My summer banners are up! I want to thank Bridget Doyle, Communications Coordinator for the Village of Lombard for giving me the opportunity to make some art for my town! I really enjoyed painting the images of summer. Here are some of the steps I took to make the paintings.

I always start with thumbnails of drawings they help me get the composition right. It’s also a great way to get a lot of ideas out of your head and on to the paper. You can see all 43 thumbnails here.

After Bridget and her team picked the ones they like best I did some more detailed sketches. This helps me get an even better idea of what I want the final image to look like. You can see all 8 of the detail sketches here.


Then I set out to painting them. I did 6 in all. One that wasn’t included in the detailed sketches were the fireworks paintings. I made 2 versions of the fireworks. I was just trying something out for the first time. I had no idea how I would paint fireworks in watercolor. But I kind of like how they turned out. Let me tell you Lombard really puts on a great fireworks display every 4th of July!
Okay that’s me at The Corner House in Lombard. Every chance I get I like to hang out there and doodle something. So if you see me there you better bring your sketch book!
Also thanks to the Daily Herald for wanting to do a story on me. You can read the full story here at the Daily Herald

Yup, that me and my banner….