The Wholly Inaccurate Valentine

So I discovered the perfect Valentine's Day gift for my wife. When I ordered it, though, the site indicated that I was way late to receive it in time for the holiday. Undaunted, I made that my idea for the holiday card. Inside, I wrote "Cupid: Great at inspiring men to lifelong love. Not so good at getting them to order mail on time."

However, by the time that was all finished, not only had the present come in the mail but she had opened it! Since I wasn't expecting it, I hadn't warned her off any packages. In other words, it not only got there on time, she saw it even earlier. Hence the completely wrong Valentine, without time to draw a different one!

New Sketchbook 3: the other daughter's request

My oldest daughter wanted me to draw a picture of her. I like doing that – she's old enough to sit still, and I get practice doing faces.

With this one, it looks like her – three years ago. I guess parents really do think of their children as little, even when they're still little. Either that, or my ability to shave years off a subject when drawing them means I will have an incredibly lucrative portrait business.

New Sketchbook 2: a son's request

The kids have pillow pets – if you don't have kids, you may not have heard of them. If you do, you've probably heard (like us) the theme song sung repeatedly: "It's a pillow! It's a pet! It's a PILLOW PET!" All three kids have one.

Gavin's is a bee, so he asked me to draw a picture of him as a bee. But then he said to add a beehive. Then honey pots. The guy knows what he wants in a drawing.

I offered to color it for him, but he said he wanted it as a coloring page. So I decided to not only oblige him, but see if I could make a downloadable coloring page for the site. Here it is, and maybe this will be the first in a series of coloring pages – especially if they keep giving me requests!

One other thing – after I drew it, I remembered from a while back that Bee Movie had the main character in a turtleneck. Just to make sure, I looked it up – he does wear one, but they look quite different. I thought about changing it anyway, except that we live in New England. I haven't seen Gavin without a turtleneck in months, so it was only natural to draw him that way.

Mosaic Medley - my entry

A friend of mine is starting a themed illustration site. I'd explain it, but I'd only be reiterating what she already said, so click here to go there. It also has submission info, if anyone's interested!

The theme for this first one is snow. As a person who lives in New England, this is about what I feel the clouds are doing to us. Deliberately. With a smirk on their faces.

On the other hand, though, just driving around makes me feel like I'm in the first Star Wars movie. The plowed snow banks are so high that it looks like I'm flying in the channel to destroy the Death Star. All I need are some Tie Fighters (or, conversely, a better grasp of reality) and I'm all set.

A New Sketchbook, and a Daughter's Request

Been off this blog for a while (although I've been keeping up with the lunch notes). The main reason is that I've been working on something, potentially for a publisher, so I can't post anything yet for copyright reasons – not a bad thing. But, in the meantime, I finally broke in the new sketchbook that Santa dropped off in my stocking this year. While I was sketching, my three-year-old asked me to do a drawing of a ghost. After I did that, she asked for a scared dog. How can you say no to a three-year-old? Well, in a case that doesn't involve running with scissors or playing with Mr. Wall Socket, that is.

After, she asked me to draw the "dog rectangles." It took me a while to figure out what she meant, but I eventually realized she was talking about the thick dashed motion lines from the Frog Prince book I did for her. So the second one is the dog running away, rectangle style.

WooHoo! It's posted!

My Ginger Scallion fish recipe is up on They Draw and Cook! I'd post the image, but it's better to see it in situ. Click here to go there.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Fairy Tale Christmas

Time for a Christmas illustration for the blog. Last year it was Viking Santa, this year Goldilocks.

This is a perfect example of how deadlines drive illustrators. I came up with this one as a birthday card ("Someone's been eating my cake!"), drew a rough sketch, and then promptly forgot about it. Then along comes Christmas and I realize I have no drawing. So (to quote my three-year-old) ta-da – POOF! It turns into a Christmas drawing, and I get it finished.

They Draw and Cook - the recipe half

Good news and bad news with this. The good news is that they liked it over at the They Draw and Cook site. The bad news is that it doesn't qualify for their holiday contest. My mistake, really – I thought it was to get a recipe to them in time for the holidays, but what they meant was a recipe for the holidays. So, as much as I'd have liked to have gotten it in to the Food Network contest, even I have to admit that the fish swordsman doesn't really match the theme. Even reworking it with a santa hat instead of a samurai helmet probably isn't going to do the trick.

However, if the Food Network ever celebrates something like Ninja Month, I'm soooo sending it in.

On a side note, big big big thanks to my wife for the recipe!

They Draw and Cook – the contest

There's a great site called They Draw and Cook, that has recipes as illustrated by a variety of different artists. Anyone is free to submit at any time, but this month has an added bonus – if you submit before November 30th, you're entered into a Food Network blog contest.

I've been meaning to submit something anyway, but art contests motivate me and finally made me come up with something. I was stuck for an idea (my wife is the chef – and an incredible one, I might add – of the family, so recipes didn't come easily to my mind) until I thought of a fish wielding a scallion like a samurai sword. Thus Ginger Scallion Fish was born, ready to take on Ninja chefs.

This is the left half – all their entries may be put in book form, so I decided to make a left and right page (also easier to scan in that way). The right page will have the recipe, along with some more illustration.

The Lunch Note Project

Here's the beginning of something I've been writing for my daughter. She asked me if I would put notes in her lunch, so I tried to oblige. Now, I'm not the best letter writer, but I do like to tell stories, so the notes ended up as a daily installment.

Instead of putting them here all the time (since they occur daily), I made a separate blog for them called The Lunch Note Project. If anyone's interested in seeing where this goes, that's where they'll all be.