Touching base

I just wanted to keep in touch with friends and readers. The How books this close to being done... should be all wrapped up by next week. I'm now working with Scholastic on a fun new book about Hockey. Much to my surprise I got going on the roughs and it just came out. I think when the art director said I could be a bit loose with it that was a big help.

I thought I'd put this image up for now. It's an image I did as promotion and, since my promotion skills are not completely stellar, I thought I could at least show it off here. It's meant to be a game for kids to find the obvious and not so obvious. I think the great big Octopus is clear but you never know when you draw it. :)

How? with Owl Publishing coming soon!

Well it's probably the biggest book I've ever done which has certainly been a challenge but it looks like we're closing in on a finish date! The follow up book to Why?, which we've been working on for almost a year, is called How? It's another question and answer book (written by the talented Catherine Ripley) for kids to discover how things work. I have to say I do enjoy these kinds of books because of the things you learn. Hopefully some of that gets passed onto the kids. But I won't lie, this one has been quite a challenge due to the sheer size of it. It's still not done yet so I should get back to it but just wanted to give people a heads up. I'll keep you posted as to when it's on the shelves.

Other than that I've started on a French reader which will be lots of fun to do. Already talked to the author and it has me thinking I should get over to France for a long overdue visit.

There's a couple of more projects on the boil which hopefully will turn into something but it's bad luck to talk about them until they're signed and sealed.

21 Journeys Launch party

The launch party for 21Journeys was great. Have to say the book turned out really well too. You never know with these things when there are so many people and a wide variety of styles involved. The Ayden Gallery in Vancouver is a perfect location for this kind of thing too because there's other artwork up and there was a band (who sounded great by the way, guess I should have got their name)... definitely a community feeling for a collective effort. If anybody reading this is into comics or graphic novels check out: http://www.cloudscapecomics.com/ It's Vancouver related collective of artists and writers so you have to live here, have lived here or at least be in a close proximity. The art to the right is a page from my story. It's called A Day at the Beach and describes my attempt to keep a journal while traveling. I had the best intentions but got sidetracked very easily. But I guess it all worked out in the end since I got a good story from it.

Mazes and Puzzles

I got to do another puzzle and game spread which is something I really enjoy. This time with Know Magazine, coming out in the next issue. If you have young kids interested in how the world works this is a great mag. Getting to create your own little underwater world is always fun. I would love to see a puzzle done by one of my favourite artists. http://www.pbase.com/csw62/sempe

Highlights

Just came across an image I did for the wonderful people at Highlights... I'm not sure if it ever got used so thought I'd put it up here so somebody gets to see it.

These people are so nice... they actually throw a party for illustrators every year out east in a wonderful garden and home - I think a lot of us can't quite grasp the concept that somebody would do that. We're more used to toiling away unnoticed for hours in darkened studios only dashing out on occasion to grab a coffee then scuttle back to the studio. Ok I exaggerate a bit... One of these years I'll actually make it... even though it involves dressing up and looking silly.

21 Journeys release

Just heard from the bigwigs at Cloudscape that the online version of 21 Journeys is now up for sale at http://www.cloudscapecomics.com/shop/ I've got a little story in there. This is my 3rd anthology with the collective and I've enjoyed them all. It's a great group of people with a wide range of styles. Check it out if you like comic books, and who doesn't like comic books?

Future Architect

Just had the family over and my niece and her daughter were checking out my new book 'Look at that Building' - all about structures and buildings for young kids. Maybe she'll turn out to be an architect like her great grand dad. I'm pretty sure she looked at the book for about a second and then caught sight of something shiny but luckily my nephew caught the moment.

Summertime, summertime

Summer continues to elude us up here in Vancouver... or I guess I should say it's around but it sure comes and goes. It seems a lot of people are on holiday now anyway so I'm getting out to the beach when I can and to hang out with friends. Still working on a massive book with Owl Publishing called 'How?' It is coming along great and I can't wait to see the final book. At this stage it's about 95 spreads so that is a lot of questions for the kids to enjoy. I'll put up some samples here.

I'm also really enjoying doing my cartoon, tentatively called Noisyville. It's in a New Yorker style and I'd love to find some kind of venue to show it off regularly. So if anyone has a magazine that needs a bit of humour... I'm your guy. Or of course I can do one just for you!

Hope everybody is having a great summer.