Kinda' crabby...

In our experience Blue Crabs tend to be pretty feisty little guys. When slightly provoked, these seemingly dull-colored flat crabs will suddenly raise their arms revealing a brilliant blue and purple display from their underside. This guy here was actually brought to me dead by Gina one morning to draw and I chose to drawing him laying on

his top to show the bright blue underbelly.
One morning while searching a waterway that runs to and from the rising and lowering of the tides, we actually came across a blue crab that could probably rival the record size. It was roughly 10 or 11” across the top and probably the angriest guy we’ve run into. It shot through the water like a rocket, attacking Gina and Seth (they weren’t injured) before darting the length of the channel and into the tide, sending schools of fish dispersing in all directions in its wake.
We named him “Claws”.

memories from the sun...

Well, I have returned safely from the beautiful Altlantic. Not that I wanted to return! We managed to make some good memories there, though much of the trip was overshadowed by the death of a family friend only hours before we left. His name was Jake Walls, one of my son Seth's best buddies from school. He was a great kid with a real heart for people and he died tragically when he fell 50ft from a cliff at Hocking Hills State Park here in Ohio. We managed to make the trip home for the funeral and then back down to SC for the rest of our vacation. Needless to say, that was more driving than I ever thought I would do in one week.



Well, I thought I would start by sharing a drawing I did early last week. Early in the morning, as the sun rises, you can find so many little treasures along the shores of the ocean. Some of the more common little creatures you may find are crabs, like this Purse Crab, that have been tossed and battered by the surf during the night. A lot of the time they will not be alive, and those that are tend to have tube like sand structures constructed over their eyes by little ocean worms. Gina and I have helped them a few times by breaking the sand away from their eyes in the hope that they may see...don't know if it helps or not, but it feels like the right thing to do...

a birthday gift...

I painted this guy for my sister a while back. It's really just a color rendition of an earlier pen sketch. I wanted to stay loose with all the lines and colors and I think the final result has a sort of "printed page" look, like the strangely warm and inviting feel Arnold Lobel always achieved in his books. I was always a humongous fan of Frog and Toad! Maybe the similarity here is that Lobel's books tended to be printed in only a few muddy colors. I chose blue and brown.

Wildflower...

This is a pen and watercolor of a wildflower that I did yesterday.

Getting directions...

This is a quick painting I did the other night just for fun.

There are some nice folks out there...

I enjoy building friendships with illustrators that I admire and can learn from. 3 that I have become friends with are Tony DiTerlizzi, creator of the Spiderwick Chronicles, Jim Gurney, creator of Dinotopia, and Brian Floca, best known for the Poppy series.
Tony and I began writing in 2003 and over the years I have received some wonderful criticism and encouragement from him and even a wonderful phone call most recently.
But something that has come as a bonus to these great friendships are the really cool gifts I have received in the mail from these gentlemen. Tony has sent quite a few really cool items over the past 6 years. I wanted to share a couple.



These are a couple of posters that he sent one Christmas with some great close-ups of his art.



This poster above is probably my favorite gift from Tony. The letter with it expressed his gratitude for a painting I had sent him and explained that this 80's style poster was created by Tony for the cast and crew, family and friends for the Spiderwick movie, and that he felt I should have one. I was so honored to receive it and I hope to frame it at some point. (also shown above is an ARC of the Nixie's Song)
It will go really well with my collection of DiTerlizzi retail display toppers! (The Nixie's Song topper lights up all over!)



This last one is the most recent and was from the wonderful Jim Gurney, who I had the pleasure of meeting a few months ago. It is a promo package for the newest Dinotipia book, Journey to Chandara. It folds open and tells the stories of the main characters and plot, and includes a few promotional materials and a huge fold-out map of Dinotopia and Waterfall City. Really cool!! Also included was a super nice letter from Jim.



It's so encouraging getting to know these admirable men, almost legends of the field of illustration, and it is a real treat sometimes as well!