A CARING DEED FOR BECKY

Last year I illustrated a picture book titled, A Caring Deed For Becky for Featherweight Press. It was written by Susan Wigden.

I've spelled her name "Widgen" incorrectly at least a thousand times, but that's neither here nor there.

In any case, Susan is currently making the rounds with the book and I thought I'd post a video of a school reading she did earlier this year.

 Want a copy? Of course you do.

Get it through Amazon HERE and Barnes and Noble HERE.

WORK COMPLETED - ALBERT AT THE ZOO COVER

I polished off the cover for Albert at the Zoo early last week, and I'm pretty pleased with the results. It's a nice looking cover. I think it relates to the first book well.

This edition is going to have full color interiors, so I've got a lot of work ahead of me and a very little window in which to do it.

Ain't it always the case?

Steve

WORK IN PROGRESS - Forts Cover 2

I'll keep this short and sweet.

Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. Mine were nice and quiet. I made a dinner, put up some candles, and did the "romance" thing with the wife, so I have no complaints.

The above is a piece I'm working on featuring some characters from the novel I recently finished the first draft of. Like the book itself, it's a work in progress.

I like the colors - have high hopes for this one.

Steve

Shameless Shill

I just finished up the "From the Digital Files of Spacekid" calendar.

Give it a look by clicking the pic below, if you have time.

Alright, I'm outy. Two posts in one week is WAYYY over my quota.

Steve!

New Shirts Available!

Things have been annoyingly slow around here lately and quite honestly it's driving me a bit bonkers. (Yes, I understand that a grown man using the word "bonkers" is more than a little lame, but this is what happens when you're driven bonkers...you start typing bonkers.)

I recently opened up a Facebook profile, after being talked into it by my wife, and have already run into a few people from my past. Not even High School past...I'm talking Grade School here. It's a little strange meeting up with people during that period of my life, because quite honestly that period of my life kinda sucked. Sucked hard. Sucked harder than the film "Mortal Kombat 2: Annihilation" even. Still, it's interesting to see how much people have changed in the time that has passed.

The difference between a snot nosed thirteen year old kid and a thirty year old man is pretty drastic. (Well, for everyone other than me anyway.)

My wife has the day off work, so I suppose I should wrap this up. Recently I've been working on a series of T-shirt designs called "Spacekid." For the most part, I think they look pretty good. I have a little something else planned for the character, and it should be ready by the end of the month. Until then, I still have a few more shirt designs to unveil.

Steve!

Work Finished - Monster Train

I was finally able to finish this one up last week. Overall, I don't hate it. Is it the best in the series? Naw. Is it the worst, Naw. It's decent, and decent is good enough for me at the moment.

It was sort of an uneventful weekend for me. The wife and I didn't really do much. I've had to take a bit of a break from writing the book in order to get some other stuff done, but hopefully I'll be able to get back to it sometime this week. I'm at a point (somewhere in the middle of the story) that has me a bit stumped. I know how the story is going to end, but I've written myself into a bit of a corner and I'm having trouble getting over a hump. I had hoped that taking some time away from it would help me sort things out in my head, but it really hasn't worked.

Not exactly the most well thought out plan, I know.

I saw a really good movie called "Son of Rambow" over the weekend. A really sweet little story, well directed, funny, had everything really. It didn't change my life or anything, but without a doubt it was a good flick.

Steve~

A Busy Wednesday

It's going to be a very busy Wednesday for me. I've got a lot of work to do and will most likely spend the vast majority of my day hunched over my drawing table in my dark studio with the blinds drawn. I won't take a shower until well after lunch which will make my hair slimy, and my skin greasy, and my teeth still covered with that pasty morning tooth film for most of the day.

That's right...I'm a bridge troll.

I'd tell you to "ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS THREE" before you continue reading, but I'm much to busy to come up with three questions, so instead I'll just wave you through.

The above sketch is yet another rough from the very same recent project the last rough was produced for.

Steve

Another Monster Illustration Done

I was able to put the ol' kibosh on this piece in just a couple of days. It's strange how one piece can take me hour upon hour to finish off, while another (with pretty much the same amount of work) can get finished in two days.

Usually getting paid makes me speed things up a bit, but I didn't earn a single dollar for this one, so who knows?

Steve~

Work In Progress - Monster Train

I wasn't able to get a whole heck of a lot done on this illustration over the past week. Too much other stuff to do. I did manage to find some time to throw down a couple really basic colors though. I'm thinking it's going to look decent when finished. I'm going with some nice cool grays for the train which should look good.

That's about it.

As the kids would say, I'm outy.

Steve~

Work In Progress - Monster Train

It's been a surprisingly busy week, despite the fact that I didn't have that much work to do. Let me explain:

As I mentioned in my last post my wife is on spring break and has thus been home...EVERY DAY...ALL DAY! This means that she's got me moving furniture, shopping for furniture, cleaning closets, cleaning room, cleaning the yard, buying plants for the yard, planting plants in the yard, she's got me doing anything and everything that she can dream up.

Needless to say, I am excited for her to return to work.

I did manage to somehow find time to finish up my zudacomics submission, put the kibosh on a commission piece I'm doing, as well as get started on my next monsters chasing kid piece. (The above sketch)

The kid is on a train now and those darn monsters are still hot on his trail. Persistent jerks, aren't they?

Steve~

Work in Progress - Finished

FINISHED ANOTHER ONE!

Once again I defied the laws of time and space and managed to find an opportunity to complete the second piece in my monsters chasing a kid series. I think the next one I do is going to feature the gang on top of a train, though I haven't started work on it yet. As far as this snow one goes, I kinda like it. I think the kids outfit is good, and I like the composition for the most part.

Hope everyone enjoyed the Easter holiday. I spent it with my wife and her family, which always provides for more than one awkward moment, but then I guess that's what families are for, right? Awkward moments I mean.

The four year old daughter of my wife's cousin was asked to give me a hug by her mother but instead she took one look at me, put her hands over her eyes, then proceeded to yell at the top of her lungs "NO! SCARED! SCARED! SCARED!"

Everyone laughed.

You know...because apparently I'm scary.

Steve~

Work in Progress - Update

I was able to get a little work done on the above monster piece over the last couple days, though it required me to get little to no sleep in order to do it.

Sleep is a luxury anyway, right?

Right?

Or, wait, no...I'm thinking of an expensive car.

Silly me.

Steve~

NEW Work in Progress

I got started on the second in the little monsters chasing a kid series that I've been working on lately. I'll be turning it into a book eventually. I'm pretty excited about these. I like the way they're looking so far. (Which is pretty rare for me.) Usually, ten to fifteen seconds after finishing a piece, I find myself fighting the urge to run out to the garage, dig through the cats litter box, retrieve some poop, run back upstairs, then proceed to paint it a lovely shade of nutty brown.

Wow.

I got way too descriptive with that last bit, didn't I?

I should go.

Steve~

School Mascot Logo - Update

I don't really have anything new to put up today. Haven't had a chance to scan anything as I've been EXTREMELY busy doing a lot of product design (believe it or not) and a few other things. The school I did these logos for is more than likely not going to be using a chipmunk anymore.

I guess someone realized that it isn't a very imposing animal.

Anyway, I'll still be doing a logo for them, but it looks as of now that this one is scrapped, which is a shame because I kind of liked this little guy.

I gave him mean eyes...he looks imposing...no?

Steve~

Work In Progress - Finished

Well, I didn't think I would be able to even get an opportunity to work on it, and instead I managed to finish it!

If I weren't so inflexible and brittle-boned from years of being hunched over my drawing table I would pat myself on the back.

I'm actually pretty proud of the way this one turned out. I tried a sort of cross-hatch look and for the most part I'm pleased with the results. (For me to say that I'm pleased with anything that I've created is about as rare as Brittney Spears winning a "mother of the year" award.

Just a Sketch

I drew this on an airplane trip a while ago. Not much else to offer up today as I've got a lot of work to get done.

Which is a good thing.

And a bad thing.

Mostly a good thing though.

Steve~

New Book Idea

I recently came up with what I think is a pretty darn good idea for a picture book, grabbed by pencil, my sketch book, and the result was this.

"Giant hairy monster squashes a kid under his rancid, stinky foot."

Don't worry, that's not the title (though it might be a funny title). In fact, it's not even really what the book is about (sort of). I've still got some stuff to work out as it's more of a concept at this point rather than a story, but I like the concept, which is more than I can say for a lot of the stuff that comes from the black hole that doctors seem to think is my brain.

More to come on this later,

Steve~

School Mascot Logo

I was asked to come up with a mascot logo for a school being built in the area. The mascot is a chipmunk, which isn't exactly the most intimidating creature in the animal kingdom, but then again this is a primary school, and I suppose third graders aren't really that intimidating either so it all works out. I drew up a sort of realistic looking one, and a cartoonish looking one. Personally I'm leaning towards the cartoonish.

Steve~