Red Dirt Tales

This is my first journey into writing and illustrating my own children's book (for ages 4 to 10). For you native Texans from my generation, you may relate to some of these stories.

Red Dirt Tales  is a collection of four odes to subjects that may not be familiar to kids today. Each story has ties, in some form or fashion, to the “red dirt” soil found throughout the northern plains of Texas along the Red River. Told with humor and rich illustrations created from the childhood memories of the author.

Extreme Caution - Finished

"Extreme Caution" 12"x9" oil on canvas panel

New Medium - Oils

"Extreme Caution" 12x9 oil and canvas board.

 This is my first oil from a photo reference. My 3 previous oils were all en plein air. I took the photo this weekend trying to get a nice sunny/shadowy shot of my very white Jack Russell mix. He was investigating a piece of swiss chard that was a scrap from a recent harvest. Shortly after I shot this he flinched in fear of it. It must have moved. He's rough and tough alright.

I'm still very new to this medium, and this is by far the best of my attempts. The others are not worthy of posting.

The image here is a bit shiny since it's still wet. I'll post a better one when it's dry.

Reference photo.