Remembering An Old Friend

Just a little memory painting of the dog I used to have.
She was a sweetheart, I miss her.

Sketches

Ok.... finally decided to dust off the old scanner and get some sketchbook stuff digitized. These are all from costumed figure drawing sessions at Nick.

Bleh

 

Working late and decided to throw something up here....

Dominic the Dragon Feltie

I had fun signing books at the Immedium booth during Wondercon. Those who stopped by the booth got a glimpse of my Dominic the Dragon feltie who's been my mascot at the various book signing events I've been doing. He's probably my most ambitious felted critter -there were lots of little details involved, the eyes and claws are made of sculpey that I painted; again the photos aren't really doing him justice. He was challenging but alot of fun to make and he seems to be holding up pretty well through all the traveling and being pawed and petted by cute little kids (he did lose an eye a couple times). In related news the first printing of The Year of the Dragon is apparently almost sold out! Thanks so much to everyone who picked up a copy, the last few months have been a bit surreal for me but all the support and positive feedback has really meant alot.

Must.. Draw.. More... Horses....

...uggg, why isn't there more time in the day....

Pachyderm

Cheetahz

just practice, trying to loosen-up....

Flying Felted Bunny

Here's another needle felt critter I made -this one was a gift for my friend and is loosely based on her real live bunny. She was fun to make, the wings were the hardest, they have wire inside and are flexible. Sorry for the lousy pictures, it's really hard to photograph these with my not-so-great camera.Here's her real alter ego minus wings:And here's a little sketchy doodle I did to figure out how I was going to make her, yep drawing still comes in handy when making these.

The Year of the Dragon is now a Story App

Hey everybody!

The Year of the Dragon has been transformed into a really fun and super cute interactive animated 3D story app by the talented folks at Mobad Media. I saw a sneak preview of it awhile back and was very impressed by the work they put into it. When I was told an app for the book was being made I really had no idea what to expect and this went way beyond any expectations I had, they really did an awesome job. Please check out the preview video:



The app is currently available for the Ipad/Iphone and also Mac OS 10.7:

Ipad/Iphone App

Mac App Store

And thanks so much again for all your support!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

The Year of the Dragon is now available, yay!

I recently received my copies and it was very exciting to finally see my first children's book in print!

To anyone interested in purchasing a copy you can find it over at Immedium's website here or click the image above.

And a big thank you in advance to all who do pick up a copy-your support is greatly appreciated and I hope you enjoy the book!

Happy 2012!

Feeling Crafty

So recently I've become quite obsessed with needle-felting. This is Charley, he was my first attempt and I had so much fun making him that I couldn't wait to make more. He's about 13 inches long from tail tip to nose. I pretty much taught myself using a few tutorials online and also stabbing my fingers a bunch of times - For those who aren't familiar, needle-felting involves using a special barbed (and very sharp) needle to shape and adhere raw wool fibers together. I really enjoy the process of working with the raw wool. It's a new and refreshingly welcome challenge that I've found has combined my interest in sculpting and knitting into something I absolutely love. It's also a nice break from hours spent staring at a computer screen...

Hatching Soon!

The children's book I illustrated, The Year of the Dragon should be released soon. This is another character promo piece I did of young Dominic the dragon with his proud parents. Here's the rough drawing too and also the rough of the lineup I posted awhile back, I had fun drawing and painting these.

FlapMutts

Here are some of the silly looking dogs I did for the same episode of "Flapjack" that featured all the cats:

FlapCats

Some more stuff from my time on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack.
These are all from the episode called "Who Let the Cats Out of the Old Bag's House?" which is probably my favorite episode I was assigned--I got to draw a ton of cats : ) The story involves Flapjack accidentally releasing all the cats from the crazy cat lady's house and they run amok in Stormalong. There also are a bunch of dogs in this episode which I'll try to share in another post.
Many of these felines were based on real kitties that my art director has and I also snuck my own crazy cat in this episode:

Sable Antelope

Just a practice painting for fun.

Announcement!

First off I want to thank anyone who actually still visits this blog, I know it has suffered from a lack of posts lately but I have had a very good explanation for my long absence which I am excited to finally share (since it's starting to appear elsewhere on the web I figured it was time).....

For the past several months I have been extremely busy working hard on what will be my first published children's book.
I was very honored to have the opportunity to work alongside the wonderful Oliver Chin illustrating the next installment of his Chinese Zodiac series "The Year of the Dragon". Children's books have always been a passion of mine which I am excited to have the chance to finally pursue and I've really had alot of fun through this process. For those interested the book should be available in time for the 2012 New Year.
I'll be sharing more info in the coming months and hopefully updating this blog more frequently again. In the meantime I've included a sneak peak of the character lineup and some of the early rough character sketches I did (the final designs changed slightly).

Also please check out the earlier installments of the series that were illustrated by the talented Justin Roth and Miah Alcorn and other books by Immedium, the publisher. Immedium is dedicated to providing fun and engaging books for children and really champions alot of wonderful artists, many of whom also work in the animation industry. Please visit their site: www.immedium.com
And if you happen to be in the San Francisco area this weekend (Sep. 17th-18th) head on over to Treasure Island for the San Francisco Dragon Boat Festival where you might find a super special limited edition promo t-shirt for the book featuring one of the illustrations.

Lots of Kids...

...some observational sketches done over the past year at various locations.