Sailing Can Be Fun!

Unless, of course, you're our intrepid hero at this particular moment.

Here's a little sneak peak at a work in progress. This is the pencil drawing I did for the piece that I'm going to have finished for Friday.

I hope you love it.

Thanks for looking.

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.

Illustration Friday: Flying

When you're skating really fast, it give you the sensation of flying. Ok, it's a stretch, but maybe these kids just used flying to describe how speedy they were, like, "Man, I was totally flying across the pond! It was wicked!"

That's what I would have said when I was a kid. Actually, I'll say that this winter when I go skating.

Librarian 4 Hire: Super Sweet Yeti Edition

Finally had the chance to finish up this piece for my children's book, Yeti 4 Hire. (you can see the original drawing here. ) Ok, so it's not an official book yet, but this is one of the samples for the submission packet I'm putting together. I'm still working on the book dummy and tightening up the manuscript, so it will be a while before I get it out the door. I'll just keep making time for it between the paying work.

Surrounded!

Robots don't stand a chance.

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.

Headin' for my beddin'

After a long night of drawing the adventures of an 11 year-old, super heroic girl, I did me some sketchin'. Brush pen on a paper bag from the comic shop.

'night.

Redevelopment Project

Building on the past for a better tomorrow.

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!