A Fun And Hilarious Online Toy

If you have access to a mic for your computer, or have a built in mic, then head on over to the Online Toy Frog ! This silly frog will respond to your voice and open it's mouth as though it's say the words you're saying. A real hoot for the kids.

There's also a cut video on youtube of a couple kids playing with it. Be careful though, it's an 11 on the cute scale.

Illustration Friday : Remember

Sometimes you're on your way out to do chores or errands, or go to work--all those adult things, and kids run by riding bikes, or playing hide and seek. You try to remember who you were when you were that age. And you miss how simple things used to be.

A video of the making of this illustration is below! Enjoy :0)

Bill The Acrobatic Squirrel

I walked into the kitchen this afternoon and saw the strangest thing. An upside down squirrel eating seed from my bird feeder. He didn't seem to mind a bit that I was staring at him, so I got my camera and captured this little guy's daring-do. I don't mind squirrels eating the food, and actually put out a plate of their own chow--I guess he preferred eating at a more vertical shaped restaurant.

Moleskine Warm Up

Here are a couple warm-up drawings before I work on an assignment today. Also have to finish cleaning my studio--I just don't know what to do with all these picture books! I could practically make a whole kid's library out of it all. They're under my bead, on shelves, in Target plastic bins. Phew!

Some Quick Drawings

I got some new art supplies recently, and I don't know why, but seeing all that stuff wrapped in shrink wrap and waiting to be used really inspires me.

First Video

Hi all, I'm still learning, so the first part of the video is a bit too far away (about 50 seconds of it) but then I movie in closer. Next time I'll probably try to shoot over my shoulder somehow. We'll see.

Also, I had my 'comments' hidden today - weird! All fixed now though. :0)

Illustration Friday: Polar

Videos Coming Soon To Fox in Socks!

Tomorrow I'll be receiving the new video camera I ordered--yay! I intend to use it a great deal on this blog, so we'll see what happens. I'm not sure exactly how long it takes to transfer and edit a video, but I will find out soon enough--I plan to record the making of my Illustration Friday drawing this week. I love watching other people's vids to see their process etc. so it will just be another neat element to add. Hmmm...I'd better wear nail polish or something since you're basically going to see my hands through the whole thing haha.

Another idea might be to tape a start to finish video on the different phases of receiving an assignment, completing sketches, receiving reviews, completion of the painting, and at last shipping. This would be for people just getting started in the business so they can see what to expect!

Okay, I promise to get some new drawings up here soon. Hope everyone is doing well. :0)

Polar Bear Sketches On Moleskine

Last night, I decided to draw something with polar bears for the illustration Friday theme Polar. But when I went to draw one, I really didn't have a clear idea of what the actual animal looked like--and it showed. I had drawn a few polar bear images couple months back, but was never happy with them. So I've decided to tackle the root of the problem - I'll study their form a bit more instead of relying too much on my 'idea' of what they look like.

Here are some things I discovered. They have very long necks! My first drawings basically looked like white versions of black bears or grizzly bears--oops. Polar bears have very long broad noses, flat heads, long necks and almost a woolly type fur. They are also not as cuddly as the multitude of polar bear stuffed toys might lead you to believe. Polar bears are powerful and can be extremely dangerous, can grow up to 10 feet tall and weigh up to 1,700 lbs.

That's a LOT of bear!

As a side note, while I'm working today I'm going to watch/listen to "Raising Arizona" and maybe fit in a walk in this beautiful weather!

The Journey Continues...

Lost

"Where am I?" asked Pig
"New York City..... The Big Apple," mumbled the pelican as he lifted his head back with a fish and swallowed it whole."
"How did I get here?!"
The pelican looked at him like he had no brains at all. "How should I know?" And with that, he dropped off to sleep.

Pig Picnic

Caution: Lion Crossing - rough sketch

This is an idea I've had on my mind for quite a while, but haven't had time to get it down until tonight. The High Five sketch/assignment was very complicated in terms of subject matter, so I put all my energy into making it the best piece I could over the last several days. And of course I can't post those until it's published. I learned a lot in the process as well, especially about the usefulness of unusual perspective. As far as I'm concerned, I just added new and exciting tools to the tool box.

I'm going to rework this tomorrow, explore some other points of view and compositional options with thumbnail sketches galore.

The Name is Bond, James Bond

Just little change of pace here. I've been getting more magazine work than ever before this year, and right now am working on a four page piece for the new Highlights magazine, High Five. I can't share any of the sketches/illustrations until the magazine comes out this November (the month of my birthday, a very nice present indeed!). Anyways, I love to watch movies while I work. Even if the movie has nothing to do with the subject I'm working on, it still inspires me. I guess the beauty of cinematography makes me view my books from a more cinematic point of view. Sometimes when I'm thinking of a scene I have to illustrate, I'll actually take an imaginary camera in my mind and move it around at all angles to find the best one. An illustrator can learn a lot about composition and timing from a quality film.

Anyways, one movie that I just can't seem to stop watching is "Casino Royale". The lead actor, Daniel Craig is absolutely brilliant and just perfect for the part. I'm glad too, because there were some mindless fools bashing the poor fella when it was revealed that he would be the new Bond. Well, I guess he showed them, and then some! I can't get enough of the soundtrack tune "You Know My Name" either. It's written and performed by Chris Cornell from Soundgarden:

Enthusiastic Reader

Oops, looks like she's doing the Star Trek/Vulcan sign with her left hand there.

Art Critic Be-Gone

Click to enlarge!

Tomato Soup

This is probably a four star recipe....as long as you don't mind some mouse hair and feathers in your soup! Let's see if I can get the color right on this one.

Oh Dear...

Bakery Sketch

Brave

Peter slipped into his green dragon suit, and for the first time in his life, he felt brave.

Happy Easter!

Drew this on my program while sitting in church. There were adorable little girls with bonnets on sitting in front of me, which inspired the picture.

I can't believe how cold it is--very un-easter like! Go away cold weather, I'm soooo tired of you.

Illustration Friday : Green

Which cat ate a bad fish?

Ginger at Ginger Pixels wrote a sweet and funny poem for this illustration! Thanks Ginger!

Purr fect ly delicious
Yet one of those fishes
Has turned someone green
And now we have seen
As Illustrated by you
It's purple-hat-cat number two

A Long Day For the Limo Driver

Before Color...

Hunt dip pen(my favorite pen nib company so far) and Higgins Black Magic ink on hot press Arches 140lb watercolor paper

I thought I'd post a 'before' and 'after' picture of this street scene. The coloring is going to be tricky...

Tub-Surfing

I don't know why this bizarre idea popped in my head, but it sure was fun to draw!

Poise

Hug O' War - Shel Silverstein

I will not play at tug o' war.
I'd rather play at hug o' war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs,
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses,
And everyone grins,
And everyone cuddles,
And everyone wins.

Hugs Collection

Hopefully that branch doesn't snap!

Sorry for the multiple postings on this week's Illustration Friday topic. My agent wants new portfolio pieces soon, and ideas kept popping up for the 'snap' theme. So I went with it. :0)

The Hugs Collection

Bee Sting Hugs

The Hugs Collection

Trunk Hugs

High Noon

It's man vs. beast in this battle of wills. And throw a little tuna breath in there too.

Will You Take Our Picture?

Penguins on vacation. A kindly hippo snaps their photo for them.

Illustration Friday: Snap

He couldn't wait to show his friends the photo, but after the seal had disappeared, the boy realized there had been no film in the camera.

Teenager

Something I need to be more aware of with my portfolio is the age group factor. I naturally tend to draw the 6-9 age range, so I will be adding some baby, toddler and teenager illustration samples over the next few days. You never know who's passing you up for a good job simply because you didn't include the age range they were looking for.

Think Think Think

They say if you can't think of anything to write, you write about being unable to think of something to write. I'm taking that same idea and 'drawing' from it (above illustration of me trying to think of a good illustration idea) ;0) I felt like pooh bear, sitting on his log saying, "think....think.....think....think.."

I did the stress echocardiogram test today. Oh my LORD, they really have you huffin' and puffin! They tilted the treadmill enough to where I felt like I was walking straight up a wall, and of course kicked up the speed. I was hanging on to the hand-bar for dear life haha. Anyways, that test came out, and I quote from the doctor "boringly normal". I'm just glad she didn't look at the result and go "Look at THAT! That's the strangest result I've ever seen. Hey Mary! Come over here and look at this!"

I also secretly hoped they would be impressed with my fitness level (har har). Before the blackout I was running almost everyday. I guess you can lose your conditioning pretty fast because it's only been about 3 weeks since then of not moving around much and I was informed I'm not in very good physical shape. Darn! I'm happy now though, because I can get back to running on my own treadmill again...which I secretly enjoy (as long as I can keep watching my "Wonder Years" DVD collection while running).

Another Book Dummy Page

My book is coming along very nicely! As you can see from comparing the last few pages to this one, I changed the character design a bit. Of course I had to go back, erase the faces off all the previous pages and redraw those as well-which was kind of a struggle since I had gone over them with a B3 dark pencil lol.

I tell you, it's a big step for me to follow through with my own manuscript, because my tendency is to find something wrong with the current story I'm working on, and abandon ship six pages into the book dummy. I guess I finally have confidence in a story I wrote - one that has lasted through all the difficulties of seeing it to almost the end. I have completed ten dummy pages so far, and my excitement is growing with every step I take in bringing it to life.

I plan on documenting this project into the printing/binding stage (I might possibly use blurb.com for that). And additionally include packaging info and I'll post all publisher responses both good and bad, without including their name of course.

I'm happy to say I have one extra special contact to send this book to. She's an editor who responded to a story I wrote and submitted while still in college. She invited me to send more work, so of course she's going to be one of the first people I send this too.

As for the health stuff, alls I can do is wait for the medical tests and test results. I guess it possibly could have been an arrhythmia--how fun! Meanwhile I'm keeping my mind on my projects....and staying away from chocolate (caffeine). ;0)

I Heart Email

I love getting email. it's like receiving little surprise presents every day. Unfortunately, my tendonitis filled wrist does not like keyboards. I'm happy to say that I can draw pretty much as often as I like now - so it's getting a lot better, but typing is still..'aaaaagony' if I tap those keys too much. I can type about one long email, or three short ones a day with a tad bit of discomfort, but not over that. So I just wanted to apologize for slow responses. I will answer all emails in my turtle-like speed :0)

Illustrations Friday : I Spy...

This is from Jack and the Beanstalk. Just a quick doodle before bedtime.

Book Dummy sketch Pages 6-7

Slowly but surely I'm plodding through the double page spreads. I guess what makes dummy book creating so difficulty is the unknown of what will happen to it. What if no one likes it, and it doesn't get published? What if I'm putting all these long hours in for nothing? Well from what I've read, even if a book doesn't get picked up by a publisher, showing a strong book dummy can get you illustration assignments. And even if that doesn't happen, the only way to get better at this is to practice. It sure is exciting breathing life into this story. I wish I could share the full manuscript with everyone. Ah well.

Book Dummy sketch Pages 4-5

Without giving away the plot, I can at least say that Jack is telling a story that he finds extremely entertaining. His classmates and teacher, however, don't agree.

Nursery Rhyme

Doctor Foster went to Gloucester
In a shower of rain;
He stepped in a puddle,
Right up to his middle,
And never went there again.

Note: The old word for puddle was "piddle," which rhymed with middle.

Pet Turtle

This is how I feel about my two dogs. Apples of my eye :0)

Gwyn Is Always Forgetting Things

The Star Of The Show

Well here is Jack, star of the show, ready to make mischief. He's going to be the main character of my story. Today in between chores, I'm going to thumbnail more page spreads and also start working on the final pencil illustrations for the dummy. I'll show some of them as I go (and hopefully not give away the story in the process)! Hope other aspiring author/illustrators out there are finding some time to work on their own dream. If I can do it (a little A.D.D. here and Dyslexia there-haha) anyone can.

Got Milk?

This little cookie-eating mouse was hiding behind a glass of milk before it got picked up.

Illustration Friday : Hide

Here are three examples of hiding after an embarrassing event:

This dinosaur is hiding after bringing up the very sensitive subjective of extinction during a dinner party. Side joke: what do you call a hiding dinosaur? A do-you-think-he-saur-us


This rabbit is hiding because he mistakenly told his friends that he thought carrots were actually nuts.


And finally, this is lion is hiding after tripping his way up the red carpet during an important animal kingdom ceremony. To add to it, a princess, who he has a very big crush on, saw the whole thing.....and laughed.

Kid's Comics

I might...just might... be considered as an artist/author for a serial kid's comic for a magazine. Below is one of the pages I've been working on, half-finished. I tell you what, I used to write and draw comics for my college newspaper and have forgotten how complicated it can be laying out text and images so that they all work design-wise, and come across clearly. This was quite a challenge, but it was a heck of a lot of fun! The first speech bubble and magazine are both blurred because they have information about who I'm submitting to. These projects are TOP SECRET. If I tell you, I'd have to kill you. Sorry, had to quote "Top Gun" there. ;-)

Pirate Ship