Austin Reptile and Amphibian Expo!

You know you're way into herps when there's a show and you're not going as an attendee, but a vendor! I was struck with inspiration when I realized Austin was hosting a reptile show and, hey, I have quite a few unsold paintings that could fetch a good price by attendees looking to blow some money on some herpetological stuff. So, I looked into it, and having a table there to sell paintings was very affordable (I sell 1 painting and I've covered it). Plus, it'll be fun for me and Mike. We drove down to a show in San Antonio and came back with Dexter our Hognose snake. This time we want to come home with some cold cash! The image above is my banner that will go up on the site for the show.

Now... who can I get to man the desk with me so I can have potty breaks... c'mon, Jilly! The snakes are all enclosed, and think of the good your raised heart rate will do :) Zach? It's muy macho, you'll feel invigorated afterwards. Rhi? You've got anti-anxiety pills still, right? Pop a few and meet me there!

Housing Market Up Turn in Deutsch-land!

So, many know we've had a beautiful vivarium for about 9 months with no occupant save 30 or so plant species. It was like a house on the market, but we couldn't find the right tenant. I'd wanted poison dart frogs (and still do someday), but the upkeep for those would be too much for me right now. We were also faced with the fact that if we're paying for the juice the lights and water feature are using, we should get a little more bang for our buck and have something moving around in there. So after some research and talking to some herpetologist people we discovered the mossy leaf tail gecko who didn't need anything done to the tank, we just dropped him in! They are a cooler temperature lizard that required just the sort of heavily planted vivarium I had built. And, frankly, he's so funny looking we just had to have him. He's all mossy and lichen looking, a really good camouflage artist, so we named him "Waldo" as in "Where's Waldo? I've been staring at this tank for- Oh! There he is!"

I've Joined a Gym!

Ok, so with the post about the freaking heat, the hubby and I have sent up the white flag and joined a gym. But in the spirit of our electronics buying, it is the BMW of gyms! It's open 24 hours, so surely, even with my insane hours I can make it in there. They sent us a promotional offer that waived a lot of the joining fees, so we're signed up on their uber platinum level, which was all they were sigining people up for. But this way, we get almost all of the otherwise add on things included in our fee (things like classes and fitness tests). Our friends were gold members that got rolled or grandfathered into the platinum, and we've had fun telling them all the free stuff they get now that they were unaware of.

What I didn't expect when we started working out is to have such a noticeable change in my state of mind. I mean, it's like someone put me on Zanex, or something! I guess it's endorphins or released pent up stress. It's scary to think that I could feel this much better without really realizing that I felt so bad before. I also, wrongly, thought you only suffered from stress if you were unhappy about said stress (like you're only a workoholic if you don't enjoy it). This year's been stressful, the good kind of stress, as in I have books under production and coming out soon and the company is making great headway, but there's quite a lot of putting out fires as they pop up.

So while I have physical goals I want to achieve, it's already worth it on a deeper psychological level: work out = no creative burn out!

Images from my Rain Forest Show

Sorry I didn't use the "good" camera, but these are some of the paintings I did for my show in April. I picked bold/colorful wildlife and painted on what I consider large scale for me. I sold several in the show, and got many inquiries on the frog, but he's sitting above my desk here now, and I think that's where he belongs. The viper, too, I couldn't part with in the end, and it's actually covering the hole of our fireplace, with the screen place in front of it. It's a neat effect, because the black of the canvas looks like the depth of the fireplace, sort of freaky.

Its. So. Freakin. HOT!!!

Here's a quote from the News here in Austin:

In a typical year, we hit 100-degrees eleven times in Austin. Its only mid-June and we have surpassed that number... the high of 101 at Mabry today makes it the 13th for the year. And that now puts us in 2nd place for the all time for number of 100+ days during the months of May and June.

I've finally become the delicate Southern Belle my Mom secretly always hoped I would be (just kidding, Mom), but honestly, I step outside and my Scarlett O'Hara comes out, "Oh, my, I seem to have succumbed to the vapors, clutch the pearls!" I'm pretty sure I got a mild case of heat exhaustion over the weekend: I had no appetite and felt what Mike and I call "loagey" and blech. I resent this, as I'm no shrinking violet, but I dare anyone to put up with this heat and be at the top of their productivity game.

And I'm pretty sure the heat has zapped my brain, too. I start the day with a pretty well rested brain, thinking of all the things I could do at work and at home. Step outside in the sticky 105 degree heat and ten seconds later I'm drooling in the coolest part of the house wondering why Texas won't legalize your birthday suit as suitable work attire.

Tonight it's driven me to Tequila. I thought, Hey, maybe there's something to the equatorial favorism of margarita as an elixir, and by jove, I think they're on to something there. A big fish bowl margarita later, I'm more worried about the numbness in my face than the sweat rings in my shirt. And it's like getting dehydrated on MY TERMS, none of this atmosphere ripping out my precious bodily fluids, that's what the salt on the rim of my glass if for, thankyouverymuch.

It's time like this I'm glad I'm not a little black Italian Greyhound. Poor Enzo is like a cell phone with half a bar left. He shoots out of the house all happy, then the warning tone goes off alerting that he has about 5 seconds of juice left. It's like watching the evolution of man in reverse, turning the vibrant, bouncy dog into a lowly primordial bottom feeder. Sigh...

So, more creativity to come when the brain can withstand the heat :) Check the Weather Channel.

Feeling Patriotic

Well, this color pencil drawing started, actually, with me finding a really nice paper at my favorite art store in town (Jerry's Artarama). It's Strathmore's heavy weight dry media paper, and it felt so much like a lithographic stone I used to do prints with, that I bought then decided to do some portraits with it. And with it hot as blazes here, I thought I'd do something to commemorate the fourth of July. I also really got into the John Adams HBO series, especially the opening sequence that showed the early revolutionary war flags, like the snake one shown in the corner.

The scan was, I'm sorry, sort of half assed, so some on the edges got cut off. The bottom shows a little more of the "Join, or Die" motto, and the e in people above isn't cut off. But this was a big drawing (18x24") so I'm only going to do so much scanning and puzzling together the pieces.

I think I'll find a buyer in town for this one. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The only traced/transfered part is the "We the People," everything else, the faces and all were free hand. The overall design of the piece was thrown together pretty fast, too, from several references. I did enjoy reading about the snake flag. Ben Franklin actually carved out the woodcut design himself, and it ties in with his recommendation that if Britain kept sending them convicts, that America should send England their rattlesnakes. Some say that the rattlesnake came darn close to being our national mascot (the whole Don't Tread on Me came from this flag, too).

Greening up the flower beds

Well, we're trying to beautify our flower beds, so we added some sage, oleander, laurell, red yucca, and some baby aloe plants that Jill sent me home with (she has a very productive aloe at her place). Hopefully we picked the right ones!

A New Dedicated Pets Blog

I've started a new dedicated Pets blog called Pet-a-Palooza that I hope ya'll will want to check out. I just have too much I want to post here about my pets, so I'm diversifying. I'm also going to invite friends and family to be contributor, so we can all brag on our pets. I'll try to have reoccurring features like "Pic of the Week" and "Doodle of the Month" so bookmark it and drop in now and then (I'll try to make it interesting!). If you go there now, you can get a rarely seen roll call with all the pet's names, species and countries of origin.

Hope to see ya there!

Lemur Silkscreen Doodle

A digital doodle, if you will. I did the pen drawing last Friday at the zoo, then played with dropping in flat colors like a silkscreen... much cleaner this way :)

close up of Gordon

I like this one because the male cordon blue is looking at me (we've named him Gordon for Gordon Ramsay with the whole Cordon Blue culinary school). This also shows the nice lushness I made with some silk and some real plants. Some I'll take out once they feel safe in their environment so they'll have some more flight room. I love the internet, I found a lot of useful info there (www.finchinfo.com).

The Finch Connection

A long time ago, I had two little zebra finches. They were great fun, even made a nest in my drapes when I let them out for a little constitutional stroll from their little cage. Funny enough, the Whites tree frogs got me in the mood to have them again with their nightly short calling session. So I'm putting the poison dart frogs on hold (their terrarium is growing nicely in the meantime), and since it's me, no store bought bird cage would do, so I made a "floating aviary" out of egg crate panels, plexiglass, some modular wire shelving and about a million zip ties. It's hanging in the bay window above brisby. This is their summer cottage, I'll be making a winter lodge that will go over the fireplace and be warmer in the cold months.

So far we have 2 spice finches (the white/tan/brown ones), 2 spice finches (the speckled ones with dark heads) and 2 cordon blue waxbills.

"Proof" there's a book coming!

Ok, I couldn't help it! My Dad's an OBGYN, and I when I got the printer's proof of Camp Lizard, it reminded me of getting an ultrasound. We had to check ever page, like we were counting fingers and toes. Also, it was blue and black as a proof but will be green and black "on delivery" (ultrasounds being black and white, but oh boy, it's colorful later). So it was neat seeing what will be coming out soon. We did have some concerns that we're talking to printer about, but overall I'm ready to take this little bugger home! (and then get it into a good school, har har).

Fan Mail!

It's nice when I get fan mail! This one really picked me up today and I thought I'd share...

Hello Regan!

I just wanted to let you know we just picked up a copy of your book "Little Bunny Kung Fu" from the Wells Branch Library. I read the book to my 4 year old daughter right when we got home and we were both thrilled! She's been hopping around singing "Little Bunny Kung Fu" and doing karate chops ;-) I had to find out more about the author of this wonderful book and I found your webpage. I'm delighted to see that you're a fellow Austinite - something that I suspected when I saw that you had personally signed the book for our beloved Wells Branch Library. I just wanted to tell you how much we enjoyed this book. We've already ordered our very own copy of "Little Bunny Kung Fu" and we anxiously await another book from you!

(I'm omitting their names for privacy)

Keep on Karate Chopping!

Regan

CIP data for Lizard is here!

Oh, boy! We're getting closer, people! For those not in the biz, the publisher sends a manuscript to the Library of Congress to get the official "CIP Data" that books need so that libraries and other folks know how to officially catalog the book. The publisher, it's worth mentioning, has NO idea or say in how they decide to categorize or summarize the book and we can't make any changes to what they decree (apparently some authors would like to tweak here or there).

A funny thing about my books was that it was never in a written out manuscript form, being a graphic novel (comic book). So, fun for me, I got to type everything out in Word so we could submit it... all 100+ pages! All part of the fun, and I like their summary so I'm happy.

Here it is...

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Johnson, Regan, 1975-
Hold on to your tail / written and illustrated by Regan Johnson.
p. cm. -- (Letters from Camp Lizard)
Summary: Leon the Day Gecko writes a letter to his parents describing his first day at summer camp, where he meets diverse lizards from around the world, makes friends with a Frilled Dragon, and learns a secret about his father.
ISBN 978-1-933831-04-6 (pbk.)
1. Graphic novels. [1. Graphic novels. 2. Lizards--Fiction. 3. Camps--Fiction. 4. Toleration--Fiction. 5. Letters--Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.7.J643Hol 2008
[Fic]--dc22
2008007501

Ty's Wedding Comic Page 1

(Click on to enlarge!)

Tomorrow I leave for Arkansas to see my best friend growing up get married. For his wedding card, I recreated this fuzzy valentine and I'm putting this 2 page comic inside. This is based on a true story, I really did get Ty a huge furry valentine in first grade. He kept it, too, and teased me all through high school and college (which we went through together, too). This is also an accurate picture of my early non-conformist tendencies in dealing with the opposite sex.

For those former ABSS kids, that's Melissa and Brad Adams on page 2, along with Mandy as my coach :). Hope to see some blasts from my past this weekend!

Ty's Wedding Comic Page 2

(click on to enlarge)

New Look!

Hey, you may see new additions and perks on the ole blog here... Now if I can just get it together to update my website!

Lone Ranger Rides Again

I was inspired to make my own cowboy illustration after working on that commission for Whitlee. Something new I tried was working with masking fluid. The bandanna pattern was painted, the white part drawing with a quill pen using the masking stuff, then I painted red over all of it and rubbed off the mask that left the paper white. Now I think I can do more intricate patterns without losing my mind... always a good thing :)

Whitlee's Cowgirl

The "Stylistic Chameleon" that I am, I was commissioned to make a watercolor for Whitlee of this cute cowgirl taken from a fabric swatch. My dad could probably date it, being a collector of children's books from the early 30's through 60's. My guess is the 50's. I learn a lot form emulating other artists. For instance I like how the highlights interrupt the shape of things (the hat isn't a solid red). And something about the expression, it's very confident for being a kid... like this girl had been out after curfew a time or two. I find myself wanting to have the same expression :) Yeah, I've painted some things in my time! heehee

My New Toy!

My second picture book that I'm illustrating (not writing) is Fergus the Ferret, and we're doing another toy for the book (Yeah!). I have to make simple drawings that show the toy makers the form we want the toy to take. For Fergus, I wanted "tall and skinny" like a real ferret. I found it funny that an option they had was to have a generic teddy bear body that they just tweak a little into a ferret (creepy, no?). As he is, Fergus is very graphically striking (red, black and white being the power trio of color schemes). I'm hoping the pink in his ears and muzzle will soften him up enough for the girls to squeal over.


And, no, he's not going to be wearing any underwear... he's SCOTTISH! heehee

Happy Easter!

For Easter, I Warholed myself (it'd be neat if my name turned into a verb someday). This candid shot was taken at our friends Rhi and Jeff's wedding where I was a bridesmaid bunny (would've also accepted the bridesmaid froggy position). Thought it made a cute Easter greeting card image. For our 2nd annual "Funny Bunny Storytime" party where I read LBKF and signed books, the manager of the store commented, "You know, on anybody else that outfit wouldn't look right" (was wearing the ears seen here and my silk kung fu outfit and tail). I just tell people that I'm the bunny's mother and that's where the resemblance comes from. :)

Happy Easter folks, bite some chocolate bunnies heads off, it's good for the soul!

Fun Picture

Here's a photo of me and the pooch in a pouch. When we have company over, sometimes he needs a little time out, so I have the baby sling and he's content to hang out on my shoulder. I think this is from the Oscar party. I do have some skin tone, but it was dim in the room and the flash sucked out all my color (promise!) :)

Artist of the Month for April

For my show in April, I wanted to get back to painting on canvas so I'm doing a "Tropical Color" theme that will focus on the vibrant colors seen in the jungles, like this painted mantella frog from Madagascar. So far I have frogs, reptiles and birds, but also want to include some flora and maybe some monkeys or tamarins.

My thoughts on the show are that before artist and designers were mixing paints and coming up with "color schemes" nature had been using color for it's own form-follows-function means. Sometimes it's to warn off predators, or attract the best mate, or to suddenly startle something else. The Rule of the Jungle being Eat or Be Eaten I think applies to the use of color in the Jungle, meaning that if you're going to use color, then use the most vivid and striking color and combinations you got!

This is a smaller 11x14" canvas, but I purposefully got some large canvas to try to break out of my routine, and I think the larger scale will emphasize the theme, too.

Tea with Sourpuss

Believe it or not, I'm trying to scratch out time for my website and some promotional material. I think I'll make this new illustration a postcard advertising my services. Besides being cute (cute's really big right now) I think it shows my sense of humor (note the little guinea pig laughing and pointing at the cat, even though he's dressed as the baby). Also worked in some type and digital pattern applications, trying to show I can do more than paint. I like it, the little girl is based on a cute girl that comes into the store a lot.

More Fashion Art

These are actually 2 different drawing/watercolors that I put together digitally. They're both from the 1760's, and the pink and blue is a play on boy and girl fashions. In keeping with fashion illustration I left out the face details so the viewer can focus on the clothing. I like the gesture of the watercolor next to the tightly controlled pen work. I'll do a few more...

New Work!

(Click on to enlarge) It's been a while since I posted some art, so here's what I'm up to. Doing a small collections of watercolor/drawings of period costume. Part of it is my own interest and the other the Oscar's coming makes me think about Best Costume. I'll have a show with these and hopefully find an equally enthusiastic patron to buy them! This one's called The Cowboy circa 1890.

New 28 gallon Vivarium finished!

Well, I finished my poison dart frog 28 gallon vivarium. There's 17 live plants and a waterfall going. Hope you like looking at it! I sure do :) Going to let it grow and settle in for a month, then we'll be looking to move in frogs.

Tired now, going to turn in. I promise some artwork will get posted here soon.

Regan
(click on the image to enlarge it!)

G'day, mates

Our frog theme continues with our new White's Tree Frog here, Uluru. We've named her after the original name for Ayers Rock since she's Australian. She will be joining our Tokay gecko in the redone vivarium (with a natural looking divider to keep the Tokay from the traditional Tokay greeting ie. biting her face off). She's a very pretty greenish blue color when she wants to be green. Though, she can change color completely and go brown and it doesn't mean she's cold or upset... just wants to be brown.

Merry Christmas

Well, in keeping with the Manger theme, I wanted to share our love of pets with our Christmas E-card this year!

Hope everyone has had a good year and best wishes for a great year in 2008!

Regan and Co.

My Hobby

Sorry I haven't posted (again) in a while, but the holidays are demanding. To relieve some stress and save some sanity, I've delved into an interest I've been nurturing for the last year which is terrarium building. (Since they'll be live animals living in them, you could call them vivariums)

Here are some photos of the first one I finished, a 10 gallon tank I turned on it's side and fitted with 5 living plants and a striated substrate system for drainage.

The top photo's our new little addition, Caprese (Kha-PREE-zee), and he's a Tomato Frog from Madagascar (though bred here in Texas). Right now he's the size of a very small cherry tomato, and he's bunking with the gold dust day gecko Klondike, who is also from Madagascar. They're both getting used to the their new home and doing OK so far. An interesting thing about Tomato Frogs is that they are beginning to disappear in the wild (no, not due to pet stores). Frogs are good barometers of an ecosystem, ie. if there are frogs things are ok, and if not there may be some ecological problems afoot. The species in serious jeopardy is a subspecies or cousin to the kind I have, and it could mean someday that the species may exist solely in captivity, which would be sad, but then they still discover species every day on that island, so I guess some disappear at the same rate without ever being found.

Well, that's part of the reason I've been neglectful in my blogging duties. I will be doing a year in recap around Christmas, so tune back in!

New LBKF Cover!

See the difference? Bunny's hopping instead of standing on guard! So this could be the new cover for the next few thousand book :)

Something to be Thankful For

Wow! Thanksgiving is upon us, and I'm happy to report some great news to be thankful for!

Little Bunny Kung Fu's been discovered by Borders Bookstore and they have chosen me for their "Original Voice" Award.

Here's a blurb about the award:

The Award --- consisting of a $5,000 cash prize --- recognizes "innovative and ambitious" new books and music from emerging artists, and will be presented in January to one winner in each of five categories.

Children's books is a category, and I'll be the Feb pick, so I guess Jan 09 I may win (fingers crossed).

I'm just thrilled to be going into my second major printing. I'll be tweaking the cover a little to make it a little less serious (a chance for me to include some things I've wanted to have in the first cover). They've got an order for 4500 so far! Hopefully the other big bookstores will want in on some LBKF, too, now.

I'll report when I find out more. I'm just so blown away. My own personal belief is that God is love, so when that book buyer fell in love with my book, I've got God to thank for that. Man, Life's a hoot!

Ebony and Tawny

(can be sung to the tune of Ebony and Ivory)

Ebony and Taw-ny
Live together in not quite
Harmony

Side by side
on our sofa, with Mike, Oh no,
Where is Rhi?!

*muzak to follow*


Mike with Latka, the pomeranian we're petsitting... been a little bumpy, but tonight, a reprieve.

My Birthday Wish

Yes, another year rolled by on the odometer this week, and my wish?

That People Stop Talking Through Movies in Theaters!!!

Now, that makes me sound petty, but I'm serious, it's pandemic here in Austin. And it's not like the talking in movies that I occasionally came across growing up. I don't know if Netflix or home movie watching is changing the etiquette of how people watch movies in public, but I'm paying money I worked hard for in one of my 3 jobs, and I didn't pay for the Dumbass Commentary to be playing in the seats behind me, thankyouverymuch.

What's it come to? Am I supposed to field the occupants of the seats behind us: "Hi, yes, we don't know each other, but would you say you like to run your mouth through films?" Or, Mike suggests, we make our own signs that golf officials use in tournaments "Quiet please" and then don't put them down to they do what it says (has potential).

As it is, we've already given the mindless masses the weekends and early shows, knowing that either infants or chair climbing toddlers are going to ruin it for us. So we go to the art house theaters, or a late show and crawl into bed after midnight, all because we just want to watch a movie on the big screen without someone's verbal flatulence wafting our way.

There. Is the birthday fairy listening?! Yeesh.

ps Gone Baby Gone is a great movie, just de-select the Clueless Old Ladies Commentary when you go see it.

Sorry, Mom!

Scroll down quick, Mom! Don't look!

Yes, apparently Mike and I going to a reptile Expo is a bit like an alcoholic going to Mardi Gras, though in our defense, we did leave more than we took home with us! *drum kick*

Ok, ok, there's a backstory about the hognose snake: We've been in the market for nearly 5 years. What stood in our way was that the southern and eastern hognose species were picky eaters and preferred lizards and frogs over the much easier to find frozen mice. So we had passed on the cute hognose, but then we talked to some reptile breeders who said while the other species of hognoses were finicky, the western variety is hardier and will eat mice, especially if it's only had mice. So we named our hognose Dexter, after the Showtime show by the same name that we love.

Fun facts about Hognoses (c'mon, Mom, you might like these!)

• Part of the Heterodon family of snakes, they're also called "Blow Snakes" or "Puff Adders" because when confronted, the snake flattens out his neck into a hood and hisses loudly like a cobra.
• If this doesn't work, some try to feint a strike, but since they're rear fanged, they don't actually bite (their fangs are designed to deflate frogs), so it's a bluff.
• And, best of all, if that doesn't work, they play dead. And they go all out, on their backs, belly up, mouth open and tongue out in the "Q" sign! If you turn them back over, they'll just roll back over and play dead some more. Pretty funny, huh? Dexter hasn't done any of these because he's been handled so much, but I imagine one day we'll catch him off guard.
  

Another TX Book Festival!

I'm having one of those "It's been a year already?!" days, where I realize how fast time flies. Seems like yesterday I was going to my first TX book festival and seeing Little Bunny Kung Fu early that Saturday morning for the first time, and trying not to lose it in front of the publisher, when inside I was caught between crying and shrieking.

Today was my third festival, and people came up to me while I was signing to tell me how they'd bought my book the year before and that it'd been a big hit (always fun to hear). We also heard that some signed books bought the year before brought in some big money for silent auctions they were featured in, which is great! And I'd say about a quarter of my sales today were repeat customers, one lady who almost kept the first book I'd signed for her last year, but I'd signed it to "Monica" so this year the book was for her! Those were fun folks to talk to, and they are all excited to see my next book(s) next year.

I will say, not be negative, but the TX book festival didn't get the advertising/buzz it had in years past. Jenna Bush and Kristin Gore were the headliners, but Jenna had a book signing in town just a few weeks ago. I think attendance was down today, too, but then it would when it wasn't advertised like before. I hope it's not a downward trend, because it is fun, and people really do want the festival. People from Corpus Cristi drive all the way in for it.

Well, now if feels like the holidays are upon us with the festival behind me. Whew! That year went FAST!

Happy Halloweiner!

Check out my Comic!

Yeah! I finally got the comic I worked on last weekend (19 hours straight, sorry, still sorta raw), and it's on my first official webcomic site:

http://www.webcomicsnation.com/regan/

It takes a little poking around to figure out how to navigate. Look for the "You are Here" box under the comments box (feel free to comment!). Once you see the You are Here field you can go from whatever my last page was and got to the beginning (Chapter 1). After you read the previous pages, the idea is that you'd bookmark the site (please do!), and when you check back in the newest page will be waiting for you.

After you activate the page you on by hitting "Go" or scrolling up to whatever page you want, there are some traditional buttons like forward, back, first, and last you can also use to move around. You'll get the hang of it (I mean, if I could anyone can!)

Hope you like it! :) I"ll be adding more on Monday's and we'll see where it goes.

Cover for Comic

(click on to enlarge) So here's the cover at least. Daz and Phyl are the main characters, and the rest are co-stars. Lea Hernandez, (a real life working comic), complimented my artwork at one point. She was doing a cool clay-mation project that looked really intricate. Hope I get to see it sometime. I'm playing with color, but it sort of loses something, so I may keep it black and white. Dunno yet...

Whew! The Recap!

The "Black-out" period is over, and I made it to my day job today. Man! That Sunday, I slept 10 hours, and those are day hours. Then Monday my allergies rose up against me and I got the pendulum swing from feeling on top of the world to feeling like crapolla. I've more or less evened out now, but it's a lesson that I shouldn't push myself that far unless it's for a good and/or crazy cause like 24 hour comic day.

The sad part: I didn't finish it within the official 24 period. I went 19 straight hours and my body began to fall apart. My drawing hand's nerves short circuited and I still have a tingly thumb that's not quite right yet. My eyes started seeing double from staring at my laptop monitor. And finally, while I didn't get sleepy, my brain did begin to act like a really slow processor with several virus's.

The upside: I WILL finish and post the comic here and at the webcomics.net account I've opened but haven't officially started yet. I really did like the story and it's open to continue as a weekly comic. I feel a webcomic will do me good, keep me honest and creating.

The other cool thing was somewhere in those 19 hours I gave an interview to Sean at Prism Comics. I'm a featured "Lovely Lady of 24 Hour Comics Day." Prism Comics is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the work of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) creators in the comics industry, as well as LGBT themes in comics in general. The comic I came up with has a same-sex pair of frogs living in the terrarium with all the other frogs, and that's part of why Prism interviewed me. Here's a link: http://www.prismcomics.org/display.php?id=1493

The underlying theme of "Darting Around" my dart frog comic, is that we all have to learn to share the world and get along and that no one group should think they're superior to the rest.

Now, I just have to finish the darn thing!

6 hours to go...

I don't think I'll finish in the timeline. That's not a real big deal, and there are lots of others in the same boat. The deal is I don't want to sacrifice the quality just to get it done. I'll be plenty impressed with myself if I just work for 24 hours.

I'm on page 14 artwork wise, but Photoshop started crapping out on text and may need to be re-installed, so getting the type/dialog done is iffy.

My brain's just turning to mush. Been listening to some comedians, Stephen Colbert's new book has made me laugh out loud, but it's so late that no one thinks much of it.

I'm not sleepy, which is weird at 6:16 am in the morning, having worked nonstop for 16 hours. Yeesh! I'm nuts.

Ok, on I go...

Half time

Well, half way there. And, wow... my body's not quite obeying my brain. Sorta approximating what it was told to do, but not to the letter.

My computer programs are also trying to wuss out. I'm going to push on and hope they straighten themselves out.

Gave an interview to a reporter... Can't wait to read what I said, 'cuss I have NO idea what I rambled on about!

However, I'm pretty darn proud of my little froggies. Wish they were here in person to take care of the occasional mosquito that buzzes me.

Back to work...

7 hours in

Huff, huff, huff... Ok, we have lift-off. Working on finish pages. Thinking I'm not getting to color during the challenge, but I'll come back and do it. Funny how time slips away working on logistical matters, like page size, margins, ruler guides.

I'm not sure uploading images will work from here, so sorry it's boring. I'll get a kick out of what I write later.

*insert Eye of the Tiger music*

22 hours left

still thumbnailing, but the story's coming together. The trick is knowing the end point before you run out of pages. And Eric points out if you have an extra page, it's a great opportunity for a Hostess Cupcake ad.

:)

24 hour day

well, it's started! I'm thumbnailing the comic now, and hopefully will start real pages in the next hour. The place is pretty full, and we're quietly working.

So far so goood!

24 Hour Comic Challenge

Well, I'm officially signed up for an international event that Austin is participating in called 24 Hour Comic Day (http://24hourcomics.com/). Artists start at 12:00 noon October 20th and go for 24 straight hours to create 24 pages of a finished comic to be turned in at noon October 21st. Nuts, isn't it! That may not sound like much, but it's the equivalent to a triathlon in cartooning terms. And the other fun part is you come up with it on the spot, and I'm purposefully not working on a storyline because I want it to be spontaneously caught on that day. I do think I'll base it on poison dart frogs because I've been researching them, and they're fresh in my mind (and fun to draw). What they'll do or talk about is anyone's guess!

Another fun part will be seeing other artists banging out their work alongside me. The Austin Museum of Art is hosting it and will provide space, snacks, and security during the wee small hours. How long has it been since I've been to a lock in?! (Actually... several of us in my major at Baylor would hide when they closed the art building, wait for the cleaning staff to lock up and leave then we'd pull an all nighter in the printshop and darkroom. That was a blast! Sneaking around with flashlights and code signals. Though mixing developing fumes with alcohol is not advisable!)

So think of me on the 20th, going all iron man on a comic that I promise to share here. The best of the best get published in an anthology, too, so who knows!

Our Crazy Bunch!

(Click to enlarge!)

So, I love a good parody, and this is our Brady Bunch tribute. I actually got the idea from a frame I bought at target that had little windows around a larger center one, and it made me think of the opening to the show. Funny, I had the perfect number of critters for all the frames! I also realized the ratio of warm to cold blooded is at a tie currently. I think my favorite drawing of my critters is either the Tokay's terrifying open mouth display (something we see when we try to mess with him) and Cooper the chinchilla chewing a bit of the frame. Just a little fun for me, and now I have a new wallpaper for my desktop!

Meet 'n Greet with Teachers

These are the 2 sides of a three-folded brochure I made for the event on Friday (the bottom is the outside with the far right the "cover"). Hopefully you can click on the images and see what they say. The event went well, and I hope to hear back from some teachers. I do like talking to kids about what I'm doing, since I had to learn on the go. It makes sense since the books are for them, so why not tell them about how they're made?

New Studio

Jim Henson's Fantastic World

This is an imperfect scan of a collage I did of our trip to the Muppet exhibit at the Arkansas Art Center. It was AMAZING! Part of that may be the nostalgia I have for the Muppets, but it's also a professional awe for a man who did so much to bring out the child in adults and kids alike. The Quote I had to whip out my sketch book and write down is this:
I don't know exactly where ideas come from... It's just a matter of us figuring out how to receive the ideas waiting to be heard.
-Jim Henson
The drawings shown our my sketches of his sketches, and that cracks me up! Mike, Ryan and me had a blast.

The Big Sis

Thought I'd share this on my baby bro's birthday! Hysterical, no? Now, it's been a few years, so the details are fuzzy... Ryan's crying and I appear to be holding a switch! Coincidence? And why do I look so put out if I did whack him with the twig? Not macho enough, there, Ryan? heehehhehhe! Love ya, bro!

Bro's Birthday!

Ryan, or Spencer Ryan going by his stage name, is another year older. He scored mundo points for finding out and telling Mike and I about the Jim Henson art exhibit at the Arkansas Art Center, and we three all went and checked it out last weekend.

So Happy Birthday!

Man's best friend!

Birthday photos!

(click on the image to see it enlarged, he's even cuter!) This was a small celebration today. Enzo got two birthday biscuits from the gourmet doggie bakery down the street. He also got a gorilla squeaky, a red backpack for trails this fall, and a life vest for going out on the lake this weekend with my folks up in Arkansas. He loved his presents and the attention, and new somehow what we were unwrapping was all for him. At 18.3 pounds, he's a real armful of love!

Enzo is 1!

I had to do a watercolor of Enzo and the party I'd love to have thrown him. From Left to Right, that is Georgia (not Twosers as a ghost!) a Korean Jindo dog who Jill would dogsit and Enzo would torment (she'd growl and play with Enzo at the same time, really funny). Next is Ladka, the pomeranian and then Kicki and Buddy, Jill's two Italian Greyhounds (Kicki is holding an old fashion ear trumpet because Jill thinks she's gone deaf). My parents two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Elle and Lucy, are next after Enzo, and then I had to have party pooper, so Ryan's cat Franklin crashed it!