Book 2 is published!

Hello Friends,

I am happy to let you know that Book 2: Son of Abeilhe is now available through Amazon in most countries. Here are the direct links to the Canadian and USA Amazon sites for Son of Abeilhe. I'll put the links to the Tales of Ellmoria series in the margin. Amazon lets authors save their books by series titles now, so you can see at a glance which order the books are released.

The novel was completed by the end of January, but I couldn't find an image for the cover art. I made the bold move to try a painting myself, featuring my main character, Auberon. I printed off a stack of reference photos and added a bit of my imagination. I love how the face turned out, but the hair was an epic fail.

A family emergency delayed my doing anything further with the painting, but yesterday I had some time to fiddle with it digitally. By cropping and misting out the edges, I was able to use my painting as it was. So here I am, a few days ahead of schedule with the 2nd book in the Tales of Ellmoria series ready to go.

For those who prefer an e-book, I'll have the Kindle version ready within the next few days.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs & smiles,

Teresa

PS - Here is the full painting. As you can see, I got tripped up by those braids and the hair on top is too pouffy. I might be able to fix it with some gauche, but for now I'm going to let it sit.

 Here are the cropped and then misted versions.

Fairy Wren

 Hello Friends,

I may have mentioned before that I am a patron of Louise de Masi, an Australian watercolour artist. A few weeks ago, she had a tutorial for a fairy wren. I didn't post my results earlier because I meant this for a birthday present for my friend. Her birthday was yesterday, so it's safe to post it now.

If you would like to try doing this painting yourself, here is the full-length video, which was done live. Louise has many videos. She usually does them with voice-overs and explains things very thoroughly.

Thanks for popping by.

hugs & smiles,

Teresa

Cover Art 2

 Hello Friends,

The other day I told you that Son of Abeilhe is ready to be published, except for one thing - the cover art. With Bee Singer Queen (Book 1: Tales of Ellmoria) I was able to find the perfect picture in the available cover art from the publisher. This time, I can't find anything close. I knew I wanted to try this someday, but I didn't expect it to be so soon.

Here is my 2nd attempt at painting my main character, Auberon. In Book 2, he leaves his hidden paradise to face unknown dangers in order to find the girl he has seen only in dreams and visions for most of his life.

This is a tonal under-painting, where I've focused only on the skin. A tonal painting is all about getting the correct values or hues correct. I chose to use Windsor & Newton Permanent Rose for my under-painting.

I did a little more, but I added too much colour to the lips. I'm not worried about it. I'm pretty sure I can set it right once I do the actual painting.

Hopefully, this painting will make the cut. I plan to give him a bronze skin tone and blonde hair.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs & smiles,

Teresa