'After ALA'

Here's a work-in-progress with an apt title that might be 'After ALA'. The dazed attendee staggers away discombobulated from sensory overload. Lol!

It was fun to see all the new styles of artwork that are being selected...

ALA - Midwinter

No, that's not the halftime concession stand at the Superbowl... that's the lobby on a quiet morning at ALA-mid-winter.

Now I know why I work at home alone in slippers. I'm glad I steeled myself for rejection ahead of time... it came in handy. It's an uphill battle when you're trying to foist yourself off as a creator of picture books in the middle of the clearance sale at Macys. I did have two or three books on the racks there, if you dug deep enough you might have seen them.

So many books... so many middle-men! I still wonder what all those guys in suits do? We lowly authors just create books from the blank page.

Whew! Too much stuff! I had to get back to my quiet cafe to relax.

New Art from Ladybug

I was quite pleased with how this new technique came out in print from Ladybug magazine. What I like is how it has both detail and looseness - implied action and precision.

Digital art challenges one with both technical and artistic thinking. I'm finally starting to get the hang of it.

Obsolete - not obsolete

I was looking around my studio and noticed all the things that have gone obsolete... and all the things that are not obsolete.

Telephone: obsolete
Tape Player: obsolete
Cassette tape: obsolete
Answering machine: obsolete
Fax machine: obsolete
Acrylic paints: semi-obsolete
Giant photoshop manual: obsolete
Children's books: hopefully not obsolete

FedEx: obsolete

Pencil: Not obsolete
20 year old cardboard light box : Not obsolete

Imagination: brand new every morning

And the color version... voila!

Yesterday's sketch is today's color version. I can't imagine not coloring with photoshop. I'm afraid my ancient acrylics of yore will linger until a different future.

No gators were injured in the creation of this graphic image.

Wrestling with a new project...

Wrestling with a new project... and as always I like the rough sketchy line more than the line that is legible. I'm experimenting to find a way to combine the actual initial rough sketches with the finish

Indesign really helps with changing everything 25 times. Maybe that's all an artist is... 100% indecision with the certain knowledge that what they're looking for actually exists somewhere. Somewhere else.

A drawing from memory...

I was feeling inspired by a trip out to the art museum... so I did this sketch of a memorable scene on my bus trip yesterday. A woman with a baby who was fast asleep stood through the whole trip.

I used to sketch on subways in Art School in NYC. I'd never do that now... so I work from memory instead. In his book 'John Sloan on Painting and Drawing' I was amazed to find out that John Sloan did most of his paintings from memory!