Tossed About

It's been a month since I last posted! ...and that is explicitly not acceptable. I promise to at least make an attempt to blog regularly and without the gaps I've thus far been leaving in between.

Today I spent 5 hours STRUCTURING AN AI FILE. Seriously. That's what I did for the dayjob today. Don't say I never told you about it. : ) ...Not to say I don't do more fun stuff for the dayjob, but that was today's requirement.

In the first moments after dropping Lisa off at work, and buckling down to the drastic and infinitesimally precise songs of Adobe Illustrator, I was privy to a lovely article on PhysOrg.com where I learned about the most amazing conjoining of awesome things next to the International Squid Calculator. Mushrooms. Mushrooms and LIGHTNING. Apparently, electricity shooting along the surface of the earth will make fungus multiply. Once again, science gives credence to the folk wisdom garnered through long observation. Not always, of course, but it happens often enough that I just wish scientists would set out to test as much folklore as possible for demonstrable results.

Some people might recall I mentioned a set of deadlines coming up over the the next 3 months! I can tell you all what they are now, and show you some sketches, though not specify which were chosen for final artwork in a few cases (NDAs are common in this business). The first project is the soon-to-be-delivered woodcut ex libris for a fellow down in Virginia, final sketch below:

The second project is for StarShipSofa Stories, a print collection by the fine folks at StarShipSofa Podcasts. The sketches I submitted below are for an interior illustration (hence, b&w) to accompany Tides by Tobias Buckell. I really enjoy Tobias' work, and this short story is a really cool one that I hope you all enjoy as much as I did when I read it. Not sure when this comes out in print.

Sadly, I missed the deadline for this latest ArtOrder challenge, though here are the sketches I had done for it (before I got swamped with stuff and couldn't do the final art). Oddly enough, in composing a wolf/rat/snake, I didn't realize how much Eastern dragons are based on similar animals, and it was turning out too close to one of those. So no wolf/rat/snake for me. A mantis shrimp/wombat was another idea but I couldn't get it to look right. In the end, I was going to go with the fungitoad in some sort of guard-dog position at a town gate/city docks, and I'll probably do that myself when I have a moment, since I really l like the image. : ) The small child gestures are from a day spent downtown watching people frolic in the sun.

And that's what I've been up to. I have more for you later, but this is enough for today, methinks. : ) Enjoy your evening! It's raining nicely here!