Still plugging away

Sammy and his runaway imagination...

I am continuing to finish up the sketches. I only have a few left until I can start the color rendering process. I didn't want to wait to start posting the sketches until their color counterparts were done, that's just not my workflow.
I helps me immensely to lay the whole book out in sketch mode. I then bring those sketches in to my page layout program and set the text. Sometimes I will go back to illustrator to set the text, it all depends what I want to do with it. For this one doing the whole layout in inDesign is working so far.
To explain the sketch, Max continues to tell his little brother horror stories of the dentist office. Including a grizzly bear, an electric chair and a nurse from you know where! Nice rhyming! Anyway, hope you enjoy! Stay tuned for more...

Reality check!

Pun intended. Here is my first check from Barnes & Noble! It was for a very small amount, but the achievement is why I am sharing the event. Needless to say, I am very excited that I finally received the payment. For all other small vendors with B&N out there, know that it took 90 days for me to receive payment from the original invoice date. It is what it is, can't do much with this check, but everyone has to start somewhere! See for yourself:

Sammy's sketch #2

The waiting room of DOOM!

Meet Sam, the mean older brother

Here is the second sketch from the forthcoming book, "Sammy's Dentist Dilemma". This is a sketch of a 2-page spread, where Sammy's older brother is telling him a 'dark' story of what to expect for his first visit at the dreaded dentist's office.
Little Sammy has quite the imagination. The story is told in a classic flashback literary style in rhyming verse. I can't wait to share that with you as well! Once this page is rendered in full color, I will be sure to post it for you. Thanks for reading.

Sammy's Dentist Dilemma

I was looking back through my blog posts yesterday. I went all the way back to the first one, where I posted the sketches and finished pages of W&K. I have been thinking I will do the same for future books as well. Of course, I'd love if this little blog page was viewed by as many people as my youtube video Custom Brick Grind Ledge. Maybe that's something I will do once the book is closer to being done, put the whole process I go through on youtube. Until then, I have decided to 'tease' a little by putting up some sketches well I'll start with one. The first one. But first, a little background.

1981

I mentioned my sister Wendy yesterday. If you are in the dental world, you probably consider me the brother of a celebrity, she is very popular there. For the record, I think her website is really cool, when she just walks out on your browser and starts talking, I love that. Well, in addition to having a great website, she has a worldwide following and has experience in successfully distributing her product and program to that audience. I approached her a few months ago about her opinion about a need for a children's book in her market. She mentioned that when she suggests that a dentist send a 'welcome packet' to a child's first visit to the dentist's office, she recommends the 'Berenstain Bears' book. The book was first copyrighted/published in 1981. Needless to say, it is dated. I mean 1981 was a great year, but not for publishing. Great leaps and bounds in the printing and publishing world have occurred since my 10th b-day. So, Alisa Atherton (my beautiful wife), wrote a story. In fact her writing the story is a story in itself, that will be told in a future blog. After a few business lunch dates with her, we decided how the book would be. 32 pages, hardcover 9.5" by 7.5". I have finished up the first illustration of the book and wanted to share it with you here.

The sketch

The finished illustration

Meet Sammy

And the hidden tooth, needs a name...

ISBN: 9780982716717

I'd love to hear your feedback so far. We anticipate sending the book to press the end of August and anticipate it will be available for purchase in October of this year. That's our goal. In summary, I am very excited at the prospect of having Wendy in the driver's seat for distribution and sales. I am realistic in how many will sell, I don't expect to be a multi thousand-aire overnight, what I am excited about is the prospect of having created a product that will be loved by many. Thanks for reading.

What's New...

There is something underway on the North Shore of Oahu. More details to come as I am made aware. I don't want to get into specific details, but it is more than likely a change for the better.
In other news, I am working with my sister Wendy Briggs on creating something for her market. Dental consulting. Visit HygieneDiamonds for an idea of what she does. I am VERY excited about this new publication, because it's awesome and because Alisa Atherton wrote the story.
I haven't decided yet how soon is too soon to share the concept and sketches, but I have assigned an ISBN to the story so, it won't be long. Stay tuned, and drop me a line if you have an opinion either way on seeing the sketches and concept.