The Unspeakable Horror that is Eggplant

My art class had been taking on some challenging assignments, so, to give them a break (as well as it being October) I had them draw monsters. I said they could make their creatures out of whatever they didn't like, or were scared of. For me, there is only one true monster - the villainous eggplant. Begone, chthonic evil!

Threadless contest - please vote!

Threadless is having a T-shirt contest for Monsters Inc. and Disney. This is my entry - if you like it, please go to http://beta.threadless.com/monstersinc/boo-23/ and vote. You'll have to sign up, if you haven't voted on Threadless before, but there's some really great art there so it's worth it just to browse. Any votes you could send my way would be greatly appreciated - thanks!

The Jungle Explorers - the book

I finished this book a while ago, and always wanted to put the whole thing up. And now I can! The blog won't let me post a multiple-page PDF, but another site, called Dribbble, will. Here is the book in its entirety! Just click on the attachment below the picture.

The Jungle Explorers - 3

The next page – just a couple of the evil King's cronies.

The Snailephant

My daughter's teacher wanted me to read my lunch note story (well, part anyway – it's pretty long) for her class, and talk about what it's like working as an illustrator. That gave me an excuse to do a finished drawing of the characters, as well as the snailephant in all its glory (or repugnance, depending on your opinion of snails and/or elephants). The story arc for this part starts here.

It went over well in the class. The kids asked a lot of questions about drawing and writing, which is what the teacher was hoping for. Also, I made print-outs of this for the class to hand out, but the kids got so excited about it that the teacher asked if she could pass them out at the end of the day instead.

That's the kind of feedback illustrators love – my art will cause chaos! Totally made my day.

The Monster King

Up in his treetop fortress, the evil Monster King taunts Piggie, sure that his mighty bulwarks will keep out all heroes. But is his security real or hubris?

The funky shape of the overall painting just came about all by itself. This was originally going to be a spot illustration, with just a hint of the wall. Then I got into making all the brickwork. And since it was that bottom heavy, I needed to add something on top. The Chinese-brushwork-inspired clouds just seemed to fit right in with the drawing style, rather than fluffy clouds. I like them so much, they'll be cropping up any other time that clouds figure into the picture.

Along the lines of illustration for books, I just sent off Arianna's Baseball Catch to the printer today. A couple of people have asked to buy copies, and I'll let them know when they come in. But this is my official pre-book notice that it's coming!

Up next: Arianna's Baseball Catch - the cover! (unless I manage to squeak another illustration out before the print run finishes)

Piggie

Here Piggie confronts his nemesis, the Monster King, from beneath impregnable castle walls. Frustrated but undaunted, he considers his next move!

This is from a fairy tale I wrote for my children. I plan to submit the story for publication, so I wanted to do a finished painting to go with it. Up next – the Monster King!