Nor Redux

This is a start on a new cover for Nor. The previous more complicated cover design will now be the banner design. We've come full circle, to tell the truth. I had these two on an earlier ARC cover and now they're together again. Ahhhh...

I'm finally, knock on wood, happy with how I'm drawing Kahf, the main character. I don't know if drawing him 3000 times was the magic number, but he's leveling out for me now. Maybe it's the unknown that I'm plundering into with this huge graphic novel, but whenever I have a day that goes right with it, the theme to Rocky plays in my head and I find a set of big, outdoor, concrete steps and I jog all the way up and hold the printout of Nor up and yell, "Adrian!"... all in my head, of course.

Sandcastle

This was another quickie illustration for the catalog. I want to commission another illustrator for the book itself if time permits, but, regardless, I enjoyed knocking this one out.

And just FYI, my Mom's taking a watercolor class this year! Go Mom! :)

possible artwork

The pencils and paint are flying as I'm trying to get some covers for books done in time for the catalog. This is one such done-in-a-flash cover that I really like. It may or may not be used ultimately, since it's coming out later in the year. But as a stand alone piece, I like what happened. I guess necessity is the mother of book covers!

Catalog 07

This is the cover design that I have done that we may use for this year's catalog. The way I came up with it is worth noting for my own reflection and a good lesson for the future.

Sometimes I get an idea in my head, but no matter how many tries it's just not coming out the way I wanted. I still like the idea, so I don't want to bail on it. Then sometimes while I'm telling myself all the reasons I like the idea, another way to do the same idea pops out and whamo, there we go.

This design started with me wanting to do a collage of all the book covers coming out this year to communicate to people that we're an up and coming publisher with a ton of books coming out. Well the images in the covers were all wonderful, but put together became a train wreck of epic proportions! So while I was going "Here's a YA, here's a picture book, here's a graphic novel" with the covers, I decided to just say that with words.

Another consideration is that I want to bang the logo into everything in the catalog this year to build it's recognizeability in the eyes of the people getting the catalog.

Our Biggie Iggie

Indy Enzo

Enzo's Guide to Life: How to get a Cookie

1. Sit politely and say "Please."
2. Go to the bathroom
3. REALLY go to the bathroom
4. Use the papers
5. Be so sweet they have to give you a cookie!

Enzo's Guide to Life: Going to Sleep

It's in Italian, just explaining where he sleeps and with who. I've gotten good response from the IG online forum about these. One person said it looked like French street art, which I thought was neat.

Website Reworking!

Well, this is another evolution in the reworking of my website. It's been simplified as far as menu options. The cards above will have thumbnail images in the final version. I wanted to keep the white rabbit as a logo and as a welcome home page image, but I was finally getting tired of my acrylic/text one, though I'll keep it in the portfolio. I like the sketch to finish progression and I hope it conveys a systematic approach to illustration. :)

fun with enzo

Puppy

This is one of the perks of being at home all day! Sooooo cute. He's asking for ice, oddly enough.

Icecapades

Those are live oak trees, not shrubs! They're bending pretty low with their load of ice. We're hoping none take out a power line, since many of our pets have heat lamps. I'm starting to get cabin fever, but where can you go when everything's iced over? And the kicker is the main road to work for me is the city's number one worst road to drive today (I'm not going in). Too bad this eats some vacation time :(

Forced Shut in

Well, someone up there thinks I need to stay home and work a few extra days. Today the store was closed, and the forecast tomorrow looks like I'll probably call off since it won't rise above freezing till 3pm or later and the city's a big ball of ice. The thought of my being in a car and sliding unable to control where it's going gives me vertigo, like looking into an abyss. So unless the sun rises without a cloud in the sky and the temp. is in the 50s, I don't think I'll be on the road. I trust Mike to be able to handle the roads since he's a yankee, but even he can work at home so he won't try going unless it's driveable.

I can see working from home will take some discipline. It's hard to not get distracted, and at the same time it's kind of hard to stop, too. I'd probably have to set a schedule with breaks and stuff so it was even and predictable.

My internal clock's all messed up because I slept in, then worked till dinner, had a nap (at like 7pm!), then watched a movie and now I'm wide awake at 12:30 am. That wouldn't cut it if I were working from home, I'd become a crazy person... or crazier than normal. My mom would call at 4pm and I'd be all "Do you have any idea what time it is?!" (just kidding, Mom).

This is also unfair to the pup, who'll think he has two stay at home parents now.

Ooddles of Doodles

Ooddles of Doodles

Snowshoe Snow Hare

State of my Union address

Well it's 2007 and time to give a status report and the goals for this year... (reading from a starbucks napkin, so you know I thought this out)

• Release of Light of Nor which I'm co-creator of (did the art for), a graphic novel for teens and adults.
• Release of Letters from Camp Lizard which I'm writing and illustrating, also a graphic novel but for young readers.
• Release of Yak in my Bed, which I was the Art Director and Designer for (not author or illustrator)
• Release of Penguins of Doom that I designed a cover for
  
• Release of Bad Girls Club, which I did the jacket cover design
• Release of Krumbuckets which I did the jacket design and a little illustrative type treatment for
  
• Production of Patrick the Sonombulist, a picture book I helped Blooming Tree find by author and artist Sarah Ackerley (sorry if I butched your name here). I'll be designer on this book, too.
• Production on Fergus the Ferret for release next year, I'll be illustrating and Madeline Smoot author.
• Production for Dragon Wishes, which I'll illustrate and do interior black and whites for.
• Production for Life in the Pit, which I'll do an illustrative cover for
• Attending the Texas Library Association conference in San Antonio

My goals for the year on a personal note:

1. Manage my time better, or at least realize that there's 24 hours in a day, but I should only be awake for 18 of them.
2. Lose my Clark Kent job (now that I can finally do it without getting rattled, sigh).
3. Fix the rest of my teeth, at least till the insurance and money dries up... again...
4. Learn to say no: no to unhealthy food, no to "can you head up this committee?", no to "we're going to stuff you in the corner at this year's conferrence", and no to it can't be done!
5. Draw something just for me every day: See Oodles of Doodles below
6. Call my family more, my brother in particular
7. Take more photos of Mike and I and our everyday friends: if I had to prove last year existed for me, I'd have to provide cell phone bills and grocery receipts. We got kick a$$ cameras, we're going to use them!
8. Walk the doggie every day, both for me and Enzo's happiness
9. Cook more, not just thaw or nuke
10. Let Mike know everyday how cool I think he is

Having read my list, I'm now going to go crawl into a ball in my bed and sleep till '08 :)

Map

Ok, when I was in 9th grade geography, Ms. Cagely had us create our own islands, complete with topography layout... who knew I'd end up using that in my professional career?!?

Camp Lizard Crede

This single page image sort of sums up my message in the Letters from Camp Lizard graphic novel. It's about lizards from all over the world coming together for summer camp. But why come to camp? What's the point? My answer is that lizards live on all the world's continents (except antartica, and I'm sure some are working on that), and no matter how different looking or strange they may appear to each other: they are all lizards. I want kids to see that people live all over the world and our customs and beliefs may be different, but we're all human, too, and by learning about each other we learn more about ourselves.

This also sets the stage for some of the activities at Camp Lizard: There'll be desert survival task, a flying lesson (there's gotta be Mr. Orville and Wilbur, the Camp Flying Instructors now that I've drawn the flying lizard here), an underground and underwater exercise, and some kind of climbing and camoflauge lesson.

The lizard doing the talking is Mr. Tuatara, the camp director. The camp takes place on the one island off the coast of New Zealand that this species of lizard is found. His story is that since his species of lizards haven't changed since the prehistoric eras, he started the camp to show all the other lizards how they've adapted to the world.

Oddles of Doodles

Well, when you think about it, that ocean water is kinda chilly :)

Oddles of Doodles

In my spare moments, I do have them, I'm going to try to direct my otherwise sprawling creativity and do daily quick doodles that I will compile into a calendar for next year called Oodles of Doodles. I'll probably find other things for these drawings, too, but for now it's a loose idea of doodles tied with months of the year (Jan = cold). I'll post some as I go. I like this one. :)

Christmas Front Page (Click on to enlarge)

Swan Lake

These are the wild swans the my family took Mike and I out to see in Heber Springs, AR. They winter at this lake, and we showed up at sunset. Mike took the photos while I gawked at how graceful and beautiful they were. (And thank God we didn't bring bread! You can only feed them corn, and too much bread could choke them)