My Friend Jake...

... is selling prints of his illustrations to help with the relief effort in Japan.  More info on his blog.

Lost Monster #1 - The Experiment

A few days back I was inspired by this cool post on this great blog.  And I wanted to do something similar.  So I made this guy:

Now I need to find a good place to hide him.  I really hope he finds a good home and I get the picture back.  If this works then I want to do it again.  (And yes, that is my foot.)

Thanks for the inspiration Isaac, Gracie, Lily, Elijah and Aaron Zenz.  You folks rock (get it?)

On the Subject of Hippos Riding Bicycles

Yesterday's Picture Book Marathon idea/sketch was based on a favor that I asked of some friends a couple of weeks back.  Let me explain.

When I go to schools and talk to kids about writing and illustrating stories one of the things that I like to talk about is how, with stories, there is always more than one right answer.  To demonstrate this I gave this assignment out to some folks: Draw a picture that has a hippo on a bike (or a tricycle or a unicycle.)

This is what I got in return:

from Michelle Weaver:

from Jed Henry:

from Jake Wyatt:

from Anthony Holden:

I have the best art friends.

Animal Math - New Creative Writing Prompt for C.K.C.

Let's get to it.

Yeah, I like animals doing silly things.  When I'm stuck for something interesting to draw or write I usually try to take something normal and add something unusual to change it up.  Interesting stories often follow.

I find this prompt to be especially fun on the illustration side of things.

For an example of this type of story come to fruition, check out David Shannon's "Duck on a Bike." It's super fun.  And I LOVE David Shannon's illustrations.

Will Strong Recommends - Bookie Woogie

A blog you should know about:  http://bookiewoogie.blogspot.com/

The Bookie Woogie blog is one of the most clued in reviewers of children's lit around.  Why is that?  Because the reviews are done by actual children (with some assistance from their illustrator father.)  Isaac, Gracie, Lily and Elijah (assisted by Aaron Zenz) post conversational reviews that give some fantastic insight into what kids really like in their books.

If you create stories or illustrations for children I highly recommend their site.

Also check out Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty for some fantastic art created by these kids.  Super creative and fun stuff there.  Honestly it's one of my very favorite blogs.

Wow, Thanks Folks

Yesterday I looked at my ClustrMap (see the bottom right corner of my blog) and I noticed something awesome!

Yup, I got the big dot.  Woot!  So, thanks to all you folks in Utah for reading my blog.  And thanks to all of you other folks out there as well.  Somebody out there in the UK is paying attention.

If it weren't for the readers then I wouldn't have any reason to post.  You're pretty much why I do this.  So, um any requests?  I guess?

Franken-Stuff

Because monsters seem to be the theme of my blog for the last few posts, here are some more.  I've decided to call them Franken-Stuffs.  (Get it?  Cause they're stuffed.  And they're monsters.  And it's funny ... right?)

This guy's name is Brutus.

Trapazoid Man is named Cantaloupe:

Queazy Quinn doesn't feel well:

Zig and Zag (though I'm not sure which is which):

One big happy family:

I've had so much fun making these monsters and I've learned a lot about sewing as I made them.  Everybody keeps telling me that I should sell these guys but it's just not cost effective to sit and sew these guys all day.  What I am going to do though is try and get some sewing patterns together and sell those online (probably on Etsy or something.)  So if you want one of these Franken-Stuffs for your very own, keep your eyes peeled.  The patterns will be available soon (and by soon I mean about a month or two.)

Just curious, which pattern do you folks think I should start with?

Drawing and Storytelling

I just posted a great video of Pascal Campion talking about drawing and storytelling on another blog I contribute to and I'm too lazy to post it again here.  But I do think the video is good enough to point out to you folks.  See?  I do care.

See the video here, at the Brotique Blog.  (Brotique = my writing critique group.)

Study of a Friend's Work

It turn's out that I know a lot of really talented artists.  I figure that I've got a lot to learn from a lot of talented people.  And so, I do (or at least I try.)  I did a study of this painting by Guy Francis.

I think it turned out okay.  Here's to learning.

New Miyazaki Movie!

The New Miyazaki film is an EarthSea story.  If you don't know the books and you are a fan of fantasy then you should check them out.  Really fun and sophisticated fantasy, not just a bunch of character class D&D stuff.

See the trailer here: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/disney/talesfromearthsea/

Banjo Pig

My Friend Guy Francis runs this great blog with his friend Stacy Curtis.  It's called Dueling Banjo Pigs.  It's pretty much as it sounds.  I made a banjo pig and it made it on the blog.  Fun times.  Check it out.  Join in the duel if you want.

Arnold Friberg Dies at Age 96

An amazing artist passed away yesterday.  His paintings of scenes from the Book of Mormon were a part of my life since before I can even remember.  According to my History of Illustration course at BYU, not only was he an amazing painter, he was also a really good person.  A lot of really fantastic painters seem to have totally unbalanced home lives, but Friberg was a saint (ha ha, get it?)  Anyhow, here's a few of his works.  Great stuff.

My friend Greg Newbold has a great post on his blog about Friberg.  Check it out.