Happy Fourth of July!

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And what better way to usher in this day of independence than with a little felony property damage? That’s just what happened to us. A bit after midnight someone was screwing around outside and lit off some explosives in our mailbox. Yes, there was mail in it. And the backend blew all the way up to the porch. Completely shredded the box. And the mail.

So, to make lemonade out of lemons, I figured I’d take some pictures and make them all artsy (by that, I mean black and white) for you all.

Anyhow, Trevor filed a police report and the officer told him it was a felony. But, of course, no one will ever get charged because we don’t know who did it. My money’s on damn punk kids.
 

Secret – Comic Book Page 1 & 2

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I really liked that comic book page I did for Illustration Friday, so I decided to expand it.  This is the 2-page spread that would go immediately before the one in my previous post.  Click the image for a larger version.  I have an idea what would come next, but I’m not sure if I’ll continue the series.  I guess it depends on what I feel like and whether people want to see more.

Illustration Friday – Secret – 2

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Lucky you, two Illustration Friday pieces this week. Don’t get used to it.  🙂

EDIT:  This would be page 3 in the series.  The next post has page 1 & 2.

Stolen Bumper Sticker

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Someone pulled a bumper sticker off my car while it was in a parking lot.  How rude!  However, I’m not sure it had the effect that the person intended.

As you may have guessed, it was a political bumper sticker.  Nothing offensive. It was just an old Obama 2008 sticker.

See what you made me buy, Mr. Bumper Sticker Thief?

I can only assume that some conservative Republican pulled it off because they don’t like Obama.  But let’s think about this for a minute.  If you pull a bumper sticker off my car, then I have to replace it.  In the case of an Obama sticker, that means paying Obama’s campaign fund to send me a new one.  Which means that, because of this person’s actions, I just donated five dollars to Obama’s re-election campaign which I otherwise would not have.  I can only speculate that this was not the result that this person was going for.

As a side note, I also had a Darwin fish magnet on my car which they didn’t even touch, which puzzles me.  I always thought that was far more offensive than the Obama one.  After all, the campaign sticker just supports the Democratic candidate.  The Darwin fish insults Creationists.

People are strange.

Let’s Talk Nooks

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I know, I know.  Isn’t this supposed to be an illustrator’s blog?  Well, it’s mine, so I’ll veer off the topic when I feel like it. Today I’d like to talk about my nook.

I had a 1st generation nook with 3G. I must say I was pretty impressed with Barnes & Noble’s customer support. My original never had working 3G and they replaced it, no questions asked. Well, it was in the warranty period, so I suppose they were just honoring that. So, no serious brownie points there. Still, I appreciated it.

For more than a year, I hummed along with no complaints about my nook at all. I love the eInk. I love being able to bring all my books with me wherever I want to. Especially on vacations. I love the “Don’t Panic” bumper sticker I put on the cover because I thought it was funny. (If you don’t get the reference, go read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. You will thank me.)

But a couple weeks ago I had another problem. Somehow between page turns something broke in the screen. (No, I did NOT drop it!)  There was a stripe of the screen that wouldn’t refresh. Effectively obscuring the first character or character-and-a-half on the lower half of the page. It was annoying to read that way.

So, I took it to B&N, knowing that at a year and a half of age, the thing was out of warranty. They confirmed that the screen was broken and I’d have to buy a whole new nook. However, they kindly offered me what they called an out-of-warranty exchange. This is a deep discount on the price of a replacement Simple Touch to replace my broken 1st gen. I could have a $30 reconditioned one or a $50 new one. Since I was resigned to paying $139 for a new Simple Touch Glowlight (or $99 without the glowlight) I figured that was a pretty good deal. Plus, I’m cheap. So, why pay $99 when I don’t have to?

I ordered the replacement and a new cover for it. I got both of those in the mail today.

A few things I didn’t realize about the nook Simple Touch.

  1. Simple Touch (and Simple Touch with Glowlight) do not have 3G. Bummer. But I don’t use it THAT often. So, deep breath, relax. I can deal.
  2. It does not have any games. I’m not talking about anything sophisticated, but my 1st gen had Sudoku and chess. I liked my little Sudoku game. *sigh* But it’s a eReader, not a gameboy, so I’ll suck it up.
  3. It has no web browser. I was in disbelief over this because I knew I’d talked to someone awhile ago after the touch screen first came out and she said it did have a browser. Am I remembering wrong? No, I am not. It used to have a browser. Not a good browser, but a browser none-the-less. But some internet research has informed me that it no longer exists. B&N took the web browser off of its Simple Touch.This is really annoying. The 1st gen had a rudimentary browser which was useful when traveling and away from the computer. We don’t have any smart phones or ipads in our house and I rarely take the laptop out with me. So, the 1st gen’s browser was kinda useful on occasion.

So, why am I not feeling all disappointed over my new nook which isn’t living up to my expectations?  (Okay, I am a little disappointed, but not too bad.)

‘Cause now I have a really good excuse to try rooting it.  If all goes well, I’ll end up with an eInk tablet.  If not, I end up with a $50 brick.  What do you think?  Should I void the warranty?  *evil grin*

Red Circle

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This image popped into my head the other day and wouldn’t leave me alone.  No idea why.  Not my typical sort of art.  I’m not even sure if it’s art or not.  But it was insistent.  So.  Here you go.

Working on Merging Blog and Website

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Okay, as you might have noticed here, I’m merging my website and my blog. I’ll be fiddling with it on and off for the next few days until I get it just as I want it. So, if something’s not quite right, please ignore it. I’ll probably get it fixed soon.

Yay! Local SCBWI Conference Art Update

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Remember that Let’s Make Magic poster I posted awhile ago?  If you remember, it was created to be used as promo art for my local SCBWI Annual Conference.  Well, they decided to use it.  Yay!  Actually, it was a bit of a cop-out.  They had three entries that they couldn’t decide between, so they decided to use all three.  BUT I AM NOT COMPLAINING!  That’s fine.  I’m happy to share the spotlight.  I just see it as a great opportunity to have my work seen by professionals in my industry, which is really what I need at this point in my illustration career.  Perhaps it will lead to bigger and better things!  At the very least, it gives me bragging rights.  🙂

Working on Things

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I probably won’t be posting images for a little while. I’ve been busy.

1. I’ve been toying with the idea of merging my blog and website over here on WordPress so it’s all in one place. Right now, I’m hosting my website on iPage. I’m quite proud of the custom designed site I wrote myself (PHP with a mySQL database and custom administrator interface) but it would be nicer if it was integrated with the blog and I didn’t have to go two different places to admin it. So, the toying has gotten rather serious. I already have all the important pages from my website duplicated as private pages here on WordPress. When I get some breathing room, I’ll switch them to public and move the domain over here. But I want to wait until after the Art Fair in case there are problems so I can concentrate on getting it moved over quickly with minimum problems.

2. The art fair. Yes, I decided to do it. I have all my matting and framing supplies down in my studio. I have all the prints, some pins, and I’m trying to get a T-shirt printed.

I’d like to take a moment to say something nice about EPG Imaging at 79th and Marty in Overland Park, KS. They printed my 20 images (all around 8X10 or so) for 3-something each. Good job, EPG. It was exactly what I was looking for. More than a copy shop but not a big printing factory. Perfect for artist prints.

I ordered my mats online from Documounts. They have these kits with a standard cut mat, mounting board, and plastic sleeve that are exactly what is needed for an art fair. I haven’t mounted the prints yet, but I don’t anticipate any problems. With shipping I think it came out $2.25 or $2.50 for each sleeve/mat/backer set. Something like that. The kits come in packs of 25 sets.

Also, Hobby Lobby has the plastic sleeves cheaper than Coldsnows, in case anyone’s interested. Hobby Lobby charges $6 for cutting a custom mat and the cheapest frames they have are $9. At least for the sizes I was looking for.

I sent in my dues to the Olathe Visual Artists Association, so I guess I’m now officially a member of that. Or I will be once the treasurer gets the mail tomorrow. That group is my in with the fair, otherwise I’d be too late to get a space.

So, the art fair is the Downtown Olathe Art Festival on the 9th and 10th. So, if you’re in the area come on down.

3. Promo Postcards. Yes, it’s that time again. Time to pester the publishing industry with my promo postcards. That’s always tedious, but it’ll be something to do during the art fair if things are slow.

4. I need to figure out which of my pieces to submit to Paul Zelinsky for the professional critique I signed up for. I’m thinking either the Tortoise and the Hare or Let’s Make Magic. I have to send that by the 15th.

5. Speaking of Let’s Make Magic: I’m still waiting to hear back on whether that got picked for the local SCBWI conference. I figured I’d been passed over since I hadn’t heard back, but when I contacted them they said they hadn’t decided yet. So, there’s still hope for that.

6. Tomorrow I’m sending my Tortoise and Hare hidden picture piece to Highlights High Five. I’m not entirely sure I have the correct contact info, but if not, I should get it returned to sender and then I’ll know.

7. I’m not really happy with my Zazzle store. I need to recategorize things and purge my poorer quality products.

8. On a personal note, last week I completely spaced and forgot to take my daughter to her guitar lessons. So, hoping not to forget that again this week.

9. I should probably fold the laundry.