Merry Christmas!

I'm almost, almost, almost ready for Chrismas. Finally got my cards out today!

Tintin is coming!

The new Spielberg movie "The Adventure of Tintin" is about to open, something I've been both looking forward to and dreading. It's been mentioned in several places that the Tintin books, while hugely successful in Europe, are little known here in America. That seems funny to me, since both my brother and I have been huge fans since childhood, growing up in the wilds of Michigan. I remember reading black and white reprints which were serialized in, I believe, Children's Digest back in the third grade, and we soon had a collection of most of the books at home. My brother Mark even wrote an essay about how Milou, (Snowy the dog in the English translation), was his favorite cartoon character of all for one of his college applications.

Now the Spielberg movie is coming out. The trailers I've seen are full of action and swooping cameras. They're exciting to watch. I've always enjoyed the old-fashioned kind of popcorn movies that Spielberg is so good at. That's the part that I'm looking forward to. What I'm not looking forward to is all the motion capture weirdness. No matter how well its done, the characters come off as soulless zombies. It's a choice I don't understand. If you're going to do a "live action" movie with these stories, why not just hire actors with a resemblance to the beloved characters and let it go at that? What we have to deal with are "actors" who are eerily not quite human and not quite the charming drawing we grew up with. Neither fish or fowl, as the old phrase goes.

I guess I'm just a purist. I would have loved to see an old-fashioned, well done, traditionally animated movie that really captured the spirit and look of these stories that I have loved. Most of all, I'm sorry that my brother Mark didn't get the chance to see this movie. I would have loved to hear his opinion.

CJ, the lawyer

Here's the final illustration that I did for my cousin, a "portrait" of his son CJ who's currently going to law school. I was trying to get it done in time for Christmas, but I guess I didn't quite make it. Oh well...

Lawyer, Lawyer

Hello everybody, I'm back! I've been awfully busy these last three months doing the final illustrations for my first picture book. I finally finished this week and sent them in to the publisher. I'm happy to report that they really like them! It was quite the learning experience for me.

This sketch is for another project, a commission from my cousin.

Feathertop

Hello everybody! I've been a bit lax about posting on my blog lately because I've been busy working on my first children's book! It's called Dan, the Taxi Man and it will be out sometime next fall. I'm in the midst of doing the final illustrations and I'm having a blast doing it.

I took a little break to do this illustration for my next postcard. This one is inspired by the Nathanial Hawthorne story Feathertop, about a scarecrow who falls in love, a story that I've wanted to illustrate for a while.

Boo-Boo-De-Doo!

And this is for the backside of my latest postcard. It was a nice diversion from the other work I'm doing now. Fun, simple and quick!

IF-Midsummer Night

Well, I've finally gotten back to doing an entry for Illustration Friday, due to a lucky coincidence! I had picked Midsummer Night's Dream as the subject for my next postcard mailer, and was working on the piece when it was announced that Midsummer Night was the next IF subject. I love lucky coincidences, I just wished they happened more often!

This was my first traditionally painted piece after doing a lot of work in photoshop the past couple of months. It was great to work with real paint again, but I guess all mediums have their advantages. There were moments that I really wanted an undo button on this.

Big Princess Hair in Glorious Technicolor

I recently finished a freelance project that forced me to give myself a crash course in Photoshop, (even though I had played with it a little before...) The project was fun but a LOT of work. Now that its done I wanted to try coloring my own piece so I took my sketchbook doodle that I posted previously and here it is...

Big Princess Hair

Just a little quickie from my sketchbook. I didn't want to ignore the blog for too long. I've been busy the last few weeks on a freelance project that I hope to have done by the end of this coming weekend. Wish me luck!

IF-Bicycle

Wow, I've done two Illustration Fridays in a row! Yay me! I did this one quicker and looser than I usually do, so that I could have it in time to submit.

Journey

I've finally gotten around to doing another piece for Illustration Friday. This weeks subject is Journey. This piece is very much inspired by a Saturday Evening Post cover by JC Leyendecker, one of my favorite illustrators.

Back of the Postcard

"I'm a little jazz bird and I'm telling you to be one too!" -Ira Gershwin. This is for the backside of my new postcard.

Spring Planting

Chuck is back! This is an illustration for my next postcard. It's spring planting time for Chuck.

Happy Cailley Day!

I did this piece for my niece Cailley's birthday. She mentioned that she liked jackalopes a while back, and for some reason this idea came to mind. It's only a little over a month late. Not too bad for me...heh heh. Happy Birthday Cailley!

Merry Christmas

This is my 2010 Christmas Card, and also the postcard I'm sending out to publishers. It turned out to be a bit of a "bear" to do! I hope you all like it!

More Chuck!

"Chuck found a job at a restaurant..."

Chuck the Duck

A few years ago my nieces, Cailley, Emma, and Isabelle, wrote a story called Chuck the Duck while we were eating dinner at a restaurant. I've been intending to illustrate it ever since, and I'm finally getting around to it.

"One day there wass a duck named Chuck. He needed money, so he went to find a job."

Snow White and Rose Red

"Rose Red would run and jump about the meadows, seeking flowers and catching butterflies, while Snow White loved to sit and read."

This is a new piece for my children's book illustration portfolio. I spent a lot more time than usual on this illustration and I'm very happy with the way it turned out. I'm planning on doing several more illustrations from the story of Snow White and Rose Red...

Diary-Reading Sister's Secrets

Wow, its hard to believe that I have another blogpost so soon! This is a piece that I started a while ago, but then set aside. It's my first piece that I've done in photoshop. When I started I was doing it with a mouse, but it was slow-going, which is probably why I set it aside. Then my friend Brian loaned me his Wacom tablet. It took me a bit to find my way working with a tablet and with photoshop, but I think I'm starting to find my rhythm...

It Was Night, And The Rain Fell...

This is my entry for the SCBWI Illustrator's Day Contest in LA. The illustration is supposed to be inspired by the line "It was night, and the rain fell, and falling, it was rain, but, having fallen, it was..." Now that I've finished the piece I don't think my idea is very original or interesting.

Every illustration I do is a learning process, and this one is a good example of that. Sometimes I plan my illustrations very carefully, but in this case I really just winged it, drawing it straight on the the illustration board instead of working and reworking the design on tracing paper. I also really didn't have a clear idea of what colors I wanted to use, and so I made it up as I went along. I'm definitely trying to find the right balance between planning carefully and being spontaneous.