May 2013 Desktop Calendar is here!

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In the nick of time, here's my May 2013 desktop calendar, featuring another illo from Skink on the Brink(due out so very soon!!). We have had a nasty stomach bug here, with one kiddo home from school today,so this post will be short and sweet. I hope you enjoy the desktop!  :-)

Colour palette for Skink on the Brink

I just love to see artists colour palettes, mixing trays, and colourful test papers. It gives a tiny glimpse into the thought process inside their creative brain.  It's fun to see how a colour scheme is fleshed out, knowing lots of experimenting and play went into each piece of artwork or illustration.
The colour palette above is the one I created while making the final art for Skink on the Brink. It ended up flowing onto a second page too...I like to mix colours myself, and with this book I wanted the colours to be quite earthy, and natural. I even kept real leaves collected from my cottage to compare against my hand mixed plasticine colours.

You can see my colour palette on the wire thingy above my art table. I like having it within arms reach, if I need to add another colour mixture, or if I need to remake a specific colour.
And of course, I had lots of pizza to keep me well fed...LOL...kidding,  those pile-o-boxes on the right under and on top of the table are holding my finished illustrations- keeping them safe from the curious little fingers of my 4 munchkins. From the amount there I'd say I was only about half way through the final art. The boxes were double in height once all of the artwork was complete.

April 2013 Desktop Calendar

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It's April 1st, and you know that means...time for a spiffy new desktop calendar, and that's no foolin'! I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter long weekend.

 This month's calendar features the always adorable (and always ready for his close-up) Stewie the skink. This is a snippet from one of the interior spreads from Skink on  the Brink. Can you believe the release date is next month?! We are SUPER excited!!! Stewie is too. Believe me, he worked hard to get this April feature. He kept my shoulder(s) toasty while I worked, serenaded the kids to sleep, dusted the studio (who knew a sliding skink on a Swiffer pad was sooo effective?), and he even rapped for me, it was one cool ditty to a very funky beat -that skink can throw down some mean rhyme, and bust some moves!
With the book release scheduled for May (YAY! :-D) everything is getting "Stewie-fied" around here. We plan to whip up some fun Stewie bookplates, and some other goodies, that Lisa and I would love to sign to personalize your book.  If you have any special requests, Lisa and I would love to hear them, just send me an email or leave a comment.

To download your own desktop calendar simply click on the required screen resolution above, right click, and select Save To Desktop. Oh, and FYI... if you hear a little voice and foot tapping coming from your computer screen, don't be alarmed, it's just Stewie...;-)