Moon-Boy enjoying the low-gravity of the mysterious and remote Dragon Planet. Week 16 of my 52-Week Drawing Challenge.
Here’s a fun, quick doodle I did for my ongoing 52-week drawing challenge. I liked it so much I got inspired to give it the evocative name, Moon-Boy and the Dragon Planet, even though I don’t actually have a story to go with it. Moon-Boy gets around by bouncing along in his custom-made anti-gravity spacesuit. It allows him to effortlessly cover large distances in gentle leaps and bounds, which matches his own light, buoyant character. Dragon Planet is where he meets his new buddy in the form of a giant, alien dragon.
You can check out the rest of my 52-week drawing challenge here.
Happy bees celebrating a bright and sunny World Bee Day.
May 20 is World Bee Day, in honor of not only the importance of bees but of the pioneer of beekeeping, Anton Janša. Janša was born on this day in 1734 in what is now Slovenia. Interestingly, he studied painting in Vienna and was a professor there for awhile before going full-time into beekeeping.
This is also week eleven of my 52-week drawing challenge. I’m happy to be able to contribute in some way to promoting an appreciation for bees and to celebrating World Bee Day!
Happy #StarWarsDay! R2-D2 delivers a message to Obi-Wan in his home on Tatooine.
A while back I was sketching out some silly movie-themed ideas for my bee series when I came up with this one. I thought of going with “May the fourth bee with you,” but felt there were too many competing puns going on, so I just went with the standard, “May the Force bee with you.”
As someone who enjoys bad puns a little too much, I also love the additional Star Wars / bee puns I was able to get out of just one illustration. We have Obee-Wan Kenobee of course, but then we also have R2-Bee2 and Princess Bee-a. (Ok, that last one is pushing it. I know!)
Since I wanted to post this on Star Wars Day, I tried to make sure I got my details as movie-accurate as I could. In particular, I wanted Obi-wan’s lightsaber and robe to be accurate. While I was at it, I made sure to get the design of the table right. This was surprisingly difficult as there aren’t many clear images of the inside of Obi-Wan’s home on Tatooine. Finally, even though I knew I wanted to make R2-D2 look like a robot bee, I still wanted to make sure I got his basic design details more or less accurate to help make it look like R2-D2 looking like a bee, rather than having him look like a random droid that just happens to resemble a bee.
That’s all for now. Tune in next week for the latest illustration for my 52-week drawing challenge. (Will it be another bee cartoon?) Until then…may the Force bee with you!
I’m now two months into my 52-week drawing challenge and still going strong! I’ve decided to add a motivational / inspirational theme to these. My last one, Bee Determined, was a bit of a stretch since I came up with the motivational idea after coming up with the drawing. This one, Bee Musical, is a baby-step in the right direction. I really just needed a simple idea that week so I could get it done quickly and liked the idea of a bee playing guitar. I didn’t want to waste a good title like “Bee Joyful” or “Bee Happy” since this one was more of a rush-job, so I just kept it simple with “Bee Musical.” I’m particularly musical myself, unless you count singing in the car when nobody else is around…
Bee wearing pink bunny ears celebrates Easter eating a basket of chocolate eggs.
Here’s a happy, little bee celebrating Easter by wearing pink bunny ears and gobbling up some chocolate Easter eggs. I’ve been so busy lately that I completely lost track of when Easter was this year. I only realized on Friday, which didn’t give me much time. Even though I finished this a little late, I have to say I am really happy with how it came out almost exactly the way I wanted. In a perfect world, I would have had my bee encountering the Easter Bunny or at least a rabbit. But this was a very good plan B and was much easier for me to complete in a short time.
Article outlining my step-by-step process of combing traditional and digital drawing methods for professional illustration. Written for the Spring 2019 issue of the Mid-Atlantic SCBWI Highlighter.Article outlining my step-by-step process of combing traditional and digital drawing methods for professional illustration. Written for the Spring 2019 issue of the Mid-Atlantic SCBWI Highlighter.
My first article for the SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Highlighter came out this week featuring my tips on using a hybrid workflow. A hybrid workflow just means combining traditional drawing and inking methods with digital painting. In my article, I give tips on how to go back and forth from the drafting table to the computer screen. I also discuss some of the tools I use, like my Huion LED lightborad which I love, love love.
Thanks to editor Dionna L. Mann for reaching out to me and for being so helpful. SCBWI members can see the full article here at www.scbwi.org. I think the article came out really well, and I was happy to be able to include process images for my Blissful Bumblebee illustration.
Determined, sleepy bee prepares for a busy day with a fresh cup of coffee.
Week 7 of my 52-week drawing challenge. I’m playing around with giving these a motivational title. The title for this one, Bee Determined, required a little bit of mental gymnastics. I was already done with the inking when my wife came up with the idea of adding motivational titles. Hopefully, next week’s bee illustration will have a more convincing motivational theme!
*Fun Fact: While the coffee mug is modeled after the one my wife uses, the puffy-eyed expression on the bee is totally me pretty much every morning!
I am so happy and honored to be invited to speak to students at Tye River Elementary School about my first children’s book, Short Pump Bump! Here’s the flyer I designed for the event, which is taking place on April 10. This will actually be my first school visit for the book, so I am extra grateful to get the ball rolling!
My visit will include:
A reading of some of my favorite poems from Short Pump Bump
Discussion of how I came up with ideas for the poem illustrations
Samples of my original artwork from the book
Free bookmarks for all the students!
Kids who placed book orders in time will get their signed copies that day!
Bee gets tricked by squirting flower prank on April Fool’s Day.
Sometimes the old gags are the best ones. This is week five of my 52-week drawing challenge. I was so happy with how the expressions came out for my April Fool’s bees. I also had a nice opportunity to play around with some different digital brushes for painting in the foliage.
