My First, Illustrated Children's Book

It's officially here! My first, fully-illustrated children's book.

I've been working on it, off and on, for quite a while now and am really excited to say that it is now for sale! It's paperback with 32-pages of colorful, fun pictures! You can purchase it here for $15. (The thumbnail may not be showing on the shopping page, it takes a bit of time to show up after building the page...hopefully.)

In about 6-weeks, the book will also be available through Amazon.com and through other distribution channels for libraries, schools and bookstores. But for now, if you are interested you can purchase a copy on my e-store.

It is the perfect book for any father and his daughters.

This is the story of two, very busy, little ladies who decide to put on a ballet about astronauts flying to Mars. The ballet, of course, stars their father as the scary, alien guy.
With charming, colorful illustrations our story starts early in the morning and follows the two girls, and their father, throughout the day as they prepare for their "Night at the Ballet"!

Here is a sample spread from the book.

Character Illustration: Thank You

I've been using the same image for Thank You Cards for a while now. I like this guy's pot belly and earnestness,but I decided to change things up a bit with this new guy...

Mr. Rah Rah Rah Tiger!

Typography Discovery

I love a good display typeface. Who doesn't? I am continually inspired by well designed typefaces used in innovative and creative ways.

I recently stumbled upon Lost Type, a typography co-op. Not only are there beautiful, retro-inspired typefaces, but they can be used on a pay-what-you-can basis. Besides being affordable options for typefaces you may only need to use once or twice, the payment goes directly to the creator. That's a pretty good thing.

Hopefully, people will pay appropriate, real-world amounts for the use of these designs. There are many beautiful fonts here

Guest Chef on the Waterfront

Hey there! I just read, on-line, that this year's Guest Chef on the Waterfront (see previous post) raised $100,000 for this fantastic organization. I like to think the posters and advertising I made for them helped achieve this. (Although, I think the wonderful participants and their awesome food, beer and wine really helped spread the word too!)

Visit Farestart.org to learn more about what they do. It's a great place to volunteer, visit and interact with the Seattle Community. Especially on Guest Chef nights!

Cap'n Chris' Crab Shack

Here's a fun gouache painting inspired by summer, my favorite place to eat crab, and the movie Popeye by Robert Altman. (0ne of my favorite movies, I don't care what anyone says!)

If you'd like, you can buy a print of this painting in my Etsy store!

Octopus Postcard

I think it's time to go to Aquarium! Here's a little postcard I designed to encourage your next visit!

It's always fun to see what's lurking beneath the water. Seattle has a great aquarium. I think my favorite part of the Seattle Aquarium is the room in which you see what lives in the Puget Sound. It's a great big bubble of a room with fish, and other creatures living in the water, swim all around you!

Now, I live near the National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD. This is definitely one of the best in the world. It's been way too long since I've been. But, one of my favorite exhibits was always the rain forest room... and the sharks, of course! Oooo.... and the penguins!

Typography Exploration

Here's a little typography exploration I did today using Caslon Old Face Heavy. It's a quote from "All's Well That End's Well" by Shakespeare. Actually, still working on this concept and hope to incorporate a little illustration into it as well.