New Book Cover

Here are a couple of versions of the new Max & Liz book I'm illustrating. I'm not feelin' either one of them. This is not the layout I would have chosen but whudaya gonna do? I'm not the art director of the project so I basically draw the direction that I'm given. That being said, it makes it very difficult to conceptulize when I don't think it's a strong concept in the first place.

Sorry about making this a gripe session. I just wanted to get that off my chest. :-)

New Tattoo

I'm thinking about getting another tattoo. I currently have a Celtic cross on my back. I was wondering if I should work from that, maybe accentuate it or if I should do something in a totally different area. I was also wondering if I should continue with the whole Celtic theme as well. I dunno. Anyway...here are a couple of ideas. Not sure where I want it yet.

Unused Cat

Here is a drawing I did for one of the cat characters in Jenny's book that I didn't use. This image was a little too thin and mischievous looking (which hard NOT to portray on a cat!) to be used on the cover.

"Don't Ever Sit Across From Me"

My friend Jamie told me to never sit across from her in a staff meeting because she doesn't want me to draw her. I say NO ONE IS SAFE! Hahaha!!

Book Interior

I've been working on some interior drawings for Jenny's book all weekend. This project is a beast! No pun intended even though it is a book about animals. ;-) I'm pretty tired of drawing animals though. Not my favorite thing to do with all that fur. And animals with black fur like the two main characters of the book, are the WORST!...takes forever to draw them!

Anyway, here is one of the animals I drew over the weekend.

Photography

One thing I love to do is photography. I haven't been able to get to it much this summer but I really love doing it. I would love to travel around and just take pictures as a living. But that would require me selling the pics to someone and that takes a salesman...which I am not. I'm not great at selling my work. Even the freelance stuff that I do is hard for me to gauge. I can say I will do something for a certain amount per hour but then sometimes I end up undervaluing my work. Then sometimes I feel like I'm overvaluing it. I dunno. Aaaaanyway, here is a shot I took in Puerto Rico. It's an HDR image which means I took 3 differently exposed pics and combined the exposures into one image to get a High Dynamic Range image. I might post some of my pics on here too...since I do actually take pictures more than I draw. But, fear not! There are more drawings coming soon.

Napkin Art

We had a staff meeting to go over our insurance here at the office. BORING as anything that has ever been boring in the history of boredom! Anyway, so I just did a quick sketch on a napkin while we were in the meeting. I also wrote some notes on it, but they weren't important enough to keep.

Advent Illustration

OK, so I don't have the official cover yet, but I've finished the Advent book cover illustration. Now I'm in the process of doing a second book cover in this series about Easter. So, I will post that soon as well. I really like how this drawing turned out!

Rampant Lion

Every now and then I will work on this little tribal-looking sketch. I usually get around to it when I travel because it's in my little travel sketchbook. Anyway, it started out as a totally different kind of drawing. I had intended it to look similar to a traditional Scottish rampant lion but then I just didn't like it. So, I changed it to look like a tribal one. Here's what I have so far.

Exciting News!

So, I have some really great news! Jenny Cote, the author of the book I illustrated just returned from a symposium where she networked with all kinds of media companies. She's been in talks with Walden Media and some other companies as well. The book is set to go into production in 3 weeks and a new animation studio with former Disney animators at its helm wants to produce the movie for The Ark, the Reed & the Fire Cloud! This is huge! The book isn't even out and the movie is already set to be produced! INSANE I tell ye! I'm not sure what this all means for me but it's pretty exciting...especially since Jenny told me they got really excited about this project once they saw my cover art for the book! I will keep you updated on this progression.

Staff Meeting 7.15.08

Just a random little drawing from our staff meeting. I'm not sure how I got to this one. haha! It just sort of developed this way. Even though it's kinda weird, it's interesting to me because this is one of the few drawings that are sort of helping me break out of my style. It seems like everything I've drawn over the past has looked the same and now it's changing. So, there you have it. I call her Spitunia. :-)

My First Book!

This was my first book cover! I'm so glad it's finished. It took forever but it's finally done! This isn't the final version, but this was the one that my friend Jenny posted on her site. It was an interesting process. I had never worked on a drawing as long as I had this one before. Everything about this illustration was a learning experience. I had to learn how to use different tools, how to better manage my free time and how to draw animals. Drawing animals has always been more difficult for me than drawing anything else. But I think it turned out pretty good.

While Sitting in Class

I did this sketch of the Intro to Physics professor one day in class. He would explain the laws of physics using his dog Rusty to illustrate.

Book Cover

So, I'm working on illustrating a book cover. It's taking a while because I'm virtually painting it. However, I've completed parts of it. My friend Katie modeled for this part. Thanks Katie!

It's my second book cover and I'm really excited about it. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

Random Doodles

Just a couple of doodles I did one day.

Staff Meeting 5.27.08

Cartoon headshots seem to be the theme for Staff Meeting sketches these days! I guess 'cause I've been illustrating more here lately and actual characters have been on my mind more. So, here's another in the series! Enjoy!

TBN Tribute

If you've ever been flipping through the channels and a lady with enormous pink hair and caked-on make-up caught your attention, then you already know who this is. To know her is to love her I say! :-)

Staff Meeting 5.20.08

We ain't gon haf innee mower flars on 'is kampus ye heer!

Staff Meeting 5.13.08

So here is my latest staff meeting sketch. I was drawing a little caricature of a staff member but then it just sorta morphed into Clark Kent. I guess I just always have Superman on the brain or something. Not really. It just seems that way. :-)

Friends and Portraits

So, I got this project to draw something for a worship service at church that illustrated innocence. I chose to illustrate children. I used this opportunity to draw an image of my friends' children. This image is towards the end. I've just started adding white onto the gray colored paper. I will post the finished version later.

RRRRicky!

The assignment was to illustrate parody of a pop culture figure. I chose Ricky Martin as a Mariachi singer.

Granny

I drew a picture of my grandmother for my mom this past Christmas (2007). I did it in charcoal and it took me about 4-5 hours to finish the whole thing. I like how quick charcoal drawings can be but I think I like way colored pencil drawings look more. I did a similar drawing of my aunt and it turned out better.

Staff Meeting 5.6.08

Obviously, the staff meeting was enthralling and I was paying close attention to everything that was being said. One subject was on security at the workplace, so at least I heard a LITTLE bit of what was being talked about.