THROWBACK SPONGEBOB

Here's a Spongebob 10 year Anniversary poster I designed some time ago in my Throwback Thursday style. Not quite a Throwback yet, but he's a future contender.

My first indy kids book is almost done.

Here is a spot illustration I did today for my first independent kids book. It's been literally 7 years in the making (off and on) of me trying to get this book done. Thanks to a few of my close friends for helping me out here and there as well as them urging me to finish. I'm finally nearing the end. I'll be posting more updates as I finish things up. For now enjoy the new art.

The Great Valentines Day MixUp NOW ON SALE!

I posted a while back about the Valentine's day book I illustrated. Well it's now available to order online. You can get your little loved one a copy now by clicking on the image in the book scroller above, or do a search on Barnes and Nobles or Borders books. The book really stands out from other Valentines books because of it's bright blue color. I've posted some sketches and page samples below. Feel free to leave comments as well. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

SPREAD 12 (Step)

As I posted before, above is my layout sketch for spread #12 of my book. I roughed it out in photoshop on my computer, adding shadows here and there. I used the shadows to frame up the main focus which is the unsuspecting dog walking by. The buildings in the background also frame up the text and help bring focus to the yo-yo that's knocking over the paint.

Here I sketched out various poodles in my sketchbook. I knew there would be a poodle on this page, but had no clue what it would look like. I started by using a light blue Tombow brush and drew vague poodle like shapes across the book. I then thought about the attitude of the dog and took a black pen to begin sketching different kind of stuck up poodles around the blue blobs of color. I ultimately chose the dog in the middle.

Next I needed to find a color palette. For this, I chose a scene from an old Tom & Jerry cartoon (Jerry Go Round-1966) with beautifully colored backgrounds by Philip Deguard. I loved that these colors were a little washed out and really complimented each other. I grabbed a still from the episode and began picking out similar colors for my palette.

The first step in coloring my page is blocking in simple shapes with color. This way I can see if these colors I chose are working well together on my image.

Now I start adding the small details to the background and Character.

Then I add in the remaining elements and rough out my angry poodle to the right of the page to get a clearer idea of what that looks like.

I finish up the last details on my Blue painted poodle and give it all one last look (which for me is staring at it for what ends up being 30 minutes to an hour) When I snap out of it, I'm done. One down 3 more pages to go.

Valentine's Book pre-order

I noticed on Amazon today that they've posted my Valentine's book I illustrated available for pre-order. I know it's a long way from now (and I will plug it again)but I wanted to share the cover with you. I've also added it to my publishing carousel above along with my other published works. Feel free to click HERE to purchase it in advance or just click the image in the carousel. The book has a decoder game inside to help kids get the valentines to the right person. Lots of fun.

REX marks the spot book

Here's the cover illustration I did to a new Sushi Pack kids book. Go to your local book store and ask for it, or click on the banner above to buy your copy NOW!


HERE'S AN ACTUAL CLIP FROM THE EPISODE...

Finished unfinished

Pushing 2 deadlines so I grabbed an unfinished character from my laptop and fished him up. Falling asleep as I tyyyyppppppp.........zzzzzzzzzzzz

more SPACEmen and Pussy cats

SPACEMEN & PUSSYCATS

I draw these blocky headed characters from time to time and friends seem to like them. So I'm thinking of doing a series of paintings with them. As a theme I somehow thought that they would look cool with Spacesuits. Then I saw my cat curled up sleeping on my bench and thought how peaceful she was and how I would love to take her on a space exploration. So now I'm going to include pussycats with fur painted to represent each planet's colors in our solar system. This is my first page of many conceptual sketches to choose each painting. Feel free to lemme know which ones you like the most as I post to help me choose which ones I'm going to paint.


More sketches.

AND THE WINNERS ARE....

There were a lot of great submissions to the GIJOE Throwback Thursday contest. I had Madball artist Jim Groman Judge the artwork since he donated some of the prize winnings and use to work @ Hasbro toys. He had a tough job choosing amongst the many amazing entries. It wasn't easy folks. HERE ARE THE WINNERS!

The grand prize winner is Robb Mommaerts!



And the 2nd place winner is Kevin Evans!


Jim also had 2 honorable mentions for Jim Mehsling who was 1st to answer the call of duty and uploaded not one but five entries, and Hasdrubal who entered 7 3D pieces. A hearty YO JOE! goes out to these 2 soldiers.

A BIG BIG thanks to all who entered and made this contest a success. Keep your eyes pealed here and on Channel Frederator for future Throwback contests. If you have any ideas for future contests subjects please feel free to share them in the comments section below.

Also to see all of the entries for the contest, go HERE or HERE @FLICKR.

CONTEST SUBMISSIONS DUE TODAY!!!!!!

THROWBACK THURSDAYS CONTEST PAGE!!!

If you haven't gotten them in yet, GIJOE throwback illustrations are due today. We have a pretty solid turnout this year. Thanks to everyone who has entered and have joined the Frederator RAW community. Below is a photo of the what the grand prize winner will get once chosen. An Original framed Madball illustration by James Groman,2 new signed madballs and one GIJOE 25th anniversary figure.



And here's a prize for the runner up.....




These are a few entries that came in throughout the week....


Kevin Evans


David Sones


Harry the bastard


Jim Groman (Not in the contest)


Hasdrubal