Packaging the Alphabet and preppin' for c2e2!

Hi all,

We are getting ready for the big c2e2 Convention this Friday-Sunday at McCormick Place.  I will be at table E5 with Joe Foo and Mike Roll and I will have a lot of new stuff on hand!

 Today I received the first set of Playing The Alphabet,  my flashcards devoted to playing games and having fun.  I was happy to this massive heavy package waiting for me downstairs and when I cracked it open I had the biggest smile on my face.  Something the stress of preparing for this month had taken away. It all paid off as the cards came nicely glossed on a rich card stock.  The images are pretty vibrant and colorful and emulated everything I wanted in my own version of the alphabet.

I also ordered some boxes with clear tops to display them  in.  I was nervous at first that they weren't going to fit.  I was thinking they were too big or that the box might be too small. Luckily, they worked out great with enough room for kids to reach in and take out.

So tonight, Nic and I have been counting prints, packing the cards, and doing book counts.  It's been a productive evening but still SUPER SUPER fun because I have no product for the show and the rest of the season and it turned out great.  Check'em out.

A big thanks to Greko Printer and Mike Roll who also helped print my Coloring books last year.  They were efficient, affordable, and even packed the cards with rubber bands to keep'em safe.  I would recommend for all your print needs for sure.  They do great work.

Here's the final product shot you will see at my table:

Hope to see you at the show this weekend! Remember, Table E5!

Come play the alphabet!

Hi all,

It's been a bit quiet on this side after DanCon 2012.  I'm not slacking that's for sure, I've been busy working on a multitude of projects.

Can I take the time to say that I have a Kickstarter going for my new book, Heart.  I think you should all check it out, donate and pass it along!  I have a widget that I added to the right that show's the campaign's progress and sure do hope you click on over once you've read this post.

Ok, I am happy to announce the newest edition to the WIWL family:

That's right, WIWL is tackling the alphabet.  After I released a successful Coloring book, I wanted to keep helping kids learn in a fun way.  I thought about what else I could put a WIWL stamp on and I came up with an alphabet book.  I was going to call it The little Alphabet Book.  It was going to focus on little things, objects, animals, etc.  Even the letters were going to be kept at lowercase.  A book where they can flip through and learn their letters.  It was also going to be the first book that wasn't named like the other books.

I thought about it some more. After doing four books I wanted to keep going in that direction of having the kids interact with whatever I put out.  I wanted something fresh.  So I scratched the book idea and decided to do them as flashcards.  That way kids can learn the order of the alphabet too.  Parents can shuffle the cards around and ask them to put it in the correct order.  Now when I did research, I noticed that some of the alphabet sets were pretty random.  I like to have themes for my projects, like the coloring book was focused on sports, events, seasons, and holidays.

When I was thinking of the project as a book I noticed some of the little things I picked were toys and games.  I eventually decided on the idea of things you can play as the theme for these flashcards.  The only things I kept from  the initial idea were it was going to be lower case focused and the name was not going to precede the original title, When I Was Little.  The name Playing the Alphabet came much later...actually I think it was during one of Nicole and I's brainstorm conversations at the end of Dan Con last month.


So the way the cards are going to be shown are like this:

The front is designed with the letter and an image showing the letter being "played":

The back shows what it is, so k is for kazoo.  Here are some more samples of fronts, I tried to keep it a good mix of boys, girls, and everyone activities.

I had a lot of fun creating these and hope that the kids will have fun with the cards.  My plan is to have some sets available for the upcoming c2e2 show in Chicago.  The cards will be 5 1/2" x 7 1/2" and come in a clear case.

Hope to see you there!

Post: DanCon 2012

This past Sunday WIWL began it's 2012 Convention with Dan Con out in Orland Park, IL.  This has to be the closest convention I've ever had to attend and it was great. 

The convention was set up into individual rooms, a creator room and a dealer room.  Nic and I found our spot after a little confusion with the table arrangements.  By the time we got set up, the convention was ready to roll and I must admit it went by rather quick.

It got really packed by mid afternoon and people kept me busy with sketch requests.  Nic handled all the book/print transactions and the crowds were happy to stop at your table.  With the show being more affordable than some of the bigger cons, comic fans had no problem listening to you chat about your projects and talk comics, movies, and more.

I really liked the layout of the show and it's venue, The Orland Park Civic Center.  The multiple rooms made it easier to check out everything rather than piling it into one big open space.  If you were going to check out comics and toys you knew what room to be in and you didn't have far to look.  If you were going to check out Artist Alley you knew where to go.  It was great!

Also with the spacing of the aisles, it never felt crowded.  It never felt empty either.  Some times with these larger shows the aisles are so wide it's hard to grab anyone's attention from off in the distance.  People were constantly walking and stopping at this show and that is always a plus on the artists' end.  Even if they don't end up buying anything at least you got a chance to talk about your art and projects that you are so passionate about.  If they walk away with your business card that is a definite plus in my book.  The atmosphere of Dan Con provided all these great things.

My Ghost Rider print did well and I was excited to see that people were seeking it out once it was put up on the convention's home page.  It was also nice to see my TMNT print from last year's Fanfare go up in the raffle was well as a Krang sketch card I did for the show.

One thing I was upset about was my phone didn't charge all the way and I was really excited to use my new Square reader for the show.  I had a few people ask me if I took credit card and I felt like a dope for not checking to see if my phone charged all the way through that morning.  People were still nice about it.  Another thing was I was so busy (which isn't a complaint), I didn't snap that many photos of the show itself.  I took some pics of sketches which I will throw up on my other blog.  But I thought I'd share this photo of a hat I drew some TMNT on!

Since the show was local, a lot of my friends and family stopped by to show their support.  I don't get to see them at my shows because of the pricey ticket or I am out of state, so thanks to all those who came out to the show.  That meant a lot.

Dan Con was a great way to start my season and I hope the rest of my shows are just as successful and more importantly, fun!

I got gum. There's gum...

...and that post title was brought to by Sandra Bullock in Speed.  (movie nerd five!) Anyways I felt like it was time for a new header image up top.  I like to change it up once in awhile it helps keep things fresh and lets the reader(s?) know I'm still very much into anything and everything WIWL. 

My first header was a generic design that came with blogger that I used as a block template.  I didn't do anything fancy but cut and paste some images from the first book into the grid segments.  I liked it so much at the time that I made a business card version.  Eventually I got tired of it because it felt like the student version of me designed this.  It lacked the fun and silliness the books were all about.

The next header was an idea taken from a page in When You Were Little.  I had done an image where I drew my first completed drawing and was surrounded by crumbled up pieces of paper.  I thought it would be a cool idea to take that page and rework it so it's of me actually drawing rather than holding a piece of paper.

Here's the page followed by the design of the header:

I thought this image was great and it gave the people look at my blog an idea of how pages look in the series.  Now after doing a header this way, I thought it would be a cute idea to consider the header as a page in a book or a Signature print.  I can do a quick drawing and throw up a fun yet slightly embarrassing memory of myself.

If you notice my art style has changed slightly.  Something I started to do more since the release of Coloring. I am using inked lines and really making them sweeping and curvy.  It gives the drawings more sense of movement and the lines really flow through the entire image.  I like to make the outer lines thicker and use thinner inks to almost enclose the details within the fluidity of the heavier inks.

I am inking these drawings pretty heavily I wanted the colors to be simple.  I wanted it to look like a cartoon and use very little brush work in Photoshop.  This is different from how I color the books because I don't ink my drawings and I really like to put a lot of details in the color work with brush effects, gradients, and etc.  Since the next WIWL project ISN'T a book (whaaaaa) I really wanted to move away from the series' style and expand upon the ink work I did in Coloring.

Here's the finished image for the header above and the look you can expect from the new WIWL:

Also, going back to that slightly embarrassing but fun memory of me. Yes, I did get gum stuck in my hair.  Yes, I also did rock the bowl cut.  Can you say Booty Traps?

.

Ask me a question!

This morning I had a Q&A with the amazing 2nd grade kids of McKinley and their wonderful teacher, Ms. Punke.  I like doing these sessions with kids as it gives me a chance to really talk to my core audience.

I always say the WIWL series is for all ages.  My main goal was (and still is) to always make it for the kids and hopefully light a creative spark in them to produce their own art.  It just so happens that my source material is my own childhood and a lot of adults can relate to some of the things I write and draw about.  So when I have opportunities like this, it really connects me with who I am writing books and making the art for. 

The kids were eager to know about the series and they asked a lot of questions.  I tried my best to give insightful and rapid fire answers so more kids had a chance to ask a question.  I described my thought process when making new pages and how what I initially write usually changes depending on the rough drawings.  I tend to have a backwards way of writing as I am a visual person and the pictures help me write.  I feel I can tell a much more precise story when I have roughed it out on paper.

I also talked briefly about Heart and the water color process I did for the book.  I gave them a  sort of 360 tour of my studio. Completely orange...except for the windows and ceilings, which they kindly pointed out to me.

We ended how I ended on the last session, except they were the ones who wanted to powerstance and princess goodbye.  I didn't even have to ask! (total geek moment)  Thank's again to Ms. Punke for setting up another great Q&A with her amazing kids.

These sessions always fuel me creatively and makes this 82 year old (their guess) want to do more things for kids.

Luckily, I have several projects going and the wheels are a-turnin'.

Here are the kids giving me their best goodbye:

Mutant Cactus debuts the "little SUPERS" with Ghost Rider.

My good friends over at Mutant Cactus wanted to turn my 8x10 prints into buttons. The first of our little SUPERS line came out today featuring the Ghost Rider print I did a few weeks ago for DanCon. Most of the print that I've done will be converted into these little SUPER buttons but we have some new material in store for later in the year.  I'm so excited to be collaborating with them! Click on the pics to buy your set and browse the rest of their shop.

Drop by every week to see what else they have lined up.  They already released some great Dragon Ball Z pins and Hello Kitty featuring the amazing 8bit Artwork of Victor Dandridge.

The Rider is coming to DanCon 2012!

As the convention season starts for me I will be creating some new 8x10s over the year.  They will premiere at different conventions but I will carry them with me where ever I "con".  The older prints from 2009 and 2010 will eventually make its way on to my store as they sell out at conventions.  The idea behind that is so that I don't have the same 4 prints every time you pass by my table.

With that being said, the first print on my list is Ghost Rider.  In honor of the new flick that is coming out this February I will be debuting this at Dan Con in March.  This image will also be part of Mutant Cactus' 52 week release schedule so be on the look out for that!  Check out his sweet ride: