But skip that, what's this kids' book about?

I've been making a foray back into the world of comics, sort of, by working on a kids book lately. I'm working with Corel Painter 12, which is fantastic for doodling, and I'm using Trello ( trello.com ) for building the plot, which is a fantastic tool for project management, and outlining stories.

But skip that trivial stuff, what's this book about, you ask? Well, it's about climate change and kids. And them talking their daft parents into doing something about it.

It's a pretty scary subject, and although my 4 year old is still a little too young to talk about it, I can well imagine how tricky it's going to be to explain how crappy her future world will probably be. So I'm trying to write a book that will help parents engage with their kids about it. Actually, I'm really hoping that the act of reading it to their kids will motivate parents to do a bit more to solve the problem.

I should really be working on paintings so I can make some money, but this is something I've been circling around for years and I figure it's time that I just get down and do it.

As you can see in the image, it's currently at the thumbnail page, which means that it's pretty much only me who can figure out what's going on with it. Well, actually, if you could see my sketchbook you'd be able to see the plot. Then again, only I know which bits I'm going to keep out of that, so even there it doesn't make any sense yet. I'm sure I'll be posting and writing a lot more about this. Stay tuned!

cheers,
marcel

March Art Update

I just sent an email to my mailing list (click here if you'd like to get these updates in your inbox)

You can read the words and see the pictures by following this link:
Includes Toronto reminders, paintings in Ottawa, and other things that I've been up to.

cheers,
marcel

Painting experiments today

I'm trying to find a drawing style that I can glaze over with oil colour.




I'm narrowing it down to ink markers or traditional India ink.

I really like this pencil drawing though, so I'm not going to ink it or colour over it. Maybe I'll do it digitally later:




Cheers,
Marcel

Commissions, prints, and maybe even books

I'm currently working on some painting commissions, and I don't like to post work in progress photos of those until the pieces are all finished and the customer is happy, so unfortunately I won't be able to post many images of the next little while.

I've also been thinking a lot lately about redesigning my website so people can order prints from it. It's always hard to gauge interest to know if it's worth it, but I guess I'll never know until I set it up.

Finally, I'm also thinking about putting together a kids book, or two. I've been working on my digital illustration skills a lot and they've been coming along well. Now I'm thinking about putting together a book because I love kids books. I have no idea if it'll be good, but I'm pretty sure it'll be fun. :)

More on all of those things later.

cheers,
Marcel

Art show in Toronto is up, new painting arrived safely

At the Elaine Fleck Gallery on Queen St. W. , they've told me the show looks great, so I think I'll ask them to send me some photos and I can post them here.

The new painting "rain boots" made it safely, which was a big relief because the paint was still pretty soft when I shipped it. Also, the person at my local post office didn't seem to know what he was doing, so I was a little anxious that he may not have processed it correctly. And then it would get lost in a warehouse somewhere or something like that. But fortunately that didn't happen.  

cheers,

marcel