One Step Forward, Two Steps Back!

After being a stranger to my own blog, I am now proud to post some photos of the Sketchbook Project show, which I attended in San Fransisco last week. The show featured mine and several other artist's sketchbooks with various themes and varying degrees of skill - but all of them were the result of sheer passion for visual art! The show itself was representative of 'humble beginnings' for most of us participating artists but it gave me a taste of the fruits of my labour, as I gazed up at the lofty ceilings of the bright and airy studio it was held in... I was so proud of my little accomplishment - I just wanted to burst through that ceiling!!! Here are some photos of that event...

The downside to this week was that I had to go back to the drawing board (literally!) with my UTales book, as I felt that taking it slow and being sure that my work is of a certain quality was more important than getting any effort of mine on there as an eBook. So I'm back to thumbnails and developing really tight sketches for "Baby Bop" which will give me an additional challenge! Also my Picture Book Critique Group has fueled my pace with redrafting and editing my writing, specifically on my story "Kavya's Magic Blanket Ride" and I will be submitting that in the Cheerios Spoonful of Stories  contest next month! Yay! Lots to look forward to....

"Shapes" eBook WIP:

As I conquer the nuances of my Sketchbook Pro app, I think my work will show serious improvement. But I still would like more functionality that it seems only Photoshop can provide.... Here are some excerpts from my eBook called "Shapes". I'm still sketching out the second book.... Little baby steps!

This eBook will be available on the UTales app when it is released for iPhones and iPads. 25% of the cost for this book will be donated to Pencils of Promise, where $3.00 will buy a day of education for a child in one of their schools located in Asia or Latin America. Hope you will check it out when it comes out!

IF: Safari

I've been a bit lax with my work lately, and this week's Illustration Friday challenge just inspired me back into it!

These two little critters (Blue tongue lizards) can be found on an outback safari and they want to say "Crikey!" in an attempt to pay homage to one of the world's great explorers and conservationists, Steve Irwin. Done digitally, on my iPad - I now use my iPad as a sketchbook and am in the process of teaching myself the latest version of Photoshop and the rest of the CS5.
In other news, I have now almost finished publishing my first iPad app book on UTales Beta, which is sure to pique some interest once it is released! I have to complete artwork for my two iPad books called "Shapes" and "Baby Bop" for ages 0-2. I am now working on my two other books (ages 3-5) born from the Sketchbook Project in the "Kavya's Adventures" series and am also still developing artwork for my Biligual books.... So at least I haven't been totally goofing off! Will get samples posted online for comments....

IF: Bicycle

An old sketch for a Corporate T-Shirt design...

IF: Bottled!

A simple mime doing his thing...

A-ha, so that's what he is trying to get our of....

IF: Cultivate

The little mouse had cultivated some good habits while hiding out in his hole....

Although my mouse looks more like a cat, I still think the overall imagery works.... I remember watching a scene from Tom & Jerry when I was a kid and Jerry the mouse had a spool as his nightstand and a matchbox as his bed.... and so here it is again.. conjured from my childhood memories of it!

IF: Stir 2

Fine go ahead - stir this soup and eat me, you know I'm full of trans fats and GM food.... not a thing about me is organic!