That's the way the cookie crumbles

Well it's a holiday day late and a dollar short - but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

But not to worry - there's lots more seasons coming up after this one.  I myself have just about reached my limit on pumpkin and pecan pies - lol!

Just sketching away...

Just sketching away on the next cover design... this one with a snowy wintertime setting.

I was spinning down the hill on my bike when it occurred to me that I should change a color from green to lilac. But the funny thing is when I got back home and tried it, it was exactly what it needed. I like when that happens.

A Good Night's Sleep

One reason I liked this story so much was probably because I wished I could hibernate.

Counting sheep doesn't always work.

Tea with a friend is helpful.

But counting bears is a novel approach.  Anytime I have an illustration with bears, sheep and a tea party I'm happy to not be hibernating.

Some things I saw in Denver...

Snow and lots of sunshine...

The view of the Rockies is always good...

A little history - one of the oldest houses in Denver. Molly Brown stayed there once.

Flying over the Tetons is always amazing.

Autumnal Step by Step

Hooray for Fall!

My idiot's guide to making trees... I was riding my bike when an idea for painting leaves struck me - since what I had been doing wasn't working. So when I got home I tried it out and it worked.  That's why I find digital art to be so intriguing - science and art are combined.

Autumn Colors...

Only God can make a tree... but photoshop works for fools like me.  I'm glad I didn't have to paint every leaf.

I like how the detail works even with closeups.

Sketching away... if at first you don't succeed - sketch, sketch, sketch again.

I ink, therefore I am.

I ink, therefore I am.  

Inking is sort of like skiing - fun and a little dangerous with a sense of movement... or something like that. Descartes never did any skiing.

Wow... a real bookstore!

Maybe you've listened to me complain how my neighborhood hasn't had a single bookstore in 5 years - even though it's named 'University Village'. Well things are changing... and today there's a new bookstore at last. I can scarcely wait to go in and look around. I even have a children's book that I did with Two Lions - so I wonder if it'll be on the shelves? Wow... having books on shelves... there's a novel concept!

http://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/amazon-opens-first-bricks-and-mortar-bookstore-at-u-village/

One Halloween's Night...

With a creak the barn doors open wide.

Scarecrow held up his lantern and cried

This is our night of Jokes and Jitters!

Tonight’s the night to pretend ourselves silly...

Pigs can be pirates and hogs can be frilly!

The washboard started thumping loud.

The owls were hooting and cats meowed.

Bessie the cow got dressed in a gown

with fancy buttons up and down.

Halloween is reinventing yourself...

It's almost Halloween... as seen in this old art file. Halloween is possibly every person's favorite holiday, because we get to reinvent ourselves for a day. I've been reinventing my Mac Pro so now, like Halloween, my computer gets to be something new. 

Having installed a new SSD boot drive, a 2 TB HDD and 12 G of memory it feels like something else entirely. I've been re-learning the basics of adding new disks and linking and disk managing.  Not too hard to do.

So happily Photoshop & the Creative Suite now have a whole new lease on life.  No more waiting 2 minutes for that Indesign file to finally open.  Now it's more like 8 seconds to start the program and open the file. That's more like it.

It must be Fall!

It must be Fall! It's fun to be doing a book in tandem with the actual seasons - but then it's also fun thinking ahead to next Spring. I guess with children's publishing the seasons are often tied into the subject matter.  

Life on the farm...

This was fun - I'd never painted a potato field before this.

 

 I did work on a Maryland tobacco farm once when I lived in Washington D.C.

  and in a bull barn and a dairy barn when I lived in Manhattan Kansas...

  which was unusual for a city mouse like me.