Olive and her kids escape to the neighborhood fort
Another illustration for the Notable Missourian book on Olive Boone (Written by Greta Russell, published by Truman State University Press).
During the War of 1812, many Native American tribes were allied with England and would regularly attack the new settlements in Missouri. These were especially tense times, especially considering that Olive's husband Nathan was in the army and far away from home. On two occasions Olive and her children sought refuge at the neighborhood fort, fully expecting an Indian army to attack. Fortunately for Olive the attack never came.
Pink Dinosaur Sunrise
My 3 year old and I painted this together. I'm not going to spoil the fun and say who painted the dinosaur and who painted the sunrise blob thingy...but I will say don't judge him too harshly. He's still working out the details of sauropod anatomy.
Seriously though, in the middle of painting he stopped and asked me to make him a pink dinosaur so I did. He's watched me paint before but for some reason this time his mind was blown. Nobody has ever reacted to anything I've ever painted like that ever. All for a big naked dinosaur. So that was pretty great.
If you love them, carve them a piroque out of a cottonwood.
This is for Chapter two of the Notable Missourian book on Olive Boone (written by Greta Russell, published by Truman State University Press). Here Nathan and Olive are flirting as he carves a piroque out of a large poplar in preparation for his families move to Missouri. They thought they would never see each other again but all that courting clearly had an effect. Soon after saying their goodbyes and setting out to travel down the river, Nathan landed in a nearby town and bought a marriage license. He returned to Olive by horse and asked her to marry him. Spoiler alert: She said yes.
Young Olive Boone and her mom
Here is the artwork for the first chapter in the Notable Missourian book on Olive Boone written by Greta Russell and published by Truman State University Press. Olive was a remarkable pioneer woman who is probably best known for being married to Daniel Boone's son Nathan, but there was much more to her than that. Nathan was often gone on a variety of expeditions. In his absence Olive had to independently take care of their homestead and family at a time when the territories were still wild and unsettled. This book offers a great insight to the life of an independent frontier woman.
What could go wrong?
First Notable Missourian books complete!
I'm happy to announce the first two books of the Notable Missourian series by Truman State University Press have been printed and they look fantastic! The books are SAM NIGHTINGALE by Mary Barile and GREAT WALKER by Greg Olson. Original illustrations by yours truly, including the cover image for Sam Nightingale. These books look fantastic. The printing, binding and overall quality are superb. Yes superb...and I don't bust out that word normally. Moreover, these stories are very well written and truly bring to life these interesting characters and the time periods in which they lived. Great stuff!
Olive Boone Sketches
Here's some example sketches for the book on notable Missourian Olive Boone (Published by Truman State University Press, written by Greta Russell). For the sake of experiment I freehanded these sketches completely on the computer instead of the pencil/computer combination used in the other sketches. I prefer the other way.
Olive learning how to use a spinning wheel from her mother.
Olive and Nathan Boone flirting while he carves a piroque out of a huge poplar tree.
Olive and Nathan Boone crossing the Missouri in a skiff with all their possessions.
Olive gardening at their new homestead.
Olive and slave girl building a chimney without the help of the men.
Olive and slave girl building a chimney, alternate view.
Olive and her (at the time) seven children rushing to a fort during an Indian raid.
An elderly Olive with some of her grandchildren.
Olive showing her granddaughter how to use a loom.
Harbinger of Spring
The Dreaded Dinosaur Virus
Sam Nightingale mixing herbal remedies
Here's another illustration from the Notable Missourian book on Sam Nightingale (Truman State University Press). This one shows him in his later years mixing traditional herbal remedies.
Hey Irish!
Happy Saint Patricks day!
Mobile Playground
Here's another webcomic. I should probably explain more about what the hell Animal Therapy (the comic) is sometime.
The Conjuror is in
This illustration for the Notable Missourian book on Sam Nightingale (Truman State University Press) shows Sam using his hoodoo conjuring to remove a hex from a woman. There were a lot of great spooky options for this chapter.
Creepy Money
New web comic! The story problem examples are taken from my 1st graders homework.
Childhood Imagination
A gentleman commissioned me to draw a likeness of his child having an adventure with her favorite toys done in my sketch style. It went over well and lead to a couple similar requests. Making these was a lot of fun because that was me as a kid...making up worlds and elaborate scenarios with my toys. To this day, the first thing I think when I see someones backyard for the first time is "would this be a cool place to play with GI Joes?" Funny thing is, the nicer the yard the more dull it is...er...was to play in. Give me a thicket of untrimmed trees and some washed out soil. Hills and rocks wanted. I think I may be justifying the poor condition of my back yard actually. It's a GI Joe paradise. Or GI Joe armageddon, depending on the play scenario. Hell, my father in law has tons of abandoned farm equipment on his property and I always think it would have been heaven to play in as a kid. Yes. A giant bee infested, tetanus riddled heaven. I've always been a bit jealous of the way farmers don't take their stuff to a salvage yard. They put it "over there" and call it good. Okay I'm wandering off topic. Anyways these were fun.
Sam Nightingale loading a flatboat on the Missouri
I really enjoyed making this one. It makes me look forward to the Joseph Kinney finals where there will be a lot of river scenes.
The first three books of the Notable Missourian series by Truman State University Press are at the printer now. Two of them may even be complete. I cannot wait to see how the actual books turn out!
The slave march of young Sam Nightingale
So far all of the Notable MIssourians I've illustrated have been very interesting, but there's something about Sam Nightingale (Guinea Sam) that really drew me in. Sam's complex story begins with bondage and ends with him helping to heal others. Okay so he may have occasionally hexed people too, but people should know better than to cross a hoodoo conjuror. Anyways, here's a guy that is long dead and gone and there is no photo of him and not a lot of first hand written record yet the stories of him persist. The man to this day oozes a spooky charisma. We should all be so lucky to ooze such things.
This illustration shows Sam as a boy having been captured by slave traders and marched to a slaver ship in his native country of Guinea.
(All Notable Missourian illustrations are for Truman State University Press.)
Helen Stephens at the 1936 Olympics
Plenty to say but short on time so I thought I'd post another illustration for the Notable Missourian series of books for Truman State University Press. This is Helen Stephens competing in the 100m at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. I don't think I've ever mentioned it but thank you to TSUP for permission to post these various works before the books are out. The first three books go to press in a couple weeks and I can't wait to see how they turn out! Okay...for being short on time and not planning to say anything I'm saying a lot. This will not surprise those who know me.
Back to painting...
Helen Stephens with the All American Redheads
After Helen Stephens returned from the 1936 Olympics, she began playing basketball with the All American Red Heads. The Red Heads were a team composed completely of women with red hair. Mind you most of it was dyed red, including Helens. They would travel around and take on local mens teams in front of sell out crowds at venues such as high school and college gymnasiums. They would make it a show too!
Oh by the way this is another illustration for the Helen Stevens volume of the Notable Missourian series to be published by Truman State University Press. Awesome pepes there!
Anyways, I think my brain was being sneaky with this one. Without realizing it I put the only bona fide looking redhead on the opposing mens team.
More soon.
