Seeing my name at the beginning of a TV show was pretty cool although I really didn't do anything but the original concept. Kristine Klohk and the production team at CCI Entertainment did an awesome job. I hope a lot of kids will have fun with the show.
The White House Book spread I did with all of the presidents had a vacant spot for the 44th one. I'm hoping to get my publisher to print up these stickers as a promo for the book.
A little art I am doing for my friend Simon who wrote a book about sound mixing.
It's coming! "Turbo Dogs", the newly named cartoon based on the too slow sounding book "Racer Dogs" will be premiering on October 3rd & 4th. It's a Friday afternoon and Saturday morning and will be on NBC. It's looking pretty cool. They are giving me sneak peaks. I haven't seen it all put together yet (music, sound effects, finished 3-d effects) but so far it looks fun. More coming as permitted.
This is the back cover of Do You Want To Play, I think it may be my favorite image in the book.
These spreads are from an older book called Do You Want To Play. It is in a collage, all done the old-fashioned way of Exacto knives and matt medium. It's a style I would like to return to some day.
Biggie is a jazz lover, reluctant soccer player and a stamp collector. A famous old rare stamp plays a role in the story. A sheet of stamps were accidently printed with the central image upside-down. It is the rarest of American stamps. I had to update it a little to fit into Biggie's modern sensibilities.
I got my first copy of "Big Kicks today. It's hard to describe fun of seeing a book for the first time.
Biggie is a musician and has lots of instruments which are always fun to draw. He also has a mod sense of decorating.
here is another set of rough and finishes for Big Kicks. My editor suggested that I lose the TV. The book world is a little insecure about competition.
All of the presidents are shown along with an interesting White House related fact. Nixon wanted to add a little more pomp to the White House security staff and had new uniforms made. They were too silly and were soon given to a marching band in Iowa.
Here are a few more glimpses at the White House project I worked on. Candlewick, the very cool publisher of the book, has decided to use my spread as a poster promoting the book.
Here are some early sketches of Biggie. In the early drafts he was a small appliance repairperson.
Originally Biggie was about baseball. Baseball was more a part of my childhood, but soccer works better for the way the story plays out. After watching my kids play soccer for years I've come to really love the sport and wish I could have played it when I was a kid. Although I know that I'd be just about as good at soccer as I was at baseball. I'm a somewhat bigger guy. I was always picked early the first time we played a sport. The second time we played, I was always picked last.
Another book out this fall which I had a little part in. Our White House is a big group project for the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance. The cover says it was created renowned authors and illustrators. There are a lot of big time creators who contributed to the book. I think they let me in because I was the only one foolish enough to try and draw a portrait of every president.
This fall a new book called 'Big Kicks" will be coming out. It's a somewhat autobiographical tale about a big bear who has trouble living up to expectations.
I'm back, been stupid busy lately. I've got so much coming up. A new book will be out this fall, another in the spring. (more about those later) Racerdogs is in production. The day job is busy. Blogging kept falling to the bottom of the priority list.
