This Week in Perpetual Motion 10: Tag!

Ahoy! It's Friday again and this week I'm meeting my self-imposed deadline at a more respectable time than last with another fun-filled piece of children's book-type art! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you... Tag! My tribute to what seems likely to be the first game of human civilization. Who among us doesn't love a good game of tag? (full disclosure: I actually didn't care for the game much myself between the spring of 1979 and the summer of 1981 as I was constantly "it" on account of my being an awkward lad with a big head and short legs making it nearly impossible for me to catch my opponents. Overcoming these obstacles, I did later regain my love of the chase.)

Based on another book concept that I have, this piece was a lot of fun to finally bring to life. Initially I didn't have any ideas for the finished look of the illustration but I knew I wanted it to be somewhat different from most of my other work. The one word that came to mind was "texture", so I tried to bring in more textures than I usually do. At my day job I've been doing more work with colored line work rather than black (for some reason people associate black lines with "cartoony" which apparently adults think is bad, even though we produce things for kids, who love cartoons. That's a whole 'nother post.) So I did it here and I really liked the result.

In other news, I spent a lot of this week trying to figure out my next promo mailer.I was planning on just putting together a small packet with a few color copies, maybe some postcards. Then I was listening to the fantastic Big Illustration Party Time podcast (hosted by Kevin Cross and Joshua Kemble) episode 39 in which the hosts, along with Thomas James of Escape from Illustration Island (an equally fantastic podcast that I have mentioned before) were discussing, among other things, possible alternative revenue streams for illustrators to pursue. Kevin Cross had mentioned the idea of printing up some quality art books that could be sold to fans but could also do double duty as a portfolio that could be sent to clients. This got me thinking about maybe doing something along those lines but on a smaller scale. So what I'm working on now is a small, printed book, digest sized with maybe four pages in it. While it would still be just a few samples it might be a more cohesive, well designed package as a book. That's the theory anyhow. I had hoped to have something to show, but I'm still designing it.

I'm thinking about doing them through maybe a print-on-demand outlet like Ka-Blam (as mentioned by Mr. Cross on BIPT) or finding somewhere I can do a short print run at a decent rate. If anyone who happens across this page has had good experiences with any of the various printing resources out there, feel free to drop me a line.

This Week In Perpetual Motion 09: Chicken Nugget!

Back on track! For the most part, I'm about a half hour shy of midnight, but it's finished! This week's piece is a mocked up cover for a book concept I had the other day. The title of the book, in case it's hard to read on this low res version is, "Chicken Nugget: The Greatest Dog in the World Ever by Chicken Nugget". Without giving too much of the plot away it's basically the autobiography of a little dog named Chicken Nugget who is so full of himself that he really thinks he's the greatest dog in the world. Judging by the expressions on the faces of the townsfolk, his is not the majority opinion. I don't usually place type on pieces like this but I think the composition would look really odd with out it, as it's kind of central to the whole thing. As always, any crits and comments are welcome.

For the week ahead I plan on continuing sketches and prep work for the next Princess Candy book as well as dive into some much needed self promotion. Hopefully in next week's post I can share what sort of sample packet I'm working on. It's my intent to send a decent package to some publishers that I'd really like to work with. I'll let you know how it all goes down.

For now, it's totally bed time.

Thanks for reading!

This Week (and last) In Perpetual Motion 08: Horseshoes & Hand Grenades

When I decided I would start doing this weekly exercise to build my portfolio I told myself that I would post something even if a particular week went awry. I said to myself, "Self, if we're going to do this, we've go to do it warts and all... good, bad and even ugly. 'Cause that's how life is self... it aint always pretty. You an' me gotta keep it real."

When I had this discussion with myself, I didn't actually think this was going to happen on week two.

I could go in to some litany of excuses, but who wants to hear that? The one legit reason I have is that paying work has to come first and that's basically what happened here. I had some gigs that I had to work on and I didn't have enough time for this image. So, when I had some computer issues, I didn't have the time to recoup and bust this sucker out.

That's why I blew it on Friday.

As to what happened this weekend, I have no idea. I've been trying to get this thing done and colored up but I just haven't been feeling it. So after many false starts and missteps on the colors I'm deciding to pack it in and call it a night. Doing so gives me that slammed with a 90 mph dodge ball in the gut feeling too, but sometimes it's not worth slogging through a piece just to get a crappy result when you can get back to it later with a clear head. Sad but true.

The above image is of the finished inks and represents the last phase of the project in which I looked at it and thought it was ok. When I get it finished up I'll post it.

Next week, something completely different. (ie. a finished piece and maybe more coherent thoughts)

This Week in Perpetual Motion 07: Deadline!

Alright, so this is my first Friday since determining that I would post a new, finished piece of work every week with the intent of building my portfolio and keeping this illustration business heading in a forward motion. Did I get the piece done? Sure did, and I'm really pretty happy with it. Check it out:


Using my "kid in a bee costume" character again (cooler name forthcoming), I decided I would turn him into something of a young superhero-type starring in his own series of middle-grade graphic or possibly prose novels. That's a market that I think the type of work I like to do fits well in. The above image would be the cover illustration to one of his harrowing adventures. I'm thinking about some black & white images for the interiors that would accompany the text, if the book were to go the prose route.

Process stuff... My process isn't really anything revolutionary but I always like to see this stuff from other artists so perhaps someone may enjoy this part.


1. Thumbnail - This rough image is about 2.75" x 3.5". I just drew it up quickly one day, thinking about situations to put our hero in. Didn't spend a lot of time on it, just tried to get a sense of the composition.

2. Pencils - I worked at my intended final print size of 6" x 8.25". I would usually work at least a little larger than the print size. These were only supposed to be slightly tighter roughs, which is why I worked smaller, but I kind of got into the drawing and finished them up. I scanned them in at 600 dpi so I could blow it up to the size I would have probably drawn it at when I converted it to a print friendly 300 dpi.

3. Inks - Technically there isn't any ink involved here since I do the line work in Adobe Illustrator. I place the pencils on their own layer and set it to dim the image 50%. Then I start an "inks" layer where I use a combination of the pen tool to trace some of my lines as paths and my Wacom tablet and some customized brushes for stuff like the woodgrain. I'm using it more for the other lines as well, but I'm still learning with it.

4. Flat Colors - After the line work is done I create a layer under the "inks" layer and label it "colors". I do all of the flat color this way, using the pen tool creating shapes. It's probably time consuming to do it this way, but I've been doing this since art school where I was more comfortable with Illustrator and vector art than with PhotoShop. It's weird but I just like to do it this way. Anyhow, you'll see that the color isn't totally flat as I did put some shadows on the figures. Part of the aesthetic that I'm going for is a cell shaded Saturday morning cartoon kind of feel where the somewhat flat characters pop off of a more painted looking background. Which brings us to PhotoShop.

5. Painting and Texture - After I've finished the flat color I export my Illustrator file as PhotoShop document, preserving all the layers. I then open the file up in PhotoShop and start adding textures and painting some shadows and highlights (mostly on the background elements). This piece doesn't have much of that , just some painting on the ship, some texture on the sail. I used a scanned paper texture that I placed over the flats and adjusted levels until I got it where I wanted. I also used the gradient tool in the sky to throw some color variations in there.

That was about it. I'm pleased with the results. If anyone reading this has any comments or critiques please let me know. Feel free to give an honest opinion, I can take it. I'm always looking for ways to improve things and sometimes there can be glaring problems that the artist can't see because they're too close to the piece. So fire away.

Next week I'll hopefully have another new piece. I say hopefully because I'm getting started on paying work, which obviously has to be the priority. I think I can fit something though, so look for that on Friday.

Thanks for stopping by.

This Week in Perpetual Motion 06: Moving Right Along

So hey, internet, we're just gonna forget about September, ok? Between a new baby, two older kids, a full time job, finishing up Princess Candy book 3 and the inability of my brain to put together any coherent thoughts during that time, September and most of October were a bust as far as regular updates go. Not what I had hoped for this little experiment, so I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things now.

In the time between finishing the third Princess Candy installment and getting started on the next I've been trying to update my portfolio site, work on new pieces for said portfolio and build a contact list for an upcoming mailing. 2009 has been pretty busy so these have all been things I unfortunately neglected. I've also managed to do some writing for a web comic project that I'll probably be announcing early next year. Anyhow, I haven't just been sitting on the ol' duff.

You can see some of the fruits of my labor here at my portfolio site, updated with a smattering of newer images and a bunch of golden oldies.

Since I'm focusing my attention on the children's market one of the best resources that I'm using to build my mailing list is the 2010 Children's Book Writer's and Illustrator's Market book. If anybody out there is reading this and has any other suggestions please shoot me an email or comment below.

As for new pieces, I'm trying to finish some up before I start on the next Princess Candy book but honestly, I've been in a bit of a rut. I have plenty of sketches of pieces that I need to get moving on but I'm over thinking them, wondering if they're the right pieces to market myself with or if I need to change up my style a bit. Consequently, I end up paralyzing myself with these considerations and don't get much accomplished. At least that was the case, until yesterday when I was listening to Thomas James' fantastic podcast, Escape from Illustration Island and he was interviewing Jonathan Woodward who runs the blog Zero 2 Illo. Jonathan has been using Zero 2 Illo to document his transition from a freelance graphic designer to a freelance illustrator, putting it out there as a resource for other aspiring illustrators. During the course of the interview, which was great (as always, Escape from Illustration Island is a phenomenal show), Jonathan explained that he blogs about his work schedules and posts deadlines for himself because if he didn't, he might not get the work done. Hearing that, I decided that some self-imposed deadlines would be just the thing to get me to pull the trigger on these illustrations.

So here's the skinny... each week I'm going to work on a new piece, and post it here every Friday as my Perpetual Motion report, column thing. I'll use that to go over the process, post sketches and whatnot, chat about other stuff I've observed along the way. Hopefully, the issues of style and marketing that I've been mulling over will work themselves out through doing the work rather than through all my navel gazing. Even if each image isn't star search material, I should end up with some nice additions to the portfolio. Sound like a good plan?

That's it in a nutshell. If you're still reading then I salute you for your tenacity and fortitude. In the future, there will be fewer words and most certainly more pictures. For now, I leave you with this space kid.

This Week (and last) In Perpetual Motion 05: It Baby Time!

So, last week there wasn't one of these here updates because, well, we had a baby boy! By we, of course, I mean my lovely wife gave birth and I stood there staring in amazement at her awesomeness as she did so (for the third time!). Everybody is home and happy and healthy and wicked rad. I'm so blessed with an beautiful family and I try to remind myself of that everyday. I took about a week off from work, with the exception of some freelance that I worked on whilst everybody else was sleeping, so there is very little to report on the art front. Please forgive me internet. I think I've got a pretty good excuse.

This week I've gotten back into the swing of things a bit more and I've been getting more done. As deadlines loom I'll be cranking away on stuff for the next couple of weeks and I'll post stuff as I can. Right now though, I'm wicked tired so I'm going to bed before this post begins to ramble too incoherently. Actually that last sentence may prove that I'm too late already.

Here's one of my favorite panels from the current Princess Candy book that I'm working on.

This Week In Perpetual Motion 04: The New Phonebooks Are Here!

Big news this week... My copies of the first two Princess Candy books arrived in the mail and they're wicked awesome. Just look at the awesomeness in the above photo and that's just the sweet, sweet hardcover. Seriously, they look great. The colors are vibrant and just jump off the page. I'm totally stoked. I don't think I've ever been happier with how my work looks in print. Plus the design of the book is great from the title page to all the back matter stuff.

I finished a bunch of pages for book 3 this week, which is still coming along nicely. My new Intuos 3 has been a big too, so I'm glad I bought it. I plan on putting in a lot of hours this weekend so hopefully I can crank out a few more. Now I'm off to color a couple pages before bed.

I did this sketch of my Yeti character last night. I've got some big plans for this dude.


See, no harpoons this week.

This Week In Perpetual Motion 03: Sha Na Na Na

Not much to report this week, despite the fact that I'm a day late doing so. One would think that the reason it took me a whole extra day to write about my work week was that it had been a rather eventful one, but not so. I was busy yesterday, and most of today but not with work... more like husband and dad type stuff. You gotta do what you gotta do, and I'm a happier man for it.

Work continues on the new Princess Candy book and all is well on that front. I got me a new toy this week... a Wacom Intuos 3 tablet. It's the 6" x 8" one and it sure is purdy. I'm still breaking it in, but the bit that I've used it has been great. I did the first two books without a tablet as my old Graphire didn't like my iMac. Plus the graphire only had like a 4" x6" area anyhow and I never got very comfortable with it. I like the new one better already.

Ok, the work week must continue, so I should get back to it.

Next week, I won't use an image with a harpoon in it.

Excelsior!

This Week In Perpetual Motion 02: The itch is back

So, this week...let's see...it went by really freaking quickly. I'm not sure why, but it flew. I'm still making my way through Princess Candy 03. I had a page with a classroom scene, a lot of kids and a lot of desks. It took way longer than the average page, but it's done and I'm happy with it. I love it when the effort pays off and you can be proud of the finished product. The other cool thing this week happened two posts ago, The first two Princess Candy books are available online. I'm dying to see the final printed versions of these, so I'm wicked psyched that they're available. There are quite a few really cool looking books from Stone Arch Books in their fall catalog, so I'm excited to be a part of that lineup.

Comics, eh? It was about two years ago that I hung up my comic-making hat and decided to focus my artistic endeavors on the children's illustration market. I refocused my portfolio, started sending out samples and advertising in that market and within the last year it's really been going quite well. It's kind of funny then that I'd end up doing kid comics for a publisher shortly after giving up on my own comics. Well, I shouldn't say "giving up", just shifting them in the priorities list. I have to say, working on these books has really given me the itch to get back into my own titles. In fact, for the last couple weeks I've been dusting off some old concepts and doing some writing. My own comics are going to still take a back seat priority wise since self-published mini-comics don't exactly feed a family of 4 (soon to be 5 any day now), but I'm making some time for them between paying gigs. You won't see anything for quite a while, because I'm going to get them buttoned up story wise before I even start producing pages, but I'll keep you updated on the progress. I'm pretty stoked about getting back into them, at least on a part time basis. My main focus will still be on children's books because I just love telling stories, no matter who they're directed at.

Ramble, ramble. I'm very tired so I'm not going to go back and read this before I post it. It might not make sense. I've still got a long night of work ahead, so I better get to it.

Excelsior.

This Week in Perpetual Motion 01: It Begins!

So I decided to start a little something on the ol' blog. Every Friday I'm going to give a report on my work week... the freelance stuff I've been working on, what I accomplished, what I had actually wanted to accomplish, what worked, what didn't, new projects that come up, new contacts, cool things I find out in the freelance world, maybe some ranting, etcetera and so forth. It's more or less a record for myself, so that I can remember things from week to week since my brain has basically become a revolving door of information rather than the inescapable steep trap it had once been. Of course I hope my loyal reader and any of you who may have wandered this way looking for explosives and sweet ninja boots will enjoy it as well. Maybe we'll all learn a few things on the way. Probably not.

Now obviously an idea this incredible couldn't have germinated in my little ol' noggin all on it's own. In fact, I decided to do this after getting hooked on a new (new to me anyway) podcast this week, Art & Story.

It's hosted by Mark Rudolph and Jerzy Drozd, two freelance cartoonists and illustrators who share a studio and drop lots of knowledge about their chosen profession. Thay talk alot about comics and the process of creating them. They aso have daily episodes called Art & Story extreme in which they discuss their work day and other topics. That's the one where I took the update Idea from, only I'm not going to do it daily since I don't share a studio with anyone and only a day's worth of update would be dull from just little ol' me. These guys are not dull however, they're really informative and a lot of fun to listen to while you're up into the wee hours working on comics.

Speaking of working on comics, I'm full on into Princess Candy book 3. I've managed to get a few pages done this week, the above little peek is from the first page. That's going to be the focus of my freelance work for the next month and a half. Once the fall hits, my schedule is pretty open, but I'm hoping that it fills up again like it did last fall. Things have been hopping since right after last year's local SCBWI conference. That's also coming up in September and I'm pretty psyched for it. I'm planning on attending, so if you're a member, maybe I'll see you there.

Oh, yeah...the San Diego Comic Con is going on this week and I'm sad that I'm not there.

That's all for now. Until next week,

Excelsior!