the great illustrators of the late 19th and early 20th century, she continued in that tradition with moody pen-and-ink illustrations and vivid watercolors. From 1973 to 1979 she was the art director of Cricket magazine, and went on to win several Caldecott honors for her marvelously illustrated books. She didn’t write many books herself, but illustrated many favorites of mine, including "St. George and the Dragon" and "The Kitchen Knight".

She died in 2004 at the age of 65.

Links:
"How I Do My Work" by Trina Schart Hyman
Trina Schart Hyman on Wikipedia
Page at R. Michelson Galleries

BONUS:
The text of "The Pumpkin Giant"

The Genesis of the Golden Book Style

Via Smallpaxer Anthony Van Arnsdale, here is a great post from the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive. Check it out--it is a real inspiration!

hello

Hello, I'm Sophie and have watched this blog for some time now-and am finally joining. In addition to some religious art I enjoy illustrating nature...and am especially interested in greeting cards and children's books. Below are several examples of my work.

Crosshatching on the Path to Virtue

Here's another Alphabet picture and I've noticed I've gotten a lot, I don't know, busier with my penwork lately. I hope it doesn't look overworked. My goal, since I can't color these with watercolor, is to be detailed enough in the penwork that I can lay in mostly flat colors with photoshop.

The Fr. Brown Reader

The cover is a chalk drawing with a heaping dose of digital tweaking.
There are a bunch of little line drawings and one pencil drawing for each of the four stories:




Thanks to the publisher and the "adaptor" for their patience as it took just about a year to get the project done.