Raccoons everywhere

In the past week, I've seen four raccoons while waiting at the bus stop. They're big as corgis and they aren't shy either, they got within about two feet of me just scrounging for something to eat. And they were bandit masks, which makes them extra awesome. I actually got some pics of a few tonight and I'll add them to this post once I edit them a bit.

SCBWI conference

Today was the annual Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators day at Fort Mason. It was a great event with a number of wonderful speakers and fellow artists. There were a few panels of speakers including illustrator Melissa Sweet: http://melissasweet.net/. She has illustrated a number of books including, "Little Red Writing", "Balloons Over Broadway" and "A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin" to name a few of her more recent titles. She is a brilliant artist and an extremely sweet(heh) woman with great insights.

The other speakers were Melissa Manlove and Kritstine Brogno from Chronicle Books and Isabel Warren-Lynch, art director at Random House.

All the panels were informative and very interesting. And it was great seeing all the other artists' work displayed in the portfolio room.

A number of my friends from the Academy were in attendence:
Angela Dominguez: www.andillustrations.com
Hsiao-chi(Alice) Chang: http://verysillyalice.blogspot.com/
Ana Aranda: www.anaranda.canalblog.com
Alex Lee: http://alexleeillustration.blogspot.com/
Sunny Joung Sun Choi: www.sunnyjchoi.com
Isabella Kung: www.isabellakung.com
Summer K. Jeun: http://www.keumjeun.blogspot.com/
Shih-Fen Lin: http://shihfenlin.daportfolio.com/
Alexandria Gold:

And as an added bonus I got to meet the amazingly talented Alina Chau, who was extremely sweet and very pleasant to speak with.
http://alinanimation.blogspot.com/

Please visit at all my friends sites, they all are talented artists and great people. I would post some of their images but I'd rather send you to their sites so you can see all of their work. Plus I don't want to get sued or anything by Melissa Sweet, Alina Chau or any of my friends.

Hummingbird

Another bird. I know, getting boring, but a friend recently pointed out that I don't have very many bird images in any of my portfolios. And with a name like "jordylikesbirds" you'd think I'd have a ton. So Im just trying to pad the bird inventory a bit.

Bandit bird

Another bird tonight, there are just so dern many to choose from and they're all so pretty. And this one wears a little bandit mask.

 The only irritating thing about finding pictures online is that the majority of people who post photos of birds don't bother to include the name of said bird. Which is often saddening because I want to find more info on the bird. 

blue birdy

I found this pretty little blue bird whilst perusing the internet machine today and I had to draw it. Nothing exciting but Im slowly getting back into the daily drawing thing and these are fun little sketches.

And we're back...

Sooo...how've you been? You look well. Things are finally slowing down a bit so I can hopefully get back on my regular schedule within the next couple days. I'll be attending the SCBWI conference at Fort Mason, Saturday where I'll be showered with offers from every major publishing house. Not really, but I will checking people in and drinking lots of free coffee.

But anyways, here's one of the images I've done over the past couple weeks. It's from a story I've been developing called "Dig".

Otter

Well I seem to be on a water/animal kick so I think I'm going to stick with it for a bit. These are fun, quick and fun again. Tonight I did an otter. They float on their backs, cuddle with each other and use their bellies as plates. A-dorbs!

Shark

Another fun one tonight, a happy wittle shark. Gotta do something other than my book projects just to keep things fresh and unmuddled in my dome.

quick bird

Another quick one tonight. Worked most the day on my other projects and then had work work. So when I got home, I just spaced, found a pretty bird and painted a quick sketch.

lil' Drac

Quickie tonight, I drew a lil' Dracula, ain't he cuuute??

Anyhoo, posts are gonna be sparse for the next few weeks, lotta things going down that I have to get ready for. I'll try and squeeze something in every few days or so.

Hitching a ride

No, not the Green Day song, just a little fiddler crab bumming a ride to the beach on the back of a good buddy.

Blimp balloon

I'm not sure if I had seen something similar to this or if I just happen to think of it...maybe in the old arcade game "Rampage"...you know the one with the monsters destroying cities and getting points for it? I digress. But I think the idea of a monster holding a blimp as if it were a balloon is kinda funny. Of course I might be alone on this.

Chain of eating

This sort of image has been done again and again by so many artists. I wanted to join those ranks...so I did one.

Princess and the pterodactyl

I rarely ever draw anything princess related, maybe only once before come to think of it. But, I need to keep broadening my horizons so I must dabble in drawing things that Im not accustomed to drawing. And I didn't make this entirely girly, I added a pterodactyl.

Hawaiian pizza sketch

We got home from the studio today and decided to make a hawaiian pizza and it was an awesome, awesome idea. Adding pineapple to anything automatically makes that dish 47% better. Sadly after such a pleasing dinner, I was only able to muster a sketch. Maybe I'll color it one of these nights.

Happy 79th, gramma

Today my grandma turns 79, and I want to wish her a happy birthday. I wasn't able to see her because she lives in Ohio but I hope she had a great birthday and here's the next fifty.

Whale of a time

I enjoy sea life almost as much as I like birds, maybe its even a tie. The ocean is so fascinating and vast, filled with so many different kinds of life and we're still discovering new species every day. Tonight I drew a whale, the largest mammal on the planet. So big yet so gentle, they just get a bad rap because of that Moby Dick chappy.