GJ's January Poster

COVER

The dummy book is done!! And it only took me about a week and half. Here is the idea for the cover art. Anyone want to see the dummy just let me know, I can email it too you. Its a 4MG PDF.

At The Babysitter's - Full Color Spread

So this is the first page of At The Babysitter's. In this picture Mom is dropping the boys off at the sitter's. Of course to the boys, who are way too imaginative and over dramatic, they are being left in prison guarded by a huge orc. The following page is the punchline where you see the shot how it really is: A working mom who is saying goodbye to a couple of cute boys standing next to the sitter. The contrast of the two, imagination and reality, is the gag.
Style: I like the look of flat color backgrounds and sketchy drawings contrasted with fully rendered points of interest.(like the mother/barbarian queen for example) I want to keep it as painterly as possible, with voice bubbles and large text. I'm hoping to bridge the gap between comics/fantasy art with children's book art. I hope it works! :)

At The Babysitter's Character Design

Some Character Design for "At the Babysitter's". On the left is The Queen (AKA the main character's mother) and on the right is The Britney.
I threw in some voice bubbles just for fun.

Sketch of the day

Fun with Photoshop

So this is some work I did for my church's 2010 stewardship campaign. The theme is "pressing on". Images like these will be used for bulletins, brochures, mailers, power point backgrounds and banners. I thought I'd post these to show before and after pictures of the images I was given/used. Oh the joys of Photoshop and Illustrator.

At The Babysitter's

Okay I better preface this story. It's about A kid and his brother who's mom has to go to work during the day so she drops them off at the babysitters until she gets home from work. The story is narrated in journal entry style from one of the kid's point of view as he describes the course of one full day at the babysitter's. But he thinks he's a Warlord or something so his point of view is really wacked and entertaining. Hope you enjoy.

At The Babysitter's

by CEN 10/30/2009

Journal Entry #1We are being held captive, Michael and I. The Queen Mother left us in a foreign land as prisoners. She was going on a voyage and did not trust us while she was away. She thought we would revolt. . . So she left us here, in a dungeon, and promised we'd be here until we died, or until dinner time. She is, after all, a ruthless Queen.

Entry #2 We are endlessly watched by a guard, one we do not speak of. I caught the name only once and it was enough to make me shutter. The name was. . . Britney. Our jailer reports to a queen, an empress that lurks in the shadows somewhere, toiling over her plots. The jailer threatens to tell the queen when we do not obey her.

Entry #3 We have been left here for hours with out any food or sustenance. I am faring better than Michael. I had a bowl of Cheerios before I was brought to this place, but Michael, Michael had skipped breakfast. A warrior should never skip breakfast. Its the most important meal of the day. . .

We found a mouse in the corner of one of the cells. We tried to catch it for food but the jailer told us we were not allowed to eat Snowflake. What a strange land we are captives in? They even name their vermin.

Entry #4 We have spotted something. Out across the land lives our archenemies, Devin and Kevin. Twins with orange hair. The Britney, as they call her, is an enemy but The Evins are far worse. Now we watch them play happily as we rot in prison. Its more than we can bare.

Entry #5 We have been very busy planning our escape and our attack on The Evins. We found some crayons and drew out elaborate plans. If we can only convince The Britney to take us outside we will make our move. Our plan is to use bait, a game called “House”. It's pure torture but it might be worth it for a chance to run. . . if we survive it.

Entry #6 Success! We made it outside the prison walls. During an extra horrible game of House Michael, “The Dog”, cleverly ran away and I, “the eldest son” had to go get him back. We had no intentions of coming back. We ran for it. The Britney threatened tell her queen but Michael cleverly called her a chicken so she joined our ranks. We have a new found ally. . . for now.

Entry #7 We started preparations for war. We have at least 10 snowballs, at least! Well-packed and icy. But unfortunately The Evins have gotten word of our plans. Now they are making their own preparations. We fear the worst. In the last battle we had, only two kids lived. I survived but Michael died.

Entry #8 It's time. The moment we have been dreading is finally here. The Evins requested to speak with our general so I jumped on a horse and rode out to meet them. Kevin made fun of my horse. Kevin! He's so like that. I told him it was The Britney's horse and that's why it is all pink with stupid tassels. This is an insult we cannot bear. It's time for war!

Entry #9 Oh, the horrors of War. I'm drafting a letter to The Britney's Queen Mother.

My Dear Queen,

Your daughter fought brave and true, right to the last. May someday the tragedy of this senseless war appeal to the angels of our better nature.

With Love

General Mayhem

Entry #10 Spoiled! I regret to report that the war was a complete failure! We were so close to victory when The Evins' Queen, Mrs. The Evins, came out with hot cocoa and the promise of grilled cheese. I am shamed to report it but we made a treaty. After all we hadn't had our rations for hours.

Entry #11 Now that the war is over we can bury those we've lost. We had a funeral for The Britney. I gave a eulogy but she didn't like it.

Entry #12 How does an old soldier cope with life after war? We wander the hallways haunted by the memories of battle. There is nothing to sooth our war-torn nerves but cartoons.

Entry #13 The Queen is returning! We will go home as Heroes. The Britney is sad to see us leave. She wants a hug and a kiss goodbye but we know that she has cooties.

Entry #14 It's all over. The day has gone and the night has come. I, the old general, am dying. They have laid me down on my funeral pyre but I know my memory will live on. My Epitaph will forever read:

“He died of cooties.”

The End

Just for fun

So this was just for fun. actually I ripped it from an illustration from my new book. I thought it was really cool as a stand alone piece. Maybe it could be a label on a bottle or something? Who knows. I just like it when illustration is arranged in a graphic design kinda way. or maybe its the other way around: instead of using Adobe Illustrator to give it that clean logo look, you illustrate logos and hand-letter the type... does that make sense? Either way its the best of both worlds, graphic design and illustration.

NOV GJ's

The penguin uprising is coming. . . hear you me.

Here are some pages and character design from the new book idea.

New Story Idea

This is some character design for my next book idea. It has no working title as of yet. Maybe "Adventure Box"?? Its about a girl who thinks her life is not exciting enough so she goes on an adventure inside her adventure box. as long as she is inside the adventure box, she is on an adventure. She brings her little bro along, who has an infectious, fun-loving personality. He ends up having a much better time than she does. the moral of the story: don't take anything for granted. Life, itself is an adventure.

My vision for it is that it will be completely black and white and orange. And, of course, the use of orange is symbolic. Also some imagery reoccurs. Her little brother likes to make drawings that are really just orange scribbles. These drawings he likes to pass out to people along the adventure. According to his older sister, they are just scribbles, according to a world of black and white they are the most beautiful things around.

Hope to get it actually done by January so lets see if it happens. If so I'll let you know!!

More "If You Love Me"

These are some of my interior pages to my "If You Love Me" dummy book that's just a few pages away from completion. : ) What to with it after it's done? Not sure yet. I'm not in a huge hurry to mail it off to anyone. maybe i'll just show it off at conferences and stuff?? who knows. If you want to know more about the story I wrote and am currently fleshing out you can check my very first post ever on this blog.

Anyway, let me know what you think about the text. It's kind of an experiment but i really like it.

If You Love Me Cover

Gj's October

An epic penguin brawl over an i-pod. It happens in Antarctica way more often than you'd think.

Sept GJ's Poster

Forte Communications Cover

My first real gig as a graphic designer. So fun! quite a challenge too. Hope you enjoy.

Sketchbook Summer 2009

Just a few pages from the old sketch book I had this summer. Just so you don't think I was slacking off. : )

Danger Beast

This song is a lullaby for a kid that thinks he's a danger beast. Hope you enjoy.

Commision Work

These pictures I completed for a local historian that lectures on the Dragoon Springs Massacre which happened just East of Tucson in the Dragoon Mountains. The main character of this crazy onslaught was the only survivor who managed to fight off his attacker. He ended up loosing an arm. Sorry, I know it kinda scary but its history.

Dirty As A Dog

I stayed at my parent's house over the weekend so I was Photoshop-less!!! But I was able to get a couple pages filled up in my sketchbook and here is my favorite one of the weekend. The bottom half is the bulletin from church that I scribbled on during the service then I pasted it in to the old sketchbook after I got home. The top half is the rest of the day's scribblings. Hope you enjoy.