Friday, February 10, 2012

Exciting things happening...

I have been woefully negligent to this blog, but that is all about to change.

For awhile, I was drifting, unsure of which way to turn. It seems that children's book publishing is becoming more and more insular and therefore much harder to break into. I posted that thought to facebook, and lo and behold, lightening struck, the spark was relit, my eyes were opened, or  however you want to characterize it.

Chuck Pyle (the Director of the school of illustration at the Academy of Art) told me to check out ebooks. Now, I've heard all about this idea of self publishing and ebooks, blah, blah, blah. What I wanted was an actual print on paper book that I could hold and see on store shelves. Not to mention the enormous cost of self publishing (clearly, I didn't get it) said book. And as for ebooks, well  just flat out didn't understand that at all.

Chuck pointed me in the direction of Spacedog books (http://www.spacedogbooks.com), and mentioned that they had a video up on you tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJypwjxT5f0); perhaps I would find some inspiration there. He had no idea how right he was!!! Watching that video has literally changed my life, and the work I want to do. As we speak, I am working hard on my first book, with plans to publish for the Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble Nook by the end of March, or tyhe beginning of April. I am also spending a great deal of time teaching myself Flash and attempting to learn app development. Thanks  to Will Terry and his AMAZING and informative blog (http://www.willterry.blogspot.com), I am well on my way.

In the mean time, here are some illustrations for a project that has temporarily been put on hold.