...another White Wolf piece in progress...

...of a faceless angel hovering over/protecting a modern-day holy knight of the church.

some White Wolf "Hunters" art in progress

Above and below are some more White Wolf pieces in progress at the penciled stage. I'll be adding a few more pieces here in the next few days (probably) and then once I've done some painting and inking (and maybe a small bit of digital tweaking) I'll post some of the finishes. Many of these pieces are a bit edgy/PG-13 as they are depictions of human "hunters" who are at war with demons, witches, and ghouls in one of the fantasy worlds within the White Wolf universe. Creepy fun! :)

Charlie Huston rocks!

Just a quickie to say that I finished the the "Henry Thompson" trilogy written by Charlie Huston. They are as follows: CAUGHT STEALING, SIX BAD THINGS, and A DANGEROUS MAN. As I wrote in a previous post, I wasn't sure if I'd like these as much as the SO good Joe Pitt vampire P.I. books, but now I'm completely torn on which I enjoyed the most (for similar and very different reasons).

Anyhow, I just wanted to publicly tip my hat for the man. He's got 2 trilogies out as well as a stand-alone that came out last summer (next on my list) and another book due in September. Quite an accomplishment considering his first book came out in 2004.

I should have some new art to post shortly. Until then, read some books, watch the final season of The Wire (YOWZA!) and check out the FX series (now on DVD) "Damages" -- solid serialized TV!

Bit more art and 30 Days of Night

One more clipped portion of art and a character pose for an upcoming White Wolf book. Always a lot of fun!

Saw "30 Days of Night" last night, and while it was missing certain story elements that could have made it stronger and more compelling, we enjoyed it more than we'd hoped (we gave it 4 out of 5 stars on Netflix). It even gave me a creepy nightmare last night that is too weird to explain, so I won't even try. For any horror movie fans that aren't afraid of a little blood (okay, more than "a little"), check it out!

Art and Charlie Huston

Here's a clipped portion of one of the previous images with some ink and washes added.

Oh, and I'm on to the author Charlie Huston's other (non-vampire) novel series that begins with "Caught Stealing." I wasn't sure if I'd like it as much as the others (which were GREAT) because of the lack of vampires and zombies, but so far it's quite a page-turner. If you're looking for well-written, edgy, gritty noir that'll grab hold of you for some escapism, then I highly recommend his books!

Happy weekend all!

Jim

Some Art (and Gone Baby Gone)

These're some small cropped clippings of art (at the pencil stage -- there's more to be done indeed!) for a fun White Wolf book I'm working on amidst other projects. These books are always a lot of fun!

Also, has everyone out there seen the movie "Gone Baby Gone" ? Laini and I Netflixed it and watched it last night and WOW we enjoyed it SO much! It has much more of a noir feel to it than I ever imagined. Plus, I'm such a freaking sucker for movies/novels/comics where the main character isn't necessarily the baddest in the room, but they sure as hell aren't about to take any crap. It makes me want to re-watch the clever little movie "Brick" from a year or two ago.

Along those noir lines, lately I've been reading the Charlie Huston novels featuring the vampire P.I., Joe Pitt, AND having a weekly "Revenge Movie Night" with the guys (okay, and a few girls too sometimes), so I'm feeling very immersed in that vibe lately...and it's gooooooood! :)

Later!
Jim

BANG! and bass

First off, many thanks to those who left kind comments about our baby news (!!), to all those who sent e-mails and called, and for the generous gifts that we've received already too! Amazing kindness out there, so thank you again! We're very excited!

Secondly, I've been hired on to a VERY cool book project that I'm pretty sure I can discuss fairly soon, but I'll just say that it involves one of my all time favorite authors, creepy kids, and aliens! The deadline will probably come up pretty quickly and I'll see if I can post some art in the near future.

Lastly, the drawings above are just some images that I'm using as part of two gifts for some great friends of mine -- but they don't blog, so this shouldn't result in any spoilers (I hope!).

Be well!
Jim

Radiohead (and other music & podcasts too!)

Working in the studio I have a rotation of what I listen to depending on my mood or what I'm doing at the time. For example, whenever I'm reading a script or story to illustrate -- straight on through the brainstorming and thumbnailing/layout stage -- I'll usually have either classical or ambient music or just plain old silence. Pretty much all of my other working time I am SO thankful to have such great options to listen to while I work. There's streaming internet radio from around the world (for free!!), or I can listen to music from my iTunes library (most of it purchased through eMusic.com but organized in my iTunes player), or choose from the fantastic variety of podcast options that are available for free (!!) online and at the iTunes store. I also toss in a fair amount of listening to C-SPAN (especially during election season), and of course NPR and some selected Air America programming.

Anyhow, nothing profound to say here (obviously!) but having so many options to choose from for a soundtrack of sorts to one's working time (when you want it) is a plus in my book.

This rambling post is accompanied by a Radiohead sketch I drew while Laini and I watched some Masterpiece Theater the other night. The likenesses aren't necessarily the greatest, but I tried to do it loosely and without erasing, so that's what you get I suppose ;)

Adequan Canine for Dog Arthritis

I've titled this post with care much like Laini had over a year ago for canine nasal tumors, so that if someone out there was Googling the subject, this post and info would come up.

Briefly here, our dog Leroy has had a limp for about 4 years. Initially, we started putting him on human Glucosamine Chondroitin as suggested by some friends AND our vet. His limp never seemed to get any worse from that point on, and he mostly only limped a bit right after he'd get up from a long nap. He still went on his long walks with us (30 - 45 minutes a day) and he still ran like a maniac in the back yard. Then, early in May '07, his right leg swelled up quite profoundly one morning after he and I returned from our walk. I called the vet and we took him in for x-rays. The X-Rays showed "severe arthritis" and that Leroy actually didn't have much padding (if any) left between his bones on his right leg elbow joint (the doctor assumed that it was the same for his left leg since, until that morning, that had been the leg he'd been slightly favoring for several years).

So, the vet prescribed Synovi G3 (to provide fatty acids and glucosamine), and the non-steroid pain reliever Rimadyl. The latter helped to reduce his swelling, and along with a break from walks for several weeks, on-leash visits ONLY to the back yard, and being carried up & down the stairs of our home, his swelling went down in a couple of days. However, the combination of meds wasn't really seeming to get rid of his limp, which had gotten fairly substantial at that point. What to do, what to do?!

So, wanting to do more for him, I did some research on the internet and found this, this, and this. (Now, I'm not necessarily sales-pitching the last site, but that's where I've gotten Leroy's Adequan ever since and it's about $25 cheaper per bottle than it would be at the vet). Anyhow, after this research, and knowing not to necessarily trust everything you read online, I consulted with a couple of the doctors at our fantastic vet clinic. One doctor hadn't used it but had heard great things about it, and the other had used it quite successfully in the past. I ordered 2 bottles online and we began the twice-weekly IM (intramuscular) shots in his butt muscle for the recommended dosage for his weight for 4 weeks. Then once a week for 4 weeks, and then maintenance shots every 2 to 3 weeks thereafter. I should note that IM shots can be done at home after you've been trained on how to give them, but since we live so close to our vet, and since their techs there REALLY know what they're doing, we've had them give him the shots all this time.

I should also explain that basically, the Adequan provides a cushion in the joint where there used to be cartilage, etc. and keeps him from having bone-on-bone contact in his elbows every step of the way all day long.

Now, I'm certainly not proclaiming that Leroy's AMAZING recovery is purely because of the shots, because he's always been a very muscular, strong, and amazingly tough dog, but 8 months later, we've been slowly returning back to his long-walk route (we got there about 6 weeks ago!). Also, he still takes Rimadyl as prescribed by his vet, and he still gets Synovi G3 mixed in with his food (but not on or around the days where he's getting Adequan shots). We have to keep him relatively lean to reduce the weight his legs have to carry, and he can't ever be outside off-leash because he still wants to take off running like he used to, and the threat of a piece of bone breaking off at the joint is much more likely if he goes off running like a nut. BUT all of that is a small price to pay for having him around, happy, and pretty darn healthy for a 14+ year old dog.


For anyone who might be reading this with a dog in similar circumstances, I hope this information helps!

2008 already? Yikes!

A message from our buddy Leroy:

Ditto! And from all three of us: Happy New Year Everyone!

Belated Thanksgiving (pie!) post and some warm-up art

This is a drawing I was warming up with the other day and then I put in some paint to screw around a bit before getting to work. Not much else that I've done that I can show here, so...on to some Thanksgiving pictures!

Laini and I hosted a smaller crowd than we have in recent years (my awesome mom, and my sister and her family weren't able to make it up this year, darnit) but we still made WAY too much food. Good thing we like left-overs (speaking of which, we polished those off tonight at dinner -- sigh...)

Here's a pic taken by Laini's mom at our dinner table:



Her sweet mom had gotten me this (highly recommended!) pie cookbook for my last birthday:



And here're a few pix of the pie-making process, including the (if I may say so myself!) impressive cross-section pic once we started cutting it!







Oh, and lastly, for those who've been following Laini's blog about how nature has been coming to attack us, here's the latest assault. That's right, murderous seagulls!

Jim at work, Floater art, & a tattoo design

I can't really show what I'm currently working on, but below is a pic of me from yesterday shortly after beginning the drawing for...something. Our dog Leroy, who's ever-present wherever we are, was lying on one of his beds to my left (out of the frame). (I'll have to put up a post about him real soon and the great med injections he's been getting that have been working wonders for his arthritis. Love that dog! :)

In case anyone is wondering, I'm working on a large sheet of 500 series Strathmore plate bristol board (my preferred drawing surface). This paper is SO resilient and can really hold up to an amazing amount of erasing and re-drawing without wearing out, AND it's great for watercolors, oils, whatever (if you're going to oil paint on it though, you do have to prepare the surface). Anyhow, at this stage I was lightly laying out the placement of everything in the piece with a "2H" pencil, and then I'll switch to my handy-dandy mechanical pencil with it's "B" lead once I know where everything's going.

Also, here's the whole piece I did for the band Floater a month or so ago. I'd put up a small portion of it previously, but since it's been a while, it's on their MySpace page, and they've been selling t-shirts of the design, I figured it'd be okay. This piece was actually done on Strathmore watercolor cold press paper with "Calli" jet black india ink and a dip pen/pen nib:

Lastly, a really nice guy who's been a supporter of my art ever since Laini and I published THE DROWNED with Image Comics (in 2004) hired me a couple weeks ago to re-interpret the tattoo that the John Constantine character has on both of his forearms in the movie "Constantine" (a movie that Laini and I LOVED!). The design is called the "sulfur of perfection," and the movie's based on a Vertigo Comics series titled "Hellblazer" which has been anywhere from great to awful depending on who's written it over the years. Here's Keanu sporting the tats (at one point in the movie he presses the two tattoos together and speaks a spell to summon an angel played by Tilda Swinton (awesome!)):

And here's the tattoo slightly redesigned by me:

Speaking of Hellblazer and John Constantine, I'd done some pages for Vertigo on spec (i.e.- for free. Blech! Glad to have that part of my career behind me!) about 5 years ago, but didn't get hired at the time (waaah! Actually, since I'm not sure that I could have kept up on a monthly book, it was probably for the best! :) If anyone's interested, 2 of those pages can be seen here and here.

The TV Equation

Does anyone know what happened on "Heroes" this past Monday? (I missed it) -- oh wait, I just don't care anymore. In fact, I came across this scientific study conducted at several top Universities nationwide about the show and it's current level of quality:

Lame season finale + lame premiere + lame 2nd week episode = bye bye!!

Hmm. Makes sense to me.

Not For Robots apparel and...Vlad the Installer!

I met a lot of very kind folks at the Kidlitosphere Conference this past weekend, and some of them were kind enough to say very nice things about the cover I did for Laini's book and about my art in general (thanks everyone! :) One of the most vocal was the (very talented herself) author, Kidlitosphere organizer, and wonderfully silly Robin Brande. One of the things we talked about once or five times was how much she'd like a t-shirt design done of the "Not For Robots" banner and also of the cropped "Not A Robot" design that Laini had printed up as a pin and was giving out all weekend. It features some art I did for Laini's banner and when she mentioned it, I felt silly that I hadn't thought of that either. Anyhow, thanks Robin, and here are three of the shirt options among others on my Cafe Press store:





I should note for those interested, that if you DO happen to order a shirt or other apparel item, request the "Heat Transfer" printing option whenever it's available for that item. It's not always an option depending on the shirt style, but I think it looks much better.

**********

As Laini mentioned on her blog yesterday, we were supposed to have our almost 50 year old furnace replaced yesterday by an installer named Vlad. She also mentioned that I immediately called him (to Laini, not to him) "Vlad the Installer." (click here, if you're not sure where my (bad???) pun comes from). Our suspicions grew when he first showed up REALLY early for the appointment:



And then he asked me to help him get the new furnace out of the box:



Okay, enough with the bad jokes (maybe). Actually, as it turns out, he didn't end up doing the job since some building code or other required him to put in a "return air" vent and he didn't seem to want to get into our crawl space (he said there were too many pipes between the heater's base and where the vent would go) and because of that, he didn't think the job could be done and left. Right after he left, I looked down in the crawl space and guess what???? Not a single pipe! So, Vlad, I'm not sure why you didn't want to install our heater, but know that an hour later, another installer was out here saying he could totally do the job completely up to code AND (!!! bonus!!!) he wouldn't try to snack on our necks.

Kidlitosphere Conference 2007

WOW! Laini and I got home last night after attending the First Annual Kidlitosphere conference for bloggers, blurkers, blauthors (um, I mean "authors") and all around book lovers (blovers?) in Illinois. We had a FANTASTIC time, and as with the SCBWI conferences and the San Diego Comic Con, we're always sad to leave a gathering that has so many creative like-minded people with similar interests. BUT we felt like we made many new friends and we love seeing the power of blogs and how it can truly create a tight-knit community from around the world even before anyone ever meets face-to-face: awesome!

Well, I'm absolutely CERTAIN I'm going to forget to mention everyone here, so please forgive me for that, and feel free to file your complaints here. Seriously though, know that I truly enjoyed all of the interactions I had with everybody and I look forward to having next year's conference here in Portland!!!

Here is a smattering of pics from the conference:
Me with very funny author & blogger Christopher Rowe, his funny-as-well wife the writer & blogger Gwenda Bond and the podcasting duo of Andrea Ross and Mark Blevis.
Andrea and Mark hold a special place in my heart over our long bonding conversation about the show Arrested Development (RIP).

The five of us had such a silly and fun conversation and I think this oddly-cropped photo does a good job of capturing the good time:


Here's a nice pic of author Ellen Klages and the conference's organizer, the author and blogger Robin Brande:


Here's me with author and nice guy Barry Lyga of the book "The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl" which I REALLY enjoyed and highly recommend (it was on my Christmas wish list last year and Laini came through for me! :)

I had fun hearing about his upcoming books and projects he's working on AND got to witness an iPhone demo (okay, several iPhone demos!) from him. It was so handy and he showed great patience in taking Google and IMDB requests. I think his "demos" might have had some influence on Bill's iPhone purchase the next day!

And speaking of Bill, he and his wife Pam (she's the blogger Motherreader, and he's by default "Fatherreader") were such a blast to get to know. I hope your trip to the Threadless store was everything I imagine it to be! (I'm very envious btw! :) Here's a pic with them and a few other great folks at Esme's place:


From left to right, there's Bill with his new iPhone somewhere close at hand I'm sure, blogger and reviewer Ann Boles Levy, the author, blogger, and hostess extraordinaire Esme Raji Codell in the red & white checkerboard, Bill's wife Pam in the red (Threadless!) t-shirt, the blogger & reviewer and Texas librarian Camille Powell, my lovely wife Laini (smooch!), the quite funny blogger and reviewer Liz Burns, and the opinionated in a very good way Gregory K. Pincus. What a nice bunch of people!

We also got to spend some time with someone who's been a champion for Laini's book even months before it's publication, Betsy Bird (thanks to Laini's awesome editor Tim Travaglini and the wonderful marketing staff at G.P. Putnam's sons for getting those ARCs out!). Betsy runs the Fuse #8 column with the School Library Journal and it was SO nice to have the opportunity to chat with her once again.


I don't have a photo of us with them, but we also had a nice time getting to know author and blogger Sara Lewis Holmes and blogger, Cybil's co-founder, and reviewer Kelly Herold. They were two of the first people I got to meet on Friday and they couldn't have been nicer (thanks ladies!). And to Faith who doesn't blog, if you're reading this, you were a lot of fun to chat with too! Thanks for the kind words about my cover -- it meant a lot! :) And to blogger/reviewer and librarian Stacy Dillon, so nice to meet you and thanks for wanting a sketch! I hope I didn't ruin your poster with my squigglings!

As I said above, Laini and I are REALLY looking forward to next year's conference and are VERY glad that blogger and friend Jone MacCulloch suggested our awesome city of Portland as the location! Laini and I will do our best to help her organize everything and coordinate the event -- it should be a lot of fun!

Well, that concludes my longest post in quite a long time. It certainly has the most links I've ever done -- sheesh! If anyone notices an improper link, misspelling, or some misinformation, let me know and I'll correct it asap! And to those I failed to mention, please know that I had a great time meeting you as well and hope to see you again next year or sooner!

Postcards & TV

A couple times a year I get promotional postcards printed up to mail to current and (hopefully) new clients. I've always gone through Vistaprint and so far so good on the quality. My friend Kelly (who's had an amazing year and a half as a new artist!) told Laini and me about them about a year or so ago -- thanks Kelly! The above imagery is what'll be on the front of the upcoming batch & I'm looking forward to sending them out into the great unknown.

*Do right by me little ones!*

And as Laini had said in a recent post, it's TV season once again & we always watch a few new shows to see if there's anything nerdy & delicious we might be missing. After a week of watching a select few new shows (Chuck, Reaper, Bionic Woman) and a couple of returning season premieres, I can pretty confidently say that we'll NOT be adding anything to the 2 or 3 shows that we normally watch (The Office, 30 Rock, and Heroes -- although the latter may very well get dropped in a week or two if the LAZY LAZY writing and lame-o plotting from the finale last year and premiere last week continues. Consider yourself on notice "Heroes" !!!) This is actually a big relief since we won't feel like we're "missing" anything worthwhile when we work late into the night (not that the other 3 new shows I mentioned were necessarily bad, but they didn't really hook me either -- I blame it on shows like "The Wire" and "The Shield" for spoiling me and making me see the true potential for a show. Sadly both of those shows are going to air their final seasons soon *sniff sniff*)

Lastly, I'd post new art, but I don't think I can show even some of the preliminary stuff I'm doing right now, so expect more warm-ups like some of the more recent posts and maybe even some looser sketches. We'll see.

Ciao!
Jim

Inkie Girl #3

Did some yard work early this morning and felt like drawing something before I started writing. I did the straight-to-inks thing again and messed with it in Photoshop for a bit -- now I'm off to write!

Cafe Press store updated

I put two new images up as options to buy on shirts & a couple other products. The shirt options above both come in several colors too. Just click here to view or order if you're interested. Thanks!

Coat of Arms (detail)

I'll post the whole thing once I get the a-ok, but until then, here's a small snippit from the heraldry I designed for Floater. Hope you likey ;)

Inking Practice

I'm working on a coat of arms for the (amazing imho!) Portland-based band Floater and had some time to kill while waiting for the "Green Light" to begin working on the final design. I love to do warm-up pieces in general especially if I'm about to start a final piece of art. And working on what my mind perceives to be a "real" piece in between waiting to hear back from a client is tough (for crazy ol' me at least, unless it's going to be more than a few hours, in which case I'm fine) because I'm too distracted wanting to know if they're going to want another rough or will give the go ahead. I've got to get over this, like, right NOW, and be able to shift from one project to the other while waiting for approval because I've got plenty to keep me busy! But at the same time, a little warming-up is never a bad thing! (right? anybody...?)

So anyhow, here's a piece I worked on to warm up for the "House of Floater" coat of arms (just so you know, this is NOT a reflection of any of the subject-matter in the coat of arms :) On this one I pretty much just started drawing with the pen nib and didn't stop to correct anything until I was done. It's always very satisfactory when it flows out without any real screw-ups and also is a great confidence-booster before starting a more methodical finished piece.

By the way, Floater will be playing at Bumbershoot this weekend & if you're lucky enough to be there, make sure you do NOT miss them as they are simply AMAZING live!

Once the finished piece is done and the band has given me the A-OK I'll post it here.