Inking mania!

Hey all!
Quick check in: I'm two pages away from finishing part one of my graphic novel! I have some final inking and some last edits to make, the layout begins! Phew!

Weekend sketching

Howdy folks!

This weekend has been jam packed with inspiration and drawing! Two of my favorite things. First it started off with attending Short Run. The Seattle small press show featuring mostly comics and some zines. I was there for over four hours and it wasn't enough time to see it all. I love making comics and have had a long break from making minis due to trying to devote all my comics time to my graphic novel. But I was sooooo inspired to get back into making smaller one off comics that I've got some big ideas hat I know I won't be able to shelf for long. My goal for 2013 is to have a table at Short Run with a some new comics and perhaps even segments from my graphic novel. I'm thrilled. I just need to find about 20 more hours a week to get all my stuff done! No problem though, right?

I've also been making some preliminary sketches for an illustration I'm submitting for the Tomie dePaola competition through SCBWI. This award includes a full paid trip and entrance to the winter conference in New York. I REALLLLLLLY want to go to this and would be so honored to win the award. So I'm going to try very hard to submit the best illustration possible. 

Lastly, I've been working on another picture book concept. I'm in the early stages of re-writes and thumbnails, but it feels good to be writing stories that really connect to my visual language, which I've had trouble doing in the past. I'll post more on that as it comes but I will just say this, it involves my two favorite badger brothers Tic and Tac!

I know all of this sounds like a lot, but I just can't pass up inspired ideas when they present themselves to me. I also think adding more fun and unrestricted comics work is just what I need to help with my storytelling and illustration with my picture books as well as my graphic novel. 

So much to do! But so excited to do it all!

Winter Slow Down vs. 2012 ramp up!

Hey everyone!
Just wanted to quickly check in! It's been a couple of weeks since my last post. The holidays were in full effect and I went out of town. I did in fact get a chance to do some drawing over the break which is good, but I hadn't gotten to upload anything while I was gone. I did keep up with my Illustration Friday work but did not post it.That said, as the new year is upon up, there will be more to come this week! For the time being, here is a piece that I was commissioned to do for a Christmas present:

The gentleman saw some work of mine from our yeti show at work and commissioned me to draw his family at Yetis, something he said he always wanted to see. After some recent experience doing some portraits, I decided that the best thing to do if you are going to draw someone, is to meet them in person. It's so hard to hone in on the essence of someone that you've never met through a stiff photograph. So I went to the house of the family pretending that I was there working on a photography project about families- so the portrait was a surprise to everyone. The family was a hoot and I feel like I captured their essence and likeness pretty well!

I've also made a lot of headway with my graphic novel. I finished the first section. Now onto edits and part 2. I'll post some more pages soon so you can see another vignette from the book. Now I'm off to work on some illustrations for my first portfolio crit with the local chapter of SCBWI this coming week.
Thanks for looking!