Quacks & Snacks

I was delighted to open up a new copy of High 5 and find my two page spread for 'Snacks & Quacks' in the August issue. The printing came out almost as I imagined it might.

In the real magazine there are lots of great little details. Every little duckling and bug's wing... all in colorful photoshop rendering.

It was all done in pencil line mostly... with some scanned splotches of real paint and scanned textures.

Another Kwik iPad tryout...

Yesterday I finally got the hang of Kwik so that for part of the afternoon I could actually control it! Believe me, nobody would be more surprised to see things actually work.

So now I'm halfway knowing what to do... but more importantly what NOT to do! Here's the new little three page app sample I did up. These are just cutout stand ins for the finish art. So the first stage is quite sketchy, exactly like making a book dummy.

It's lots of fun.

Like a kid in a candy store...

Dipping my toe into the world of e-book apps... what a bunch of fun! I felt a lot like a kid in the candy store after figuring out how Kwik and Corona work to transform a photoshop file into a living, breathing ebook app.

For me the motivating factor in wading through the technical mumbo-jumbo is the experience of seeing my artwork floating around on the screen like magic. And it turns out the technical side really isn't all that hard if you know already know how to work in photoshop.

More magic comes from the ease of transforming voices with Garageband. Adding in music and sound effects really has the bookmaker thinking outside the box.

Oh boy! Enter the world of animated ebook apps with sound and voiceovers. All done by moi!

The 12 Days of Christmas Book Blog

The 12 Days of Christmas Book Blog has been under construction. Blogger makes it easy to transform a regular blog into sort of a 'web-site blog' with the addition of tabs.

I find that some of the features still don't work on the 'new blogger'. For those one has to switch back to the 'old blogger'. But it's fun to improvise new designs and see how they turn out.

One simply cannot beat the pricing schedule of 'free'. I hope it will prove useful in lining up lots of school tours. It should be going 'live' before too long. Only 164 shopping days left until Christmas!

Another step by step...

Yet another step by step animation from the studio.

These are so much fun I think I'll have to purchase a movie making software app to show some 'live action' film of drawing and clicking.

Read and Be Happy

I was pleased with how this image turned out.

Part of it is in line and part of it is without line, and flattened into just shapes. I always struggle between the two.

Maybe I'd be better off just going back to old fashioned pencil and watercolor... and old fashioned drawings. I never can decide.

Runaway Monkey...

I always liked this page. Maybe it's because of the red door... or maybe it's the yellow boots or the zookeeper's cap.

Or perhaps it's because of the happy faces of the story's completion.

It's from my recently illustrated book 'The Dancing Clock'.

Step by Step Cake Making

Just like making a cake... artistry is easily accomplished with a step by step method.

I find it's the singing of 'Happy Birthday!' that's the hard part. Have you ever noticed how hard it is to hit the right note from the start?

But even with the discordant singing, there are few sounds likely to elicit sentiment as 'Happy Birthday', even when warbled and off key.

'The Dancing Clock' - Color-Texture - Line

I find there are few things nicer than escaping into a picturebook... especially a picturebook you yourself have made. So I indulged myself and opened the box on the porch.


I was delighted, I have to say... once again the printed digital book seemed to fulfill every expectation. In fact I might even go so far as to say my expectations were exceeded. And that's a good thing.

While creating the illustrations to 'The Dancing Clock' I was curious how the retro-1950's effects might come out in print.

I have this thing about a crumbling brushed line that fades away into textures. I also have this thing about textures... and I daresay, I think they both worked.

I used a brush pen on watercolor paper for the lines... along with digital finishing, of course.

Because the dimensions of this book were large, it is a pleasure to dive into details with the finished book. That's one thing an e-book will never be able to do. And it has a nice booky smell... something no e-book will ever accomplish.

I'm also pleased with how the retro 1950's style turned out... I think the casual brushed line and loose bright colors and patterns came out with a terrific effect.

Thanks, Tiger Tales!

A life in print...

Goodbye Kitty

My jellicle kitty meowed her last today. She was the best cat ever, as they say. She had a fabulous long life, so it came as no surprise.

She was a true gift to us all since she was our family cat. We chose her from the pet store 19 years ago and I remember it like yesterday. My boys were in just starting school so there was a lot of life we shared. School trips, pet's day, birthday parties, christmas trees and everyday life.

She had a great life... sharing summer gardens and Halloween nights. She never failed to amuse us hopping down snowy steps on a winter morning. Like any cat, she always had to be in the middle of every thing... when she wasn't busy sleeping.

She was deaf for the last 4 years, but she coped with that by just meowing louder. She was active up until today, in fact... a remarkable life.

Over the years I painted her picture in books and magazines. When I think about how long she's been in our family it about makes me cry. All the things lost to time.

Now she's fast asleep beneath a big lovely rock in the back garden where she liked to curl up on hot summer afternoons.

I'll have to write up some of the stories she inspired from our life together.

My very first all digital book..

My very first all digital book... 'The Smile Shop', written by Joy Cowley. I did it way back in 1999, on my Powercomputing Mac clone. I think it had a 2 GB HDD.

I think its got some nice pages and the design was fun. I remember how I first drew the shapes on paper, then scanned and converted it into an Illustrator vector file. Then finished it in Photoshop.

The colors still look deep and fresh... probably the lack of any line helps. I think I sent it in on a Iomega zip disk.