Windows Phone 7 game

Jesse Liberty wrote up a review/tutorial of the Bird Hunt game that Jeff Paries wrote. The graphics for the game were done by yours truly. Quack-quack.

Doodle

Yesterday I was sitting at the back of the church listening to the girls choir and sketching. My buddy Riley came in, and wanted to see what I was working on. So I showed him the drawings I'd done yesterday for the new book project. He asked me about shading, and so I was showing him how to do it. I drew this little guy as an example and he took on a life of his own. Not content to stay on the 2D page, Doodle Man is trying to lift himself off the page. I realized it had been ages since I just drew something for the fun of it, not to meet a deadline. I wasn't really bummed out about it though, because I love what I do, and I am thankful for that every day.

Sketchbooks

The search continues for a new sketchbook. I've used the Canson sketch journal for almost 10 years, it was perfect, 80 lbs. paper with a slightly creamy tone, which kept the glare down when working out of doors, hard bound for durability and comfort of use (I detest spiral bound). Unfortunately the good folks at Canson decided to stop making them.


I'm currently using a Travelogue made by Hand Book. It's hard bound and durable, and has heavy paper, but it's too small for the work I do, and the paper isn't of the best quality. I'm also trying an oversized Canson spiral bound Mixed Media pad with 90lbs. paper. My idea was to remove the sheets as I finish them, scan them for color work, then pile the pages up and have them bound eventually. We'll see how or if that works.



I took this snapshot of the sunrise this morning. It was a very misty-foggy morning here in Yacolt, which made for some interesting lighting. This is the least foggy of the pictures I took, but I really liked that sunburst. Enjoy, I hope you all have a great day.

I got mine!

I've been meaning to post this all week. I got my copy of "The Little Leaf" on Monday. I can't tell you how great it feels to be published, FINALLY!! I've really been blessed this year, and I'm truly thankful.

The next book (a sequel to The Searcher) is halfway done now, and looks to be my best work yet, if I do say so myself.

The Little Leaf

Hey everyone. It's been a while since I had time to blog, and here is the reason why: "The Little Leaf" is now availabe for purchase at Barnes & Noble. Written by Jairo Penaranda, and illustrated by Ryan Loghry, "The Little Leaf" is the story of one leaf's quest to stay on the tree to see Christmas! Click here to go to "The Little Leaf" page at Barnes & Noble.

A special day for an Author/Illustrator

Today I had the wonderful opportunity to give a couple of presentations at Our Lady of Lourdes here in Vancouver. One hour for the pre-school to third grade, and then another hour for the fourth to eighth grade. I talked about what it's like to be an illustrator, and showed them the children's books I've finished, The Searcher; and The Little Leaf by Jairo Penaranda; and the interactive website I built.

Then we did "How to Draw" to wind things up. It was sort of like career day, before a much larger group. They have a great school there, from what I saw. The faculty were warm and friendly, and the kids were very well behaved. I had a lot of fun, and enjoyed talking with the students. I was amazed at how many very good artists they have there.

A special thank you from me to my friends Kim Wellman who thought the whole thing up and suggested it; to Beth Anderson the librarian at Our Lady of Lourdes for setting everthing up; and to Iris Wellman and my wife Angela for encouraging me to do it.


Here are some very cute kids drawing away.


They were really having fun here, drawing an elephant.


I really liked this young man's drawing of Chip.



At the end I walked down to the door, and as they filed out the kids showed me what they had drawn. It was so cool, to see their creativity on the page. I'm very glad I did this. Several kids asked me to autograph their drawings for them, that was kind of nifty. I also signed many copies of The Searcher which the kids had purchased and brought in.


Some were too shy to show me their work, while one girl was so excited she could hardly stand it. She wants to be an illustrator when she grows up, and gave me a drawing of a unicorn, which is now proudly on display in my office.

Fartemis? Really?

My sister Karen pointed out the unfortunate logo design on this woman's blouse. The poster was seen in a Burgerville here in town, and was advertising the new pickled pepper cheese burger. I missed it at first, but as Karen points out, the archer is very poorly placed at the beginning of the word Artemis, and to make it worse, the archer looks like the letter F, making the name stitched on her chest look like... Fartemis.

We snickered, laughed, giggled, and then guffawed. ha-ha!

TheSearcher'sWorld!

Well, here's some big news for you. The big Flash website I've been working on for over a month now just went live. It's a companion website for my children's book The Searcher. There's still a lot of work to do, like adding a lot more downloads (there is currently only one, a very nifty maze). I'll also have to chase down some errors, and do some more technical stuff, but it's live if you would like to go check it out, click here. It's an interactive site, so be sure to mouse over everything, and click on all the characters, there are sounds, and animated snippets everywhere. As always, enjoy!

The Searcher news

There's a blog article over on HP Apps about how my book "The Searcher" was turned into a nifty little download. The hope is that those click throughs will result in a few book sales. Click here or on the book cover image to go check it out.

Jesus Walks On Water

Here is a little test I did today. I've been learning a lot in my Flash class, and have been itching to work on this project since last year when I did the first sketches. There's a lot to be done to this, including a walk cycle for Jesus, a boat, and the apostles, and a much better/richer painting for the background. Be sure to leave a comment on the blog here, and thank you for stopping by.

Click on the image to go see the animation, click on the "Jesus Walks On Water" title to leave a comment.

Update: Yesterday monring I went back and added a few more clouds, and a lightening strike to add to the stormy feel. It's my first "effect" in Flash, I think it came out okay.

Gus-bot exits stage left

This was done for my Flash class. The models were built by my teacher Gus Torres, hence the name Gus-bot. The assignment was to animate the robot leaving the screen, any way you want, just get him off the screen. So I decided to have the trolley from a previous assignment blast through, and knock him off the screen. Click on the image above to be taken to a page on my site where you can view the movie. Enjoy!

The Searcher

After a few years of hard work, many, many lessons learned, I am finally self-publishing "The Searcher". I wrote and illustrated this story. It's about a boy who loses his imagination, and spends the day tracking it down. It's an eclectic story, with many bizarre characters. I learned a lot about creating a book. Valuable lessons that will make my next book that much better. You can go see a preview of it here: blurb.com.

I'm also building a companion website for The Searcher at: TheSearchersWorld.com. Right now it's just a place holder image, with a link to the online store where you can purchase. But soon there will be pages with puzzles, mazes, coloring book pages you can download, and a book trailer to watch.