Illustration Friday: Germs

It's considered polite to hand someone a handkerchief when they sneeze or have a cold...even if it is to an alligator.

p.s. I updated this image with a much better scan. The other was devoid of color - the lid of the scanner probably wasn't shut all the way.

More Experimenting

I'd like to have two styles in my portfolio. A pen and ink style, and pencil/watercolor style.

Character Sketch

This is for another story I've written. I sketch little ideas in between my hired projects.

Aw, Darn it

I stayed up until 4am again. Maybe one day I'll wake up at the crack of dawn and fall blissfully asleep at 11 pm on a regular basis......(I've been saying that to myself for years now, yet I still want to believe.....).

Creative energy: alive during the night, and non-existent during the day/slowly starts to show itself early evening. Why? Why??

Ok must sleep.

Wah.

Jay Asher's Blog and also Stitches by David Small

Jay Asher (if you don't already know) is the extremely talented author of Thirteen Reasons Why. He has a blog - read it! Great posts, videos and information about his award winning teen novel.

I'm headed to amazon.com to buy it myself.



In other news, I saw one of David Small's recent picture books in Barnes and Noble. This led me to his site to see what he was up to, which led me to information about his new release, Stiches. I don't want to give away too much, but it's a graphic novel, autobiographical, and NOT for kids. This is one for the adults. Let's just say I was so engrossed that I stopped hearing the bubbling of my fish tanks, the blaring fan of my space heater and I can't even remember turning pages. It is a work of art and something to behold. It felt less like reading and more like watching a film. Do yourself a favor and pick it up.

One more thing--the whole book is dark and tragic. Be ready for a heavy heart after you've closed the back cover.

Illustration Friday: Pattern 3

This fall season, be cautious of sudden changes in wind patterns. Especially if you're a squirrel.

Raj Sneak Peak II

Here's another image from Raj The Bookstore Tiger! Mean ol' Snowball is informing Raj that he's not an ACTUAL tiger, but a mere kitty cat. Poor Raj.

Illustration Friday: Pattern 2

Pig and Cow talked late into the night while patterns of moon-cast shadows overlapped and blanketed the empty barn.

Another Raj Sketch

You can tell I adjusted the size of the kitties via Photoshop. Have I sung the praises of Photoshop enough on my blog? I think not.

Puddle

Character Sketch

Illustration Friday: Pattern

Bernice was very jealous of Margaret's patterned hat.

Courage Color Study Via Photoshop

Courage

This is my possible illustration Friday idea - for the theme pattern (or patterns--too lazy to double check). I'll see how it develops. I want to keep working on it tonight but am just way too tired! :-P

Raj in Progress

This yet another Raj spread, but unfinished. I LOVE painting closeups like this and spending hours on the details of the fur and face. Here I just established the basic colors. Over the next day or so I'll keep layering thin washes of paint until it has a nice, rich textured look.

Also I really love orangish yellows and greens together. Most of my work seems to have that color combo in one way or another.

Raj the Bookstore Tiger: Sneak Peak

I've been given permission by the kind folks at Charlesbridge to post a sample spread from the upcoming book "Raj the Bookstore Tiger" written by Kathleen T Pelley. Publishing date is set for Fall of 2010.

Click to enlarge! Lots of details to see.

*edit - added the bat to the cover of the Great Batsby!

Illustration Friday: Infinite

Strong

This was actually for illustration Friday, but I was so busy this week I didn't get it posted in time.

Vitamin D Deficiency

This past summer I began to grow more and more tired and under the weather. I thought perhaps it was my late hours, but the worse it got I realized it had to be something beyond that. I made an appointment for a checkup and got a load of blood tests. Surprisingly, they included a Vitamin D level test. I didn't think a thing of this until the nurse called several days later to inform me I had a severe Vitamin D deficiency. She added that a lot of people have this and don't know it - it's a new wide-spread issue, especially in people who stay inside and out of the sun a lot for their jobs (myself and fellow artists), work on the computer a great deal or play video games. I started a vitamin D supplement and am slowly getting my energy back. What a lucky find - I could have spent years searching for the cause of my fatigue. But thankfully my doctor keeps up with recent medical articles and findings.

Anyways, I thought I would post this for other artists who might be having the same issues and bring some more awareness to Vitamin D deficiency. Maybe even help someone else avoid wasting a season or even years being tired with no explanation. It's a quick and easy test and an even easier problem to treat.

Stay healthy :0)

Illustration Friday: Impatience

James was too impatient to wait for his 13th birthday--the day his parents promised to get him a brand new Yamaha drum set.

Since there has been some concern for kitty I thought I would include a sequel. Kitty later joins the band, becomes the lead singer/songwriter (a.k.a. Bono II) and creates a mega hit gold record.