New Story

If the weather holds out I will go into the city early and take more pictures in Central Park before I go to work.

I am working on my own story at the moment, it has been a while since I did anything just for me it is fun and like all things fun it is frustrating, what started out as a single idea has turned into a story I have about 90% of its sketched out.

The story takes place in Central Park NYC and I’m drawing a map I never drawn a map before except giving someone directions on how to get someplace so this is new for me.
But to draw a map and place the characters on the map I need to know my surroundings and it would be nice if other readers can find the places as well.

 

I didn’t understand why Flickr failed me. My one stop shopping for almost all my reference needs. Until I realized I need to know where they are not just random shots of the park I can recognize most of the pictures shown on Flickr but exactly were they are located is a different story.

So I hope for a change it will not rain and I can get my shots.

This story does not have a Publisher yet it’s not ready to be submitted.   I need to get all my facts/story in order and create a dummy book to show potential Art Directors/Publisher before that happens.

A dummy book is also something new for me, when I illustrate other peoples story all I create is a storyboard to make sure I have a solid flow going on.

  I was also hoping to share some good news but it has not happened yet so maybe by my next post.

Web search on Ferdinand Frog

The other day I did a search

on

 Ferdinand Frog

 to see what would pop up and this is what I found

Travel page on FB

(click me)

(click me)

This last on has a link to some of the artwork from inside the book

 (click me)

(click me)

I always feel like I'm quoting Alice in Wonderland when I say "click me"

Sunday

Over the weekend I was in Long Beach NY.
Every year they have a Jazz Festival its free it’s incredible and the talent is over whelming! If you enjoy jazz this is one venue that should not be missed. This is my second year going my cousin who lives in Long Beach told me about it last year, so it was a no brainer going this year.
 Next year will be there 10th Jazz Festival and I will not miss it for the world

The Link

Are they needed anymore?

Are they needed anymore?

With the invention of the cell phone
do we really need them?

A handful of thoughts

None of this is all that important on its own so I just put it all in one post.

The other day /post I wrote about buying “The Great Song Book” illustrated by Tomi Ungerer, well while talking to a friend of mine on the phone I looked at my book shelf and read a familiar name across one of my picture books I could not believe it I am already familiar with Mr. Ungerer artwork “The Hat” published in the 70’s this is one of those books I have had as a child, it is in great shape a little dented around the edges, what a treat!

  I was going to go to Books of Wonder on Sunday (9/11/2011) to support David Ezra Stein at his book signing "Love, Mouserella". I only meet him briefly once a couple of years ago at a local street fair in are neighborhood and been following his success as a writer/illustrator ever since. But let’s face it I was not eager to get on a Subway on that day for two reasons one (1) they never work well on the weekends because of track work and two (2) it was a high alert day and didn’t want to deal with it. Instead in my neighborhood was a group of performers from the “Mortal Folly Theartre” (“theater” it is not spelled wrong) doing scenes from Shakespeare it was enjoyable!!

Also in my own work I have a beginning, middle and an end to my little story that I am working on. It seems to be falling into place now but still no words are really attached to this picture book idea but that will come in time.

   

New books that came in the mail

In the last couple of weeks I received two out of the three books I was hoping to receive in the mail.

The first book is “Photoshop CS5 in easy steps” this book just made my life a little bit easier, I used the CS2 version to help me understand how that program worked; so it was a no brainer when I realized that this newer version changed enough that it took me an (1) hour to find how to cut paste and resize a head from one body to a new body then I couldn’t remember how I did it. Frustrating!

The other book that just came in the mail is “The Great Song Book” illustrated by Tomi Ungerer I was introduced to Mr. Ungerer artwork through Michael Sporn’s blog post the book is out of print but I was able to buy a copy from a used book dealer.

Sides note: I bought both books from Amazon web site; I have read and was told in the past how some people have had problems with their customer service to this date I have not. On the books I have illustrated sometimes thing are wrong like my name misspelled or no book cover artwork both I don’t understand how that happens but it does. I was told that “Amazon will fix it when they feel like it” well not really true you contact them tell them what is wrong and they fix it within three days. I have sent them the book cover artwork or the correct spelling of my name and it is taken care of simple! I have also had questions on orders I placed and have had nothing but good response from the people I have spoken to.

Illustration from Ferdinand Frog's Flight

The third book I am still waiting for is “Ferdinand Frog’s Flight” this is the last book I illustrated with 4RV Publishing and I am still waiting to see what the finished project looks like. If I can swing the cash there are a couple of contest I would like to summit it too but I’m not going to spend money on purchasing copies of the book if I don’t know what the end product looks like.  

The illustrations in this post are from the “The Great Song Book”  I have taken them from Michael Sporn’s Blog or “Splog” post (click me to link)