Book Elves

Lovey

Well, it’s not art, but I know what I like!

It’s not art at all, but a picture snapped from my new cellphone. I’ve tested it on some sketches, too, and the stuff comes out halfway decent!

So I’m setting up a Flickr account or something — I’m going to start posting cartoons and drawings sans direct internet access.

(A few minutes later...)

The Flickr account makes it easy to upload, but I’m thinking I’d rather not add another external RSS feed. I need to find a way to post the pictures directly to the site.

Posted on 10 July 2009 | 7:01 am | View Comments

Rustler's Roundup cover

Kai gave me permission to post the finished cover. Shame it can’t really be leather. :D

UPDATE: We got the free proof copy in the mail, and it looks great! But there are a lot of fixes needed--it didn’t come out perfect, like our last one. So it will probably be a while before this one’s ready for sale. Sigh.

Posted on 31 May 2009 | 10:22 am | View Comments

Rustler's Roundup cover finished

Woohoo! Finished the painting.

Have to thank Kai for the help. I know nothing about the necessary gear, so he drew in the saddle and other details for me. He also supplied me with the original conception, and some reference photos.

Posted on 31 May 2009 | 6:38 am | View Comments

More Rustler's progress

Argh, still a lot more to do. And I’m really wishing I had more training for this kind of thing.

I think I’ve got a the blurb ready, too. Kai will edit it for final use, of course:

Easy money--or a quick death!

Joshua Love--the crazy kid with a dark secret--had seen the likes of Chewy Bill Roberts, before. Rustling cattle was easy money--until they got caught. And he was sure Chewy Bill would wind up just like the others, with terror in his eyes and a hole in his head.

Robbing stagecoaches turns out to be even more deadly; when the blood starts flowing, Josh and Bill are branded as outlaws, forever, members of the Amarillas, a ruthless gang of cold-blooded killers.

Josh has other things to worry about: a gunfight over a scheming girl named Jenny, the price tag of a banjo--and a wanted poster with his face on it!

But if the law wants Josh, they’re gonna have to get him before the Amarillas, who now want him dead.

That seems like just enough information, to me.

Posted on 30 May 2009 | 6:44 am | View Comments

Rustler's progress

Just started painting the cover for Rustler’s Roundup.

Doing the little bits in the background, warming up for the foreground main event.

Posted on 29 May 2009 | 8:43 am | View Comments

Rustler's Roundup

The deadline is steaming at us at breakneck speed, and we’ve made the last minute decision for me to produce the art for the cover of Kai’s next book, Rustler’s Roundup, featuring the young criminal Joshua Love. Kai was going to do it with a set of pastels, but the set he got turned out to be cheap and unusable, like crappy sidewalk chalk. So I’m going to try to adapt my Elf Life painting techniques to a more realistic scene. Here’s the pencil drawing, pending details and advice from Kai.

I’ve been needing more excuses to break out of the Elf Life style, anyway. But I’m going to have to finish this up fast, tomorrow. We’re going to shoot for finished color, but will resort to a sepia tone if we run out of time. The material has to be uploaded by Monday.

I’m helping on writing a blurb, too, after writing a blurb for his first one. Kai hasn’t even seen this, yet, but here’s what I’ve got so far:

Easy money--or a quick death!

Joshua Love--the crazy kid outlaw with a dark secret--had seen the likes of Chewy Bill Roberts, before. Rustling cattle was easy money--unless they got caught. And he knew Chewy Bill would wind up just like the others, with terror in his eyes and a hole in his head.

But it was Josh who caught the buckshot, and Chewy Bill would learn that Josh’s wound goes deeper than anyone could ever imagine.

Eh. Working on it.

Posted on 28 May 2009 | 6:40 pm | View Comments