Saturday, June 29, 2013

Crushing Turtles : Book Cover



Working on the cover art for this summer's block buster read, Crushing Turtles.. coming soon!

This book is something different then much of what I've written before. A strange title, a strange subject matter and a little dark. I like the characters, especially their voice. In fact, it was probably the character's voice that originally masked the dark storyline.

The turtle on the cover is a musk turtle painted from an observational sketch like this one -->


Wednesday, June 26, 2013

The 2013 Summer Reading List!



How to Milk a Dinocow

If a freak milk accident that sparks life to a half cow, half stegosaurus isn’t weird enough, imagine how strange it’s going to get when Trip Stanley’s class starts drinking the milk! 

Trip Stanley’s best friend Jules spills a glass of creamery milk onto his uncle’s dinosaur machine and activates the contraption. A creature hatches and grows rapidly into a black and white spotted stegosaurus with and an udder. A stegcowsaurus. When the last bottle of creamery milk that Jules had planned to bring to school for show and tell is knocked over, Trip decides to milk the stegcowsaurus. 

Everyone in class is given a taste and the reaction causes spots and horns. One classmate even grows a tail. It’s up to Trip to figure out how to de-dinosaur his classmates and keep from getting kicked out of school, all while preventing his mom from discovering the stegcowsaurus in his bedroom. 

With angry classmates and an upset teacher in his living room, Trip finds a solution in his own advice, when life give you lemons you make lemonade. 



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Shellless

Jirst Bluefin's biggest problem is being ignored. Kacela Middleton is the one person in the world who is never ignored. Jirst is about to discover that sometimes it's better to be ignored for no reason than to become popular over nothing at all. Shellless is the story of Jirst Bluefin the First as he tries to overcome his biggest problem.

Jirst Bluefin is a quirky, loner who spends his afternoons talking to imaginary dinosaurs that swim in a pond. The dinosaurs look like turtles that lost their shells. He calls them the Shellless. After a chance meeting, the intelligent and sophisticated Kacelia Middleton befriends Jirst. Taking note of Jirst's major problem, being ignored, Kacelia encourages him to come out of his shell. 

Jirst tries a few funny, yet failed attempts at gaining popularity. Desperate to acquire recognition, Jirst resorts to telling his classmates the tale of his make-believe, dinosaur friends. However, he inadvertently leaves the impression that the Shellless are real. Believing that extinct plesiosaur swim in the pond of the local park give Jirst the boost of popularity he covets.

Shellless Available on Amazon!
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The Metal Marble

Tucker's Aunt Nyce is his mom's little sister only she isn't that little and she isn't that nice. He has to get used to it though because he's stuck working at her beach restaurant The Crab & Grab for the next two weeks. 

While hauling boxes of stinky fish from the dock, Tucker and his 11-year-old cousin Trist discover a golf ball size, transparent metal "marble" floating in the sea. Ignoring the warnings from salty dog Chef, Tucker and Trist leave the marble in the sunshine until it dries. The marble hatches into a half real, half robotic mechanical turtle. 

From the moment the marble opens, Aunt Nyce places Tucker in charge of the turtle. He soon realizes the biggest threat comes from his aunt's schemes to use the unique creature to draw customers.

The Metal Marble Available on Amazon!
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The Critter Cube Book

There are three sections of the Critter Cube book. The first section introduces the characters. Since the Critter Cube Book is designed to be interactive, this section allows the reader to decide what characteristics each character will have. 

The second part of the book allows the reader to write his or her own story. There are prompts that the reader can use as helpful guides but they will determine the story. 

The third section of the book is a flipbook that allows the reader to change not only the story line, but also the characters by simply flipping the pages. 

The Critter Cube Book is sponsored by the Graham Johnson Cultural Arts Endowment; a non-profit organization whose purpose is to develop, promote and coordinate the arts and cultural experiences for the community of Wake Forest as well as North Carolina.


The Critter Cube Book Available on Amazon!

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Ligers, Tigons And Pizzlies

When two different kinds of animals, which are very closely related, create a new life, the baby animal is called a hybrid. For example, if a zebra and a horse have a foal, the yearling is a hybrid called a zorse. 

Zorse is a cool name. Hybrid however, is a boring name that sounds more like a way to create electricity by pouring water through a turbine than it does a combination of two living creatures. From now on, I'm going to refer to hybrids as newimals. 

Though some are rare, all of the newimals in this book are real.


Art Of Education 2013 Online Conference


Tuesday, June 25th, I presented at the Art Of Education 2013 Online Conference.. How very exciting! Yes, I know! And not only presented but I went first! Feeling pretty good about being the opening act :)

There were two parts to this conference.  The first part was a pre-recorded video that went live for attendees at 11am EST. There was also a live chat during the same time where I tried to answer questions. 

The second half is ongoing as the presentations have been posted to the Art Of Education Ning site. There is also a forum where attendees of the conference can post questions.


Above: A photo I snagged off of Twitter

So what was my presentation about? Well, here is the intro...

Art Vs Education!

Art teachers are creative beings. We teach a creative subject with creative materials. However, the bureaucracy of education; pacing guides, standards and even the curriculum can jab, punch and often KO an art teacher’s creative endeavor. In this presentation we’ll toe the line with the issues that put art teachers up against the ropes and we’ll learn how to knock those concerns out of the ring. Let’s get ready to rumble!

Saturday, June 15, 2013

The Posters:




These just under way. I haven't made any non-street art since my last show at the Block Gallery. To be honest, I wasn't sure if I wanted to show again.. Now I'm thinking, this might be fun.

These works are going to be a combination of the concept behind the Critter Cubes created for a public art project in Wake Forest and the style of my digital work, only using mixed media.

So these are just started. Let's see where it all goes...



Friday, June 14, 2013

No, It's Not Digital!



New paintings! And no, they are not digital. I found some of that stinky paper in the storage room at school. I mean stinky, literally. It smells really weird! 

It doesn't have a good texture and it doesn't have a very good weight but for whatever reason, I like to draw on it. 

So I'm working on some new stuff, which is really old stuff cause I always draw the same thing over and over again and that's ok cause it makes me happy. Took these pics on my phone so they are not very good but you get the idea...