Mr. Sizzlewinks

Dragon Cats: These guys popped into being through a bit of randomness while sketching and now I want to put them in everything.

The Spirit of Vengeance and Hirsute I & II, sketches

A seed that had been planted earlier in the year finally came to fruition and I moved on down to LA a few weeks ago.  It's probably the newness of the thing, but I'm pretty well inspired here so far, so I've been taking a few hours here and there to sketch at various coffee shops.  I tend to come up with better ideas when out of the house.  Maybe it's the lack of distraction (apart from when making side eyes at minor celebrities), and the inability to escape what I'm working on; it forces me to commit to putting something I'm happy with on a page instead of getting exasperated and throwing my sketchbook to the side the first time I draw an errant line.

ANYWAYS, my first week here, a friend took me to the Klimt exhibit at the Getty, which may be where the symbolism of the top piece comes from, to say nothing of the dramatic naked ladies.

jobby jobs

 

Haven't had much time to do any art for art's sake of late, as the fast-paced world of children's illustration has been keeping me on the edge of overwhelmed.  As such, I thought it was time to add some illustration onto this here blog.  It means I'll be updating more often, at least.

So, to begin, here's the cover image and a couple of spreads for a forthcoming "Musicians of Bremen Town" comic, published by Stone Arch Books.  I found that a surprising number of people had never heard of the story, a Grimm's fairy tale about a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster just trying to find some happiness and peace in this wicked world.  Spoiler alert: it all works out nicely for them in the end.

la guerre

I actually drew this up a couple months back to my own surprise. It started with a dream about this elephant's battle cry and grew into a full scene from there.  I got really into giving that wolf in the foreground a very bad day.  When I showed my friend, Kelly, over at Happiness Island, she felt really sorry for him, so I have promised her vengeance in a future piece.