Happy Holidays!

"Whether you've been naughty or nice, hope you have a great holiday!"

And that's my design for the 2008 Plastic Spoon Press official holiday card featuring, as usual, my good buddy, Mr. Mucho! I hope everyone who wanted one of these got one in the mail but, for those of you I missed, I apologize and hope that you too have great fun with family and friends this holiday season.

Another gift I'd like to impart to you is one of my favorite Christmas songs by Bruce Springsteen. No, it's not "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", "Merry Christmas, Baby", or even "Run Run Rudolph." Nope, this song is one I've only heard in one place and it's on a cassette tape given to me years ago of a live Springsteen show in Brixton, England circa 1996. I honestly don't even know the name of it but I can guess it's called "Pilgrim in the Temple of Love."

It's the story of Bruce Springsteen and the adventures he has one Christmas Eve at a little roadside strip joint. And, for those of you with delicate ears or kids within earshot, be warned, the Boss does curse. But, that makes it all the more fun.

So, here it is, one of my FAVORITE holiday songs. This one's for Sam! Enjoy and have a great holiday!

Edit: If the song doesn't pop up in the window you can find the original file HERE.

Now I'm Famous! LOL

Because you just haven't "made it" until someone names a sandwich after you!

Thank you, Einstein's Bagels!

Disc Golf

I've heard about disc golf (or frisbee golf) a lot but I've never had the pleasure of playing the game. I can only imagine the things I do bad on a golf course with a driver and a ball would only be amplified if I started chucking a frisbee around the links.

This was the last book of the four book contract I just finished. Putting this one together last was a tough one because I was battling exhaustion and almost every interior illustration of the book had at least four or more characters in it. But, as usual, I just hunkered down, worked every day, and got it done.

And, as for the finished results?

Ask me again in a week...I may be fully rested and ready to look at it with fresh eyes by then :)

Tennis Anyone?

Nothing too witty today with this one.

The biggest thing I remember about doing this book was how I could just NOT wrap my head around the way they keep score in tennis. I mean, the interior text explained scoring in such a way that a kid with a fourth grade reading level could figure it out and I still just couldn't get it. It didn't make illustrating the image with the scoreboard in the background easy but, thanks to Google image search, I found something I could copy so I hope it's right.

Any of you kids out there who see it and think it's wrong, you know where to email me :)

I spent most of the day putting together my greeting cards for this season. For some reason, addressing the envelopes, writing in each card, signing each card, sealing the envelopes, and putting the stamps and return address stickers on everything actually took longer than it did to illustrate the cards in the first place. But, I think it's all worth it. I think it beats a printed signature and sending the cards out to some service who does all the work for me. This way, every card has a little love in each one.

I just wish it didn't take so long. Stupid love...

Run, Rabbit, Run - Part 2

As promised yesterday, here was my initial idea for the cover of the Jake Maddox Track book.

I love the idea of the kid running straight at the viewer, a big grin on his face, happy to be doing the one thing in life he really loves, running. I really would have loved to have seen how this would have turned out as a finished inked and colored cover but it just wasn't in the cards. When my art director suggested I pull one of the images from the interior and color it to make that the cover, I jumped at the chance because, honestly, it saved me doing a bit of work. At the time I'm sure I was juggling multiple thing so saving a few hours of art table time seemed like a good idea.

But, I still like this idea.

All the more because, living in Boulder, I see a LOT of people running and jogging and walking for exercise. And never, not once, have I ever seen one person who is running for exercise smiling.

Not one single time.

So, I like the idea of a kid who is smiling and running. Living life doing what he loves in a care free way. It just shows what kind of fantasy land my head lives in.

Run, Rabbit, Run!

You know it's been really cold when you wake up in the morning, there is still snow on the ground, but you're just REALLY happy that the ice on the INSIDE of your windows is gone. Yeah, that's how cold it's been. I think we dropped to minus eight last night so a day of weather in the twenties has been really nice. At least when I walk outside now I don't feel like Old Man Winter is trying to steal the breath out of my lungs.

I'm on day two of my "almost taking some time off" week. Meaning that I'm taking it easy, going to the movies and watching some hockey, but still doing thumbnails and some prep work for the NASCAR books that are looming in the near future. I even went to Target today and bought myself a little die-cast NASCAR race car for reference. At least that's what I'll tell the government when I do my taxes. I'll conveniently leave off the fact that I sat on the floor going "vroom vroom" with it as soon as I got it out of the box. We'll keep that to ourselves.

Todays cover was for a children's book about a young kid who is forced to join the school's track team after water balloon soaking the team's older captain. Instead of some high school fist justice, he offers to let our hero come onto the team and use his speed for a good purpose. Of course, the two kids become friends and the hero ends up loving his new sport.

This is actually the second idea for the cover I had. My first idea had our hero running straight at the camera but that idea was shot down and lost out to the more traditional shot from the side. I'll have to dig up that initial sketch so you can compare the two and decided for yourself which one you like better.

Have a happy hump-day! The week is half over and next week is holiday fun!

Done and Done!

Today I put the finishing touches on the last book in the four book contract I had for the latest run of Jake Maddox books for Stone Arch Books.

So, I have a week or two off before I have to start the next ones, another four book contract by Jake Maddox that deals with Nascar Racing. Of course, two weeks off means I just have to do the next four covers for the books in that time and that is all. But, it does beat having to do a full book in two weeks time. So, I count it as having at least some time to get my head together. Which is a good thing.

Here is one of the book covers I just finished for a book called "Mr. Strike Out."

There's more to come in the next few days but, for now, I'm exhausted and am off to bed. Enjoy and have a great day!