22nd World Wide Sketchcrawl…

What is it? Similar to a bar crawl—but without the alcohol—the SketchCrawl is the coming together of artists all around the world to take a day out and sketch whatever they find interesting. Then, everyone posts their sketches on the SketchCrawl website. I find it so interesting to see people from all over the world sharing their artwork. It makes me forget that there are borders in this world and reinforces that every culture is made up of people, not ideals.

If you are interested in going, check out this link: SketchCrawl.

Handmade Scrapbook Cards…

A reader of mine suggested that I add a section to my website to sell hand-made scrapbook cards. Here are a few samples of cards that I have made in the past. I would sell them as an 8-pack for $25 +S & H. I have also put a permanent link in the right hand corner to my scrapbook card slide show.

Tucson Festival of Books…

This weekend our little town hosted the Tucson Festival of Books. I volunteered for duty on Saturday and helped direct traffic to different venues on the U of A campus. As a book illustrator I felt this was a great learning experience for me. There were a number of different book publishers booths available for questioning and of course I offered my business card.

Overall I'm glad that I was part of this great event. As a volunteer I heard nothing but positive reviews about the authors, the event itself and also the way it was coordinated.

Monday Artday…

This week’s challenge is Mad Tea Party, otherwise known as the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. I decided to put a spin on this and do it as characters from The Wizard of Oz.

Charlie the Choo Choo: A Day At Work

What’s New This Week…

I’m almost finished with the illustrations for my most current children’s book.* I was pretty pleased with the way this page turned out and am especially fond of the filtered light in the shop. Hope you all like it!

*I should note, I’m illustrating the book but did not author it.



Original done in pencil on paper, scanned then drawn in Adobe Illustrator.

What’s New This Week…

I’m working on a new children’s book—another one about trains. I can only show a little snippet of it so far. Here is the preliminary cover.



I’m using a much more simple illustration style—simple in that I am not using brush strokes or a painterly effect. It still takes me about 8-10 hours to draw and color each page. Plus I keep seeing things I want to change.

I also keep in mind that I don’t want any of my trains to ever look like Thomas or The Little Blue Engine. I also need to make my wheels appear to be moving faster … maybe a little blur is needed.