Xelias Aerial Arts Fundraiser Paintings

I am working on a series of paintings based on different forms of aerial arts that are taught at the circus school that I attend here in Mpls. The school is called Xelias Aerial Arts Studio and it is about a 10 - 15 min walk from my house in NE mpls. They are having a fundraiser this weekend to help fund their studio since it is a non-profit they depend alot on donations to keep the studio running. I love taking classes there and decided to volunteer my services as an illustrator and donate some paintings for an auction that they are having this weekend. I have not yet finished my series yet but I gave them the first painting so that bidders could get a taste of the whole series. I am doing a theme of elements for each painting, so the one pictured below is the "Air" painting depicting a women doing aerial silks on vines. I also have a "Water", "Earth" and "Fire"to be completed. Even if the paintings do not sell at the auction then I am happy I worked on this project. I tried a new technique of painting for me; using gouache on canvas. I used an absorbent ground made by golden, painting a thin layer over a gessoed canvas that I had bought. This created a layer that will take water based mediums such as gouache and watercolor, which I enjoy using much more than oil or acrylic. It was very enjoyable to paint on and felt very similar to the cold press watercolor that I usually paint on; the texture was a bit different but did not bother me much. The gouache was very vibrant and blended very well on the canvas as well. I hope to do many more paintings using this technique as I believe it makes paintings easier to sell. See the large sketch and (almost) finished painting below. 

"A Tale from Tailsville" is complete and for Sale on Amazon

A Tale from Tailsville was written by local MN author, Dan Drotzman; and it is a short chapter book for children and adults alike. It is a fun story about a town of dogs and their election for a new mayor. I painted the color cover art for this book as well as the interior black and white images. The cover I painted in gouache and the interior I used a new kind of paint for me: casein paint. Casein is a milk protein based paint that is water soluble. It worked very similarly to gouache for me so I may not be switching brands as of yet, but it was fun to try something new. I am very happy with the interior images; it was interesting to research and paint new breeds of dogs.(here are a few below) Another fun fact is that I have also illustrated two other dog books for different authors. See A Day with Bacchus on blurb.com and see Is that My Tail? on amazon.com.