A sketch I squeezed in during baby's nap time.  I'm not sure why a reindeer - just something that popped into my head. I'd like to finish it up, possibly in ink...

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I was so happy to hear the news recently that my painting "Northern Lights" for Spider magazine received the SCBWI Magazine Merit Honor (1st runner-up)!!

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Some time ago I completed a couple of series of designs for a holiday luminary box, one for Christmas and one for Halloween.  I received a product sample earlier this year, but hadn't had gotten around to posting about it until now.  Here's the box with a Halloween insert:

The Halloween design in the raw:
 What's neat about these luminary boxes is that they are not only lit from the front, but also project an image out the back onto a nearby wall.  They come with interchangeable inserts as well.  Here are two versions lit up.  There are some better pictures of this on the product website - http://www.haute-decor.com/Projection%20Luminary.html

 It's always fun to see the final form of the various products that I've worked on.

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Here's a link to the interview I did for Kidsbook Friends.

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My Princess Madison trilogy just appeared in a feature on the Kidsbook Friends blog!  Check out the write-up:

http://kidsbookfriends.com/2015/05/13/princess-madison-trilogy-a-perfectly-imperfect-princess/

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I have the good fortune of living  reasonably close to the Irving Arts Center which has hosted some really wonderful children's book art exhibits.  Several months ago we saw an assortment of Ed Young originals and this past weekend we went to see their current exhibit of original, mostly older, Golden Books covers.

I grew up with a number of Eloise Wilkins books.  I've always loved her sweet depictions of childhood and was so happy to see three of her originals:

 One of my all-time favorite illustrators, Trina Schart Hyman, had an original I'd never seen before on display:
 I love the retro look of some of these paintings.  You can see the heavy influence of these older works on so many of the current new wave of retro-styled artists popping up these days.
 I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to see such great works first-hand.  It's worth stopping by if you're in the neighborhood.

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As promised, here's another one of the products I had the pleasure of working on.  I think the concept behind this is pretty self-explanatory.  In case it's hard to tell from the photo, the reindeer's scarf doubles as a hook/noose!  Poor stressed-out reindeer.

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I know it's a little bit late for Christmas, but I just received my illustrator's copies of an Advent calendar I worked on a while back.  The theme for the calendar is "Christmas Around the World," so I had a chance to learn about all the interesting Christmas traditions from several different countries around the world.

 Here's the interior illustration without windows - it might be a little easier to make out some of the details in the art:
It looks like it's available here on Amazon.

I also got some other samples, along with the Advent calendars, of products I worked on in the recent past, but haven't had a chance to photograph them yet.  So, more soon to come...

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I found this little sketch while cleaning out my studio.  I nearly forgot about it.  Hope to come back to it in paint some day.

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The gallery show this past Thursday went over really well.  The space was perfect for our group and we had a great turnout.  Some pictures from the show:

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I'm still incredibly busy with our three-month old little girl and haven't really had time for art, but I'm trying to keep my fingers in it and as such, I'll be participating in a group show next week.  This will be my first ever gallery showing, so I'm really looking forward to it!  I'll be showing only older work, but it's still a great chance to come and see original works up close by fourteen different artists.  If you're in the area, I hope you can make it!

A sampling of the pieces I'll be showing is here:
http://www.northtexasillustrators.com/project/phyllis-hornung-peacock/http://www.northtexasillustrators.com/project/phyllis-hornung-peacock/

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I've been away for a while, and for good reason.  It's been a bit busy around here:

Meet the recent addition to the family, Julia!  She's almost two months old and keeping us very busy.  I'm sure she'll provide great artistic inspiration for years to come!

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It's getting warmer here.  Time for some spring and summer-time activities, I think...

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I've had this painting 99% complete sitting on my desk for probably a year or two and only just added the finishing touches yesterday.  I'm glad to have it finally completely finished! 

For sale here in my etsy shop.  You can check out the sketch from way back in the 2010 archives here.

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Digging back into ancient history, here's another painting from the archives:

I painted this back in 2002 for an issue of Ladybug magazine.  Just listed for sale in my Etsy shop!

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I hope the new year's finding everyone well!  Here's a peek at a little project I completed at the end of last year:

What could be more appropriate than snowmen during this arctic blast that's sweeping so much of the country?!  Even here in Texas, we're feeling it.  This is one of a series of designs for a seasonal home product set.  Something a little different for me...  I can't say much else about it at this time, but hopefully will have more on this in the future.  In the meantime, stay warm!

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Just in time for Halloween - I recently completed a number of holiday designs for a series of home decor products.  I can't go into detail about the project yet, but will hopefully have more to show in the future.  Happy Halloween!

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A little snippet of something I'm working on:

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I opened my Bristol pad today and stumbled across these little guys.  I think they are drawn from photos from either Ranger Rick or Your Big Backyard:

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I had the opportunity earlier this year to illustrate a short book to go along with a set of stuffed toys called The Amazing Dream Team Pets.  The concept behind the toys is that the stuffed animals act as night-time guardians fending off bad dreams while children sleep.  Children can then 'reward' the stuffed toy the next morning for a good night's job with stickers.  Characters were designed by OIC Toys, so the illustrations were based off the stuffed animal prototypes at the time:

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Something a little different...  I made this drawing for The Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary where I regularly volunteer.  Unfortunately, it didn't get used for it's intended purpose, but I like him anyway.  First time I've drawn a lemur...

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So, in an attempt to disrupt my shameful neglect of this blog, here are some more sketches from some time ago...

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I feel a bit neglectful, having not updated here since quite some time ago last year!  Unfortunately, everything I've been working on as of late happens to be commercial work that I can't show quite yet, so I'm afraid I still haven't much I can share.  So, I dug up some old warm-up sketches from last year:

I think the children are from Muybridge's The Human Figure in Motion.  The old butler-y character is the French teacher from the movie A Little Princess.  I thought he had such a distinctive look, that I freeze-framed through the movie and sketched him in a few poses.  I hope to get back to more regular posting in the not-too-far-distant future...

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