Awards...and not winning...

Congrats to the mighty Dan Santat on his Caldecott Medal for "Beekle."

Days like today are hard for most writers and illustrators.  We are happy to see our friends win, but I'm sure that the thought of "Why didn't I win?" goes through everyone's mind.  For me, I know it's no longer a jealous, or angry thought, but more of a clinical, academic thought.

What does the winner do better than me?

What skills does he posses that I don't?

Is it the technique being rewarded, or the content of the image?

Are people impressed with the technical accomplishment of the drawings, or the emotional weight that an image can carry?

Why do some books affect readers more than others?

Is there a style that is currently popular?

Hopefully, one can learn from theses questions, as tough as some of the answers might be.  The other thing that has always made me feel less grumpy on a day like today is numbers.  Thousands of picture books were published this year.  Only a few will win awards.

The truth is, I haven't even released a picture book since 2010's "Furious George Goes Bananas." I wasn't even in the running. I have been working on a few ideas, but haven't been able to find the time to really flesh them out.  Between the Icky Ricky books, and the Fangbone! tv work,  and school visits, I'm plenty busy.

This is a cover sketch/idea for one of my new stories.  Excuse me while I go think...

2015 News...

Happy New Year!  I feel that I can still say that since it's only January 31. I haven't posted since October, which I think is one of the longest lulls I've ever had.  The truth is, I have been crazy busy, and things are amazing right now.  In a few weeks I'll have a ton of news about Fangbone!  I'm also working on the art for Icky Ricky 6, and the picture book I wrote about in the previous post.

I was going through my phone and deleting pictures that I no longer need, and I came across these 3 shots from a school visit.  I had eaten lunch with some kids, and then we drew on the table cloth.  Truthfully, I can't remember what school it was, but I had a lot of fun, and this kids seem to enjoy it as well.

I'll be posting often in the next few weeks.  Enjoy.

Where did the summer go?

Wow!  The summer really went by fast.  I've been creating the art for Icky Ricky #5, and have been working with the Fangbone! writers on some new scripts.

I'm putting up a few sketchbook pages just for fun.  There's no theme here, and there's nothing to discuss about their content. Just couches, monsters and knights. Enjoy.

I hope to have some big news on Fangbone! shorty!

Icky Ricky 3, and more...

Wow.  Did more than a month pass already?  I’ve been working on a few different things.  Icky Ricky #5 has been written, and I just completed the sketches.  Book #6 has been outlined.  I’m beginning to write that one now, and in a week or so I will begin on the book #5 final drawings.  It sounds a bit complicated, but it all makes sense in the end.

Icky Rick #3: The Dead Disco Raccoon was published in May.  I think it is, by far, the funniest of the bunch.  As always, there are a few different stories in the book.  In book #3 Ricky buys an ice cream cake on the hottest day of the summer, tells the story of how he met Gus, cleans a kitchen with a leaf-blower, buys a taxidermied raccoon, and gets attacked by a demon toilet!  All for $4.99!

The Fangbone TV project is still chugging forward, and this time I think we see the station ahead.  We had a meeting with Disney XD Canada, the folks who ordered the pilot, and they are very happy with our work.  We are hoping that a final decision, good or bad, will happen in the next few weeks.

Ricky Covers

As I'm getting ready to post the cover of Icky Ricky #3, I wanted to share theses cover sketches for book #1.

Cowboy Ducks

I've been really busy the last few weeks.  I am just about done with Icky Ricky #3, the Fangbone! pilot continues to roll along and now we are developing two more scripts.  I took a little time over the weekend to do these Duck Cowboys for our local elementary school's art auction.  These were drawn with a fine pen bought at Staples, and rendered with Dr. Ph. Martin's concentrated water colors.

My First "Icky Ricky" Fan

I received this letter from a very happy mother a few days after a recent school visit.  "Icky Ricky" was designed with new readers in mind.  Many of the chapters are stand alone stories, and there is art on every page.  I'm kind of amazed that a five year old is reading it, but more power to him!

'THANK YOU!  I think it was just last week you spoke at SJA and made an AMAZING impression on my kindergartner!  My son has strong reading skills but I have been want to find a chapter book to capture his attention.  But, after seeing you speak, he DEMANDED I take him to the public library where he immediately found "Toilet Paper Mummy". 

Initially overwhelmed by the 120 pages, I encouraged him to take it one page at a time.  And his teacher let him read the book to the class.  Two days and 91 pages later, he is almost done! So if you ever wondered the impact you had on children when you present, I can tell you that you certainly reached my five year old."

Icky Ricky Sketches

When I initially drew the dummy for Icky Ricky I used a very different design for him.  My editor loved the dummy, and most of the character designs, but felt that Ricky wasn't unique enough.  So I sat down and tried to come up with something that would stand out on every page.  Here are 6 pages of Ricky sketches that eventually lead to the final design.

There's some stuff in there that doesn't work at all, but you have to get the crummy ideas out of the way so that the good ones can show up.

Icky Ricky!

"Icky Ricky" is set for release on May 14.  It was supposed to be out in June, but got moved up at the last minute because Barnes & Noble is including it in their summer reading promotions.  The official website, with a killer trailer, will go live soon.

Icky Ricky ARC

A few days ago I a copy of my "Icky Ricky" ARC.  An ARC is an "Advance Reading Copy" and is essentially a test run of the book.  It's on cheaper paper, and there will usually be tweaks to the text and art before the final book off is sent to to be printed.  The ARC is also used so that marketing can get a sense of the book, and have something to show while selling it. Ricky is a much longer piece of writing than I have ever done.  Each page has art, along with a paragraph or two.  The book is 124 pages, and will be out in May of 2013.  Random House is publishing it.

Rock and Roll Mummies!

This is a spread from my next book "Icky Ricky," which comes out next year from Random House.  The boys have made themselves into toilet paper mummies, and then they start playing air guitar, which turns them into rock and roll mummies.  Of course.  The book goes back and forth between using word balloons, and traditional blocks of text.

Making a hot mess...

Right now, I'm working on the illustrations for my next series, “Icky Ricky” which comes out in 2013 from Random House.  For these books, I need lots of backgrounds that have sprays and drips and all kinds of messy looking bits of business.  I recruited my two sons, Declan and Gavin, who are good at making messes, to help me out with the process.  We used some traditional spray-paint, watered down acrylic, and even a bit of clean water to get things to drip.  We produced a pile of papers that I can scan and sample the best bits from. 

My favorite piece was created by laying down some rope on the paper, and my son Declan gently spray-painted over it, creating areas of different values and contrast.

Here’s one of the drawings from the book.  The background area uses parts of the rope painted paper.  The type for the word balloon will be added later.

Icky Ricky

While working on Fangbone, I've also been planning another series called "Icky Ricky." Random House will be publishing the books, and they are basically my answer to "Fancy Nancy," however, they are not parodies. This image is for the first book's cover. It's the first non-digitally colored piece I've done since 1997, and I'm really anxious about it. I wanted it to look loose, but not sloppy. I initially tried a photoshop colored version, but the whole "icky" thing didn't really come off too well. There's much more to the cover than this, and hopefully I can show that soon.