Looking forward to when my next picture book comes out. Here's a glance at the cover. The Curvy Tree is written by the amazingly talented Chris Colfer. It's actually a story from within his Land of Stories series. Pretty fun stuff!

Yesterday I was reminded by a friend that I haven't posted in, oh, forever. He was right! Time flies when your busy.

Here's a jacket illo I did for the third Janitors Book by Tyler Whitesides. :)  

Later!

Shadow Mountain has game (pun totally intended). The new book in Brandon Mull's Candy Shop War series comes with more than just an incredible story and sweat cover art (if I do say so myself), inside you'll find a pretty awesome game. Here's a link to explain more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLtQmqv4RAo

Also, check out the worlds biggest marshmallow fight too!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4YeTwcUHvE

It was a super big privilege to work with Brandon Mull and Shadow Mountain again on our new picture book, Pingo and the Playground Bully. It's been out for about a month and getting some great reviews. Check it out! http://brandonmull.com/site/pingo-books

My blog told me this morning that if I didn't post something soon it would leave me. Can't have that. So the something is a portrait from a photo. I do a lot of stylized work, that is was really relaxing having all the info that I wanted right there in front of me to pick and choose from. Enjoy. :)

One of the wonderful art directors I work with sent me a note and this link a week ago. It looks like Pirates of the Sea! was given an honor award by Minnesota State University Moorhead. Mega or modest, it's always a great feeling to see your work appreciated. Thanks to those took a chance on Cap'n Bones and his swashbuckling pirate crew!

Every so often I get a chance to do book interior illustrations. I love doing them. True, from a money standpoint they are not all that profitable, but there is something about a B&W small spot piece of artwork that is so enjoyable. Today, I'm working away on 6 interiors for the new Janitors book by Tyler Whitesides, but I've attached some here that I recently did for The Land of Stories. Hope you like them!

Just thought I would give a shout out to Canyon Vista Elementary, and say "thanks for having me!"  Two weeks ago, while on a trip to sunny southern California, I was privileged to do an assembly here. The students were great. They had insightful questions and welcomed me with lots of smiles. We talked about what they like to draw and how to use your imagination. It's alway a blast to visit young students and feed off their enthusiasm. I love doing these visits. I just need to figure out how to incorporate my ukulele playing somehow. :)

Thought I would post a cover that I recently did for a new series. It's called The Land of Stories, by Chris Colfer.  He is the actor in the popular show Glee. Unfortunately I've not seen the show( sorry Chris! ), but I've loved working on the artwork for this book.  Aside from the cover, I've done 25 interior black and white illos and am currently working on a super cool fold out map. The story introduces a great new twist on all of our favorite characters from storybook tales like Cinderella and Snow White.

Hope you like it!

Later!

Over the last few months (in between work) I've been searching for a character that I could create a series of stories around. And I think I've finally found one . . . He is not any particular animal, but just a fun fuzzy, uh. . . creature.  His name is still up in the air, but these are a couple I'm toying with:

Hal-o. (That's Hal with an o added to the end.)
Bazooki. (I heard this on the radio and thought it was fun to say.)
Wynn (It sounds a little British to me, but hey maybe he's European)
Cory (A little too ordinary . . . but it could still work.)

If you have any ideas and want to chance that I might steal it, let me know what you think!

Later!