Mosaic Mural

Another 30 foot nautical mosaic mural this time! Completed with the help of over 500 kids at Nimitz Elementary School. (2005) Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the School. My part to play was designing over 20 different clay sea creatures and subsequently teaching each grade a to make one of each creature. Mosaic piece collected from old pottery, china, and scraps from local bay area tile companies. Gray grout used. Mural Design by Tracy Burris. Picture taken of Me and my sister Julianne Hansen.

John Lennon Mural

A 30 foot mural painted by myself and the singularly amazing Thomas Stanton of Holy City Art Glass. (2009) We had to get a pool guy to smear plaster all over the wall before we could even paint so as to create a nice smooth surface. Tom and I worked on this for 1 month during the summer and had a blast! We incorporated children from all over the world in the front of the mural and even got one of my students to pose for me. Karen Rivera is pushing the big beach ball. I can't seem to find a pic of the whole mural finished, so I will have to go take a pic and post it later!

Hot air balloon library mural

A hot air balloon mural painted for the Library of Nimitz Elementary School. (2008) Painting done in exterior house paints mixed with Nova Color paints. Clouds sponged on with huge bristle brush and smeared with cloth.

School is Cool! Nimitz T-shirt

T-shirt illustration for Nimitz Elementary School, where I have had the awesome opportunity to teach art since 2004. What an honor and what a fabulous bunch of kids! We wanted to convey the idea that school is cool! and thus the surfing dolphin, who happens to be our school mascot. This illustration was drawn in pencil, scanned, painted in Corel Painter, and typeface done in Illustrator. (created 2010)

Sammy Learns to Talk : Love is in the Air!

Sammy Learns to Talk : Dancing Pig

Sammy Learns to Talk : Moose Lips

Sammy Learns to Talk : The Flirty Lamb

Sammy Learns to Talk : Giraffe

I had the fabulous privilege to illustrate 2 books for Good Sound Publishing, a couple of years ago. Along with Lovely Lily, I also illustrated Sammy Learns to Talk which is a fun story about a Snake who goes on a walk and meets all sorts of characters with different colors. The fun twist at the end of the book shows Sammy finally meeting Sally the Snake and they slither off into the distance, making a heart shape with their bodies. The following posts show a few pages from this book.

Shop-o-holic

A funny little illustration of a woman who searches high and low for supreme quality and rarely finds it. Illustration done in Fireworks over scanned in pencil drawing.

"Download" Google Buttons

Here are a couple of graphics I created in Illustrator for a possible Google "Download" Button. The idea was to show tremendous amounts of information whizzing down to someone's computer.

Enchanted Moss

Experiments with Adobe Illustrator. Recently fascintated by surface designers and their creations. Discovered a gem of a website here.

Front Cover - Lovely Lily

Lily is a minxy playful, laughable character. What else but an zesty crimson could do the trick for Lily's front and center debut. Definately the final pick for Lily's opening number, cover story. I just got back from a fantastic experience at the publishers in Utah! http://www.printechutah.com. (contact: David Archer) They were so wonderful and generous to show me around. I learned bucket loads of info about how to print, cut, and mass produce a book. I would recommend a field trip here for anyone interested in learning more!

Page 12 A Mess!

It is labor trying to make someone look messy! I'm telling you. soo hard. Thats when I came up with the idea of putting chilis in the hair. Much less goopy, but still, messy perhaps? (note to good sound publishing) Can I just say... Abigail Richards you are absolutely the best! Your expressions are dynamite! Thanks for your modeling help. This illustration is dedicated to you girl!

Page 11 Chips and Chili Yikes!

Thank goodness for bloomers. Chips and chili you say?...well, a few thrown in the air for good illustration reference sake...got to have it accurate!

Page 10 Night

Maxfield Parish comes in handy when trying to do an almost dusk to night scene. You gotta love those golden age illustration masters! They just do it so right. Also, thanks to Rachel Packard for the lampshade idea. Genius! Obviously Lily's imagination is getting the better of her!

Page 8 Ladybug

How does one put pink pajamas on a ladybug? so many legs. Why not make her wings pink and put a sleeping cap on. That should do the trick. I learned a lot about painting clusters and fields of daisies! phew. You squint your eyes to get the basic shapes of white against green. Notice that shapes get thinner and shorter the further back...they also meld together. Less green stem space. Lots of fun!

Page 7- Leaping over Leopards

I went running one morning and noticed that the very early morning gives off a fabulous pink hue! A sunrise ilustration. I also felt like Lily should be tiny and far away. This helps with the pacing of the book... keeping the viewer interested by switching between up close and far awy shots. Good Sound Publishing also suggested that I needed a second leopard to match the words...working out perfectly because, well, everyone, even leopards need a lover when they are lounging on a divine plush couch right!

Page 5 - Color

This illustration is intended to look hot .... as in sweltering! I thought I might put a bright sun behinde Lily's head and then do a radial gradient fill out to the edges. I figured out a couple of good tips while using gradients... never use just 2 colors ie (beginning color and end color) because the colors blending in between get mushy and cloudy. You want to punch in a couple of medium hues on your gradient slider to get those mid tones popping! Here is the type as well...my first attempt at laying in type...I can't believe how easy it is. I love Adobe products!

Page 5- Leap Leap Leap

Lily loves to Leap! How to draw a leaping girl? hmm...that was a challenge. I started by taking photos of some of my art students to figure out the geusture..but then suddenly a thought from a couple years ago came to mind. I had been hiking in cal poly through the woods, when I came upon a woman suspended 20 feet from the ground by a long crimson cloth, holding an arabesque pose. I was stunned...I came to find out that this woman was an aerial dancer. Remembering this image triggered an idea to create Kilys leaping gestures. Aerial dancing is athletic and graceful. Lily needed to be energetic, but still feminine. These are some of the arresting poses I came up with for Lily.