Figure Drawing...

From today's lunchtime session at Nick:

Suzie the Snake Feltie

She's about 3 feet long and was super fun to make:

 

Suzie had a blast sharing her story and meeting kids at the Riverside LunarFest, Bowers Museum, Kidspace Children's Museum and the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena with me recently.

Below are pics from her adventures at the Huntington, she's very photogenic!

The Year of the Dragon's Not Over Yet...

Lily and Suzie encounter a fresh cast of zodiac animals in The Year of the Snake including this She-Dragon.......is she a friend or foe?

A Scaly New Friend

Lily's grandparents at first aren't so pleased when she brings home her new friend Suzie the Snake but they'll soon find out this serpent is special. 

Rough lineup from Year of the Snake.

Happy New Year!

Suzie the Snake, her pal Lily, and her parents are excited for the new year!
Another character study from Year of the Snake.

Now Available!

Hey there everybody!
Well, this year sure flew by at dragon speed but I want to announce the release of the next installment of the Tales from the Chinese Zodiac series, The Year of the Snake that I once again had the privilege to illustrate.  Just in time for the the holidays, this story stars Suzie the snake and her human pal Lily along with a new cast of animal characters.  The final cover is above and I included a few of my early development sketches below.
It was challenging to design a snake who would be both appealing and lovable (and also a girl )-since snakes lack in limbs there wasn't much to work with when designing her which was part of the challenge (I had to think up other ways to make her unique such as through color and pattern) Snakes aren't creatures I've spent much time drawing in general but I've come to appreciate them more while working on this book-they really are fascinating critters and I hope kids who read the book will discover that snakes are awesome too.  Working alongside author Oliver Chin once again I had a lot of fun illustrating this book and I'll be doing some book signing/reading events in the upcoming months of 2013.  Please head over to the Immedium website for more info here.  Thanks!

Marvelous Mythical Creatures

Dug up some more zany, weird stuff from my Flapjack days....These gals were fun though not the most attractive of creatures:

More sillyness:

Blogger sure is wonky to use lately....*sigh*