White elephants

Thanksgiving

Sketchbook/Sherbet

"Who are these people?" you may ask... Let me be clear. Liam is my brother. He's the one I gave a sketchbook to. Also Brice is my brother. Gwynnie is one of his daughters, so she's my niece. Jesse is also a brother to us but he's not in this post. Neither is Beth. But Beth isn't a brother anyway. Neither is she a niece. So in short, you probably just need to know that the people in this post are some my relatives.

Liam drew his version of receiving the sketchbook. I'll see if I can get him to scan it and send it to me.

Stone age smart car

This doodle was created a little backwards... for me anyway. I started out in Adobe Illustrator and finished up in Photoshop. That's the reverse of my normal process. But I had an Illustrator inking craving after watching Sherm Cohen ink Sponge Bob (via Ingvard the Terrible's Facebook page). Who needs vectors anyway? Not Sherm Cohen, that's who.

IF: afterwards

It's important to refuel within 30 minutes after a good workout.

 

Santa's chair

It's that time of year again. When Santa starts sitting in recliners and getting excited about clothing sales. You might not see him until the end of the month but don't worry, he's already hard at work.

As you can see, he likes the quality furniture at Cox Furnishings... either that or he had too much of the Nog. I might have to adjust his eyes a little but I thought he looked like he really enjoys that chair.

SCBWI Conference

I went to the "Society of Children's book Writers and Illustrators - Carolinas" conference.
I found the sessions with Art Director Laurent Linn especially interesting. There was a workshop where he gave his first impressions of participant's illustrations as if he were receiving a postcard from us in his office. Some of it confirmed confidence in my own critical observation skills while many things he said were enlightening. It was good to know that he, and I'm sure all art directors, have a specific guidelines for what they are looking for and won't throw out my postcard because they are feeling a little grumpy that day.
My illustration he liked, complimented it's humorous quality and gave some constructive advice... but in the end, thought that my style may be too mass-market for what he is publishing at this time (mass-market vs. literary being another topic discussed at the conference).

By the way, I felt a little ignorant sitting at a table with a bunch of Young Adult fiction writers. But there's no shame in never having read Holes right?