The Big Bad Cold... The three pigs are taking care of the big bad wolf, and yes, that's a rectal thermometer and maybe when I feel better I'll change that, but for now the big bad wolf can suffer along with me... though my thermometer's oral thank god... 

Chills

Well, my allergies blew up into a sinus infection and I spent the better part of yesterday feeling like I was in some kind of mad scientist experiment. I've never before had "chills" but I did yesterday. I could not get warm. I was wearing a shirt, a fleece pullover and flanel pjs, a heating pad and flanel sheets and I was still shivering. I thought I felt feverish, and I took some medicine and about halfway today I felt things start to break loose and I feel better. I don't think I had sinus problems till I moved here to Austin. My nasal passages were clear the whole time, but my sinus cavities and throat were on fire and I had a bad headache in the middle of my head. About 4 days ago I had a constant runny nose but I thought it was from moving things around and kicking up dust. Wish I'd known that it would turn into a full out horrible sinus infection.

You don't appreciate how good 'normal' feels until you have a day like yesterday. Yeesh...

Lost and Found

Here's a little digital piece I did to help fill out my manga body of work. It's the typical manga schoolgirl who's found her lost cat that she had been putting flyers out for.

She has several conventional manga-esque features: Big but not too big sparkly eyes, flowing hair, the sailorish uniform, the pink legwarmers (I did have a pair back in the 80s but they're still big in Japan), and the kitty has button type eyes. It's done in a cell type painting, and reminds me of when I painted disney cells. I used my new drawing tablet which is working out great.

And the other thing I do like about manga, is that it is where the pin-up girl lives on. I always liked the Vargas girl, and the Petty girls from the 40s because while they were eye candy and buxom and all, there was still something innocent and funny about them. Like, whoops I'm baking cookies and I'm only wearing an apron, how did that happen? And while in manga stories the female characters usually have some depth to them, there are still some single image art that is for people to admire and gush over. I mean, no human woman could come close to anatomically resembling a manga cutie, but that's not the point. I would argue that it celebrates femininity and should be enjoyed as such.

And now I will dodge the tomatoes from the empowered women now reading this!

Sorry, they're fun to make!!!

Lost and Found 

ArtCentre of Plano

I just got an invite to be part of an art show up in Plano. It will be featuring Texas Illustrators and is in partnership with some summer arts camps--JumpStart for Arts, which is a program for economically disadvantaged children that would not otherwise take summer classes in Visual Art, Creative Dramatics, Dance and Music. It sounds neat. I'll find out more about it soon, but how fun to make a trip up to Plano, what with half the people I grew up with up there!

Here is a test for a large scale traditional painted manga... meaning it's drawn in manga style, but painted in acrylic like I paint my other fantasy/kid stuff. I'll do some digital stuff to it so Alice stands out a little more... 

here's the black and white drawing of me in my studio with some of my favorite animals looking on. If it comes out nice, I may have a promo card made of it to use as a business card. I also want to do a thing on my website where you scroll over the animals and I tell why they're there... like the bear is for Baylor, and the lion for ADPi, ect... 

Lauren's Visit

My niece Lauren was here for her first visit here to Texas, and we all had so much fun with her. She loved our treehouse, all our pets and the muppets. She really liked giving the pets a "treat" and watching Cooper the chinchilla get a dust bath.

We did the caves, the Japanese botanical garden, and some other parks. Kristi her mom didn't feel well, and because of the music/film festival they couldn't get her an early flight back home. I hope she had some fun and maybe as time passes she won't remember the feeling sick part.

My favorite Lauren quote was "Hey, Lauren, what do Mike and Regan have at their house?"

"A farm."

Yep. The honesty of a two year old!

little bunny kung fu's texan cousin :) 

My niece is here in town and I made here a little picture that has her name and other animals that start with L : a leopard is leaping at a lemur who's licking a lollipop as a lizard looks on and laughs, while a llama holds a leaf for a lazy lion while a lamb reapplies lipstick after kissing the lion...whew! Lots of L's! 

more practice on the digital art stuff. I'm still learning alot, but I'm happy with it... I just want to already be better! 

here's what I pulled together for them. It's fine, but I have some killer charcoal drawings out there somewhere...  

nibble, nibble

Oooooo, got a nibble from a graphic design firm in Austin looking for someone to do some horse illustrations for a book they're doing.

I was a little irritated that I didn't have a ton of scanned artwork in the computer to pull from. I guess all those horse drawings are either under the guest bed in portfolios, at the cabin in Arkansas, or who knows. I was all, "I've drawn horses for years, I can do it in my sleep... hey, where's all my friggin horse art?!"

I did have some recent artwork that featured horses if not the Old West, but if they're a good design firm, they'll be able to visualize what I could do for them... ...right?! (right.... sigh)

If it weren't so mind numbingly boring to scan in artwork, I would have everything digital and ready to go, but good god in heaven, how I hate to scan things! I found out with my publisher that Kinkos can scan a huge document for like 5 cents a page. As we handed over 130 pages, I felt like I lost 130 pounds because I wouldn't have to scan all those pages into the computer!

Well, I really hope to hear back from them. It doesn't sound like a big job, but... I mean, c'mon... it's horsies!!!

Here's the design of the cover of Kichi in Jungle Jeopardy! 

Kichi comin' along!

I've signed off on the illustration proofs for Kichi, so the time is nearing for it to come out. I'm really excited because it's a great story and it was technically the first big illustration job for me, even though LBKF came out first.

I hung up with Miriam when she called to hire me for Kichi, and I remember walking into the living room, and going, "Wait, did I just get a book deal?!" I was Miss Phone Courtesy and hadn't really absorbed what had just happened. I think my Dad must have felt much like I did when he finally got a hole in one (before he got his second hole in one in the same round, oh yeah, he did!). It was just such a freakin' relief! I knew there was a lot of work ahead of me, contracts, proofs, deadlines... but for a blessed few minutes I was walking on air. Nothing can really match that feeling. Even when LBKF came out, I was ecstatic but I'd already signed on for Kichi, and that first initial realization that I'd made it, crossed a finish line that was years in running for... that was a special feeling, and I carry part of it with me all the time now.

I even think it's special that I got the news when I was alone in the house. Sure my happy dance would have amused the hubby, but in a way I needed that time for myself. If anyone had been around, I would have their reaction joining mine, and maybe I would have tried to act differently. So I'm glad the lizards saw me jumping up and down... pet lizards tell no tales. :)

working more on manga, and I'm liking the progress so far... 

been playing with coloring manga... think I'm making progress... All this Manga work should also help out my fantasy work, which I still love to do personally. In this HIGHLY stylized verion of myself, I do have two sugar gliders in my pocket. This is also Mike's valentine card, heh heh! 

Got a new bag of goodies!

Broke down and bought a friggin huge photoshop book full of all kinds of visual goodies. Recipes for lots of visual effects, and frankly, I'd forgotton what a lot of the bells and whistles did. Hopefully it will oil the gears on my digital painting for the manga.

It's like a big recipe book and I want to bake a batch of kickin' manga! :)

Here is my little namesake! Jolene was doing the total bedrest routine, but the new mom of a daughter now and older son Wilson is home now and the her mom is taking care of her. Way to go lil' ADPi Sis! 

How many shots does it take?

How many shots of novicane does it take to numb the tootsie roll center of a Regan's tooth?!?!

One... ARRRRGH!

Two... JEEEEZ!

Eleven... ahhhh*sob*ahhh....

Yes my crown lengthening oral surgery today would have been condemned by amnesty international. It's not just that I don't understand the purpose of the procedure (though I can quote what I've been told) or that it cost so friggin much, but they couldn't numb me enough and by the end I had to call Mike out of work to take me home because I couldn't drive myself. I actually waited out in the car and one nice man tapped on my window because I looked like I back talked to Tony Soprano.

When they irrigated one part I nearly screamed because of the cold saline hit the nerve. It was odd, I couldn't feel the cutting or poking, but the nerve was still open for hot/cold business.

Thank God I get to wait to heal for a few weeks... for a little bit there a nice blood-loss, over-novicaned afternoon drive was looking good, sigh...