Illustration Ale III @EastEndBrewing @UncoveredSpace @Aetherea @valkyriesbard @strawberryluna @toonseum @Waynocartoons

The third edition of Illustration Ale was released last Thursday (Dec. 5) at the Toonseum in beautiful downtown Pittsburgh. Six local artists were invited to illustrate and design their own version of a label for the series.

Artists include (left to right; top to bottom):

Ilene Winn Lederer
ME!
strawberryluna
Sarah Miller
Lizzee Solomon
Jessica Heberle

The ale itself is a 1,600 bottle limited edition, Belgian-style ale with a rich, dark malt character, brewed by Pittsburgh's own East End Brewing. A portion of the proceeds from sales of the brew benefit the Toonseum.

Artists take a selfie

My brew and me

Original Square Kat painting: April Fool

Read about the origins of the April Fool Square Kat here.
See the progression of the painting here.
And see into the mind of the boozer Kat here.

April Fool Square Kat

As you may (or may not) have noticed, I've failed to post the finished version of my April Fool Square Kat, and there's a perfectly good reason for that.

While I was in the middle of painting the little tyke, I stopped to check my email and found I had gotten one from a representative of the Toonseum in Pittsburgh. He told me about this thing they've been doing for a couple of years now in conjunction with East End Brewing, also in Pittsburgh. The brewery creates a limited edition beer (Belgian-style, dark ale) called Illustration Ale, and they ask six illustrators to create the labels to make a "six-pack." Then—and here's the best part—he asked me to be one of the illustrators for this year's batch!

Pretty cool, I thought.

And then I thought, oh crap. Now I have to come up with an idea.

Right about then I went back to painting, and as I thought about what I could come up with, the little guy on the board in front of me showed me how cool he would look with a stein in his little paw.

He's such a boozer.

I'm obligated to hold out on posting the complete final painting until after the unveiling (which should be within a couple of weeks; the beer's still brewing), but here's his little stein paw while you wait.

Will reveal the rest at a later date.

New Square Kat painting: April Fool

I've been working on a new painting (as the title implies), and it's of a Square Kat (also, as in above). He started out as a page in my Sketchbook Project Special Edition, but I'm thinking a lot of those little guys deserve better. So this one's getting himself a portrait done.

First off, here's the original sketch:

And here he is on his Sketchbook Project page:

These last three photos are in-progress shots. I think the background is pretty much finished, but everything else (his fur and clothes and stick boy) is just blocked in.