I have been working on some spot art for the beginning of every chapter in the Pony Wombat and the Second Ark book.

I'm trying to Match each title with a decent spot illustration. Plus I think the frogs Match and so do the cookies, so its a good fit for this weeks Illustration Friday word.




This is a sample of what I'm trying to accomplish. The title artwork for chapter 7.



Here are two more chapter spot illustrations. Do those look like cookies to you?



This is what it looks like in the book. This is chapter 9. The puppy got his head stuck in the tuba. Does it look like a stuck puppy to you? or am I spinning my wheels?




You can preview the book for free! (aren't I nice!) or you could buy a copy (aren't you nice!)

In September I will be running an online ad on Christianity Today for the book Pony Wombat and the Second Ark .

The ad is a side banner and will run 25,000 times. The click through will be to the Pony Wombat and the Second Ark purchase site.

This is the ad I created. I tried to capture a sense of wonder and excitement while providing as much info about the book as I could in the limited pixel space. How affective do you think it will be?

You can preview the book for free! (aren't I nice!) or you could buy a copy (aren't you nice!)

The Pond

This spring I installed a pond in my backyard.



Since then I have been constantly working on it. Now it is more than a pond, it is an entire natural area with flowers, insects, reptiles and lots of frogs.



I planted three butterfly bushes around the pond and I guess it worked cause here this guy showed up. Most of the other plants are wild flower seeds. I particularly like the black eyed susies. Then there is some ivory around the pond. Further back are a few tomato plants. I'm hoping to grow some tomatoes for the turtles.



I bought these water plants from Lowes. They grow like crazy in the pond i have in the front yard, but the turtles eat them back here. I need to keep transferring plants for the front pond to the back. If you look closely you will see honeybees all over the log. There must be a nest nearby because there is a constant stream of honeybees flying around. There is never less than 10 bees and any time.



This little guy, an eastern box turtle, was here before and then he was gone. Now he's back. I hope he stays. I have been enticing him with bananas and dog food and lettuce and mushrooms. If those stupid tomatoes would ever grow...

Beach Art: Sacrifice

I took my sketchbook to the beach. This time I brought a cheapo set of watercolors. You know, the kind you get in your Christmas stocking when you’re a kid. I used a sand pail and ocean water to paint with.

It was kind of fun sacrificing “real” art materials, though it was hard to paint with the wind blowing and the sand and all.

You can click here to see one of the sand castles we made this trip or, click here to see some sketches from a previous trip.



This is a sketch of a chair and an umbrella. There was actually a guy sitting in the chair but I left him out. After I started the sketch the wind was so strong that he got up and shut the umbrella. What's that all about?? Hey buddy, I'm trying to paint!



I sketched this one sitting on the deck in the afternoon. It's the beach house across the street from us. I don't think anyone was staying there. There was no car in the drive way and no lights on or anything.



Here's another chair. I did a lot of chairs. But what else is there on the beach? Umbrella I guess, but mostly chairs.

By the way, did you click here yet??

Did you miss me? No? Did you even notice I was gone? Oh well that's ok. But I'm back! Where did I go? You ask. The beach, Emerald Island. For a week. Gee, you would think you would have noticed.



We did lots of stuff. Went on a sail boat, went snorkeling, went clamming, cooked the clams, ate the clams (ate some raw too), saw some turtles, saw some dolphins, did a little shopping, and of course... made a sand castle.



We made two sand castles but this is the only one I took photos of. It was about four feet high and was a traditional type of sand castle with a dragon attacking. This is from the back.



This shot is from the side. Alex and I also made a very extra cool sand castle of a mermaid. It was coming out really great. Then the face and chest slid right off. Alex and I both screamed NOOoooo! Everyone looked at us like we were doinks but we had worked pretty hard on it. Then we rebuilt it into a sea which with a crabs body. It wasn't as good but some people came buy and took photos of it anyway. I wonder if they blogged those photos? Hmmm...

There were a lot of people at the pond today, mostly moms and dad with kids. They had been feeding the turtles so there were a lot of turtles around the bridge when we showed up. We caught a few turtles and all the little kids ohhed and ahhed. It was fun!

Then I saw it… The giant snapper!! Most nobody took notice till I pointed it out. It was huge, bigger than I had remembered. I tried real hard but I couldn’t capture it. It dove down and swam out to the middle of the pond.



Then a few turtles later I saw another big snapper. Not as big as the granddaddy but still pretty impressive. I caught that one and took these photos. You can see my hand holding its tail. I guess this one was about 2 to 3 feet long.



Then some snotty lady ratted us out and the park ranger came down and told us we couldn’t steal the pic-a-nic baskets anymore. Party pooper, big stinky head!! All the other moms and dads were disappointed too cause their kids were getting such a kick out of seeing all the turtles.

I’m not sure what the big deal is. There is a catch and release program in place for the fish so why not the turtles?? And don’t they realize I’m a trained professional? Or at least I would be if sticky, snotty know-it-all ladies who can’t mind their own beeswax wouldn’t go around tattle tailing!!

Have you checked out Pony Wombat and the Second Ark yet??
You can preview the book for free! (aren't I nice!) or you could buy a copy (aren't you nice!)

Rain : Rain : Rain : Flood!

This week’s Illustration Friday word is Rain. I found this very interesting because I just completed the cover art for PONY WOMBAT AND THE SECOND ARK. Now if ever there was a story about rain, it was Noah’s Ark. Forty days and forty nights… that’s a lot of rain!

You can preview the book for free! (aren't I nice!) or you could buy a copy (aren't you nice!)



front cover



back cover

The Story:

Third grader Pony Wombat has the idea to recreate the story of Noah's Ark using his pet collection and a rubber raft. Pony pretends his backyard is the ocean while he waits for his pool to be filled.

When the neighborhood bully Morton shows up, he makes fun of Pony. That is until the backyard pool cracks and the surge sweeps everyone down the street in one giant wave.

The seemingly miraculous occurrence gives Morton the idea to start a club that recreates Bible stories. Unfortunately Morton’s flawed understanding of the Bible ends in some silly disasters.

It's up to Pony to stop Morton before things really get out of hand.

Buy a copy today! Come on, it’ll be fun!

Hurricanes Win Stanley Cup

At 5 o’clock, Jim leans over my cube wall. I have an extra ticket to the game. You want to go? (derr!) Go to the ATM and meet me at the Eye. …. I run into him in the parking lot. He hands me my ticket. Game on.



Outside, the band played Ozzy, Crazy Train but changed the lyrics. I’m going off the rails on a Hurricane. Stormy comes off the stage and we hang.



Inside the place was crazy loud. Nobody sat. Not even the white haired granny sitting in front of me. The people were an interesting mix. Some guy Max sat behind me. He drove down from Virginia and had never been to a game before. Max was excited to say the least. He adopted Jim and I as his new bestest friends.



The horn sounded, the confetti dropped, the streamers flew… my voice is gone!



Cam Ward was awarded MVP. Good for him!

In the parking lot, the fat guy with no shirt and beer running down his face screaming, "celebrate!" ... high fives me. Beer splats off our hands. OK celebration over. Dude, go take a shower.

Portrait

Last weekend I took my sketchbook to the beach. I wanted to do a few gesture drawings of the kids playing in preparation for a new picture book dummy I’m starting. Later, I’ll turn these sketches into illustrations for the story. I thought these sketches would work for this week’s Illustration Friday word, Portrait.



This is a sketch of my daughter done in a small beach café waiting for our food to come. I asked her for a snotty pose : )



These are some color sketches I did later at home using the first sketch as a reference.