more iphone sketches

this started out as a sketch of Anna while we were having coffee at the Urban Bean but since then has just become an experiment in using the air brush on my iphone.

Art Sale Sketches

Some sketches for pieces I hope to get done in time for the art sale.
And now I'm going to bed.

Early morning above the clouds

I thought I would share a couple of the photos that I took on the plane flight back from Portland. The flight was way-to-fucking-early-o-clock but watching the sunrise over the rocky mountains made it almost worth it.

I drew a froggie with my finger

So I need to geek out a little. I got my very own iPhone a few months ago and I have been playing with it non-stop. I just got new drawing app called SketchBook Mobil X. I think you'll be seeing more random sketches from me after this. I'm totally in love with it.

UI Design

I'm excited! Christina has brought me on board to do some user interface design for a new game by Zeolight Studios. You can check out the first mini trailer on their website.

Update:
This project has been put on hold for the time being due to financing issues.

Mocca Day 1

First day in New York.

As the plane came in over the city I saw the harbor and the skyline and there in the middle of the water, the Statue of Liberty. I felt for her, she’s stood there, alone, and she seemed suppressed now, imprisoned on her tiny island with the enormous skyscrapers around her. I was worried I would feel the same but after stepping out of the airport I found myself on the subway and walking around the city. I’ve been introducing myself as politely as one can in New York and thus far I feel at home. It’s even gray and humid, just like home.

I’ve found the necessities of life, a place to stay, a good friend, and a coffee shop with pipping hot caffeine and free wifi access.

The MOCCA events start tomorrow evening. If you’re curious, check out their web site for more info. Several artists from Minneapolis are going to be there including Evan Palmer, Anna Bongiovanni, Sean Lynch, Raighne & Meghan Hogan,and Ed Moorman. I’m going to be taking photos of the con so stay tuned, I think there’s going to be some amazing stuff to see.

Client: Minnesota Public Radio
Project: Sound Learning
Contribution: Programming
I hope to have several screenshots updated in my portfolio soon but I couldn’t wait to show off a little bit.
The redesign of Minnesota Public Radio’s Sound Learning website went live last Monday and I’m quite pleased with the final result. It was an honor to be invited back to MPR and one of the definit highlights of this project has been to hang out with the New Media group again.
You can check out the full web site here at http://soundlearning.publicradio.org/

Wordpress

I have been working on the new Ailea Studio website for weeks now and finally I find myself able to sit back and enjoy all my hard work.


My decision to rewrite Ailea Studio using the wordpress framework was partially a consideration of curiosity. I have had numerous people approach me about the possiblity of creating a simple and easily managed site that didn’t require a knowledge of html for basic maintenance. Wordpress seemed the perfect solution but with no background experience the idea was mostly supposition.

With the completion of this project I can happily say that wordpress is a very good tool for creating simple portfolio and personal sites that require regular simple updates. The customization process is not all that challenging and the integration of pre-built plugins allows wordpress to do almost anything that you could wish.

In short I’m quite satisfied with it and am looking forward to doing more projects with wordpress in the future.

check out my site

How much does it actually cost to be happy.

In the current disintegrating troubled economy people are struggling to keep everything together.  As of last week my number one source of income and pretty awesome boss all things considered, has informed me that he can no longer afford to pay me for my web and design work. At least for the next couple of months.

This is certainly on my list of bad. However, overall I'm trying to keep up beat about the whole thing.  I've started work on my website again and am researching more advanced actionscript using the Flex interface.

I'm also going to really take the time to look at exactly where all my money goes and what expenses really aren't necessary.  In fact, for the next month.  I'm going to make a challenge to myself.  How much extra stuff can I cut out of my life and still be happy?

For me this challenge will mean, biking everywhere, no more car. I won't buy any new video games, no new electronics, no beer. I will think very carefully before spending money on entertainments and make choices for free activities whenever I can. I see this as an opportunity to really review my life and necessities and take steps toward a more sustainable lifestyle. I would welcome anyone else to join me in this and share their challenges and their successes as well.

An interesting blog to check out on related topics is No Impact Man.

good luck

Updates and News

So I know that I haven't posted anything significant for several months now.  I do apologize. Between my full time job, client project and the redesign of my personal portfolio site, I don't have a lot of time on my hands for anything. I can feel art need building and I've been taking notes to keep all the ideas I'm having organized.

So today i thought I would share some recent news and a useful link I found.

Cool news first.
 Many of you have already heard but I am now the proud owner of a new macbook pro.  Her name is Audacity in memory of my old computer which, though she continues to try to stumble along is really ready to go out to pasture.
I'm of course completely in love and I expect I'll be posting links to cool new tools I've discovered soon.

What you need to remember to design a portfolio website.
I've been talking to a lot of people recently who want to get their portfolio site up.  I would like to offer up my services of course but I also thought that this website might be really useful.

Graphic Novel Literary Agents

This is not my list but its absolutely amazing so I thought I would make an archive copy of it because as I said.  AMAZING!
You can check out the post I found it on here

This is something all comic book artists should take a look at.

Graphic Novel Literary Agents
I know Colleen Doran posted a list of literary agents that represent graphic novels a few months ago, but in going through the list, quite a few of the names have now retired or moved on, and others represent only graphic art/coffee table books (the search sites she used have misleading keywords), or nothing resembling graphic novels at all... or they don't take unsolicited queries.
Of course, you only find out after getting really excited by someone's client list, and then you see they only take on new names by personal recommendation! Not too helpful if you want to be actively trying to find an agent.

So I thought I'd post my own list of agencies I found (or were mentioned to me!) over the five months I sent out queries. I hope it helps. Every agency on this list has mentioned an interest in graphic novels either on their website or their blog-- no second-hand info.


Agents I've queried:

Andrea Brown Literary Agency: Laura Rennert
http://www.andreabrownlit.com/

Baker's Mark
http://www.bakersmark.com/Booksnwriters.html
Represents a number of creators with books coming out from First Second.

Bliss Literary: Jenoyne Adams
http://blissliterary.com - Jenoyne Adams

Bob Mecoy Literary Agency
http://querytracker.net/agent.php?agent=624&tab=genres
http://www.mediabistro.com/mbtoolbox/how_to_pitch_agencies/pitching_an_agent_bob_mecoy_creative_book_services_39903.htm

Represents Tintin Pantoja, Jim Ottaviani.

Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency: Jeff Moores
http://www.dclagency.com/index.html

FinePrint Literary Management: Colleen Lindsay
http://www.fineprintlit.com/about/colleen_lindsay.php
http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2007/01/submission-guidelines.html
Represents the infamous Niki Smith. ;/
"Director of Publicity for Del Rey Books" and "instrumental in the successful launch and promotion of the Del Rey Manga program."

Fox Literary: Diana Fox
http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/fox/
http://dianafox.livejournal.com/

Full Circle Literary
http://www.fullcircleliterary.com/about.html
http://fullcirclelit.blogspot.com/

Howard Morhaim Literary Agency: Katie Menick
http://www.morhaimliterary.com/

Lippincott Massie McQuilkin: Rob McQuilkin
http://www.lmqlit.com/contact.html

Objective Entertainment: Elizabeth Jote, Brendan Daneen
http://objectiveent.com/books.asp#fgraphic
http://elizabethjote.wordpress.com/?s=graphic
Represents Shooting War, others.

Prospect Agency: Vivian Chum
http://www.prospectagency.com/

Robert Astle & Associates Literary Management
http://www.astleliterary.com/

Stimola Literary Studio: Rosemary Stimola
http://www.stimolaliterarystudio.com/

Susan Rabiner Literary Agency: Holly Bemiss, Sydelle Kramer
http://www.rabiner.net/?page_id=2
Represent Alison Bechdel, Lucy Knisley, Harvey Pekar.

Transatlantic Literary Agency: Samantha Haywood
http://www.tla1.com/agents2.php?id=4#cnt_co
http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/samantha775/
Represents Drawn & Quarterly and others.

Trident Media Group: Scott Miller
http://www.tridentmediagroup.com/scott_miller.html

Veritas Literary Agency: Katherine Boyle
http://www.veritasliterary.com/submissions.shtml

Wendy Sherman Associates, Inc: Michelle Brower
http://wsherman.com/content/agents.asp

William Morris Agency: Evan Goldfried
http://agentquery.com/agent.aspx?agentid=1061
http://wma.com/
Represents "Best American Comics 2006 contributors Joel Priddy, Lilli Carre, and Alex Robinson."

Writers House: Daniel Lazar
http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/DanielLazar/
http://www.writershouse.com/content/home.asp
Agency represents Neil Gaiman.

Others: Agencies I never got to or didn't query for other reasons (I went with email queries first, they want exclusives only, etc).

Frances Goldin Literary Agency: Sam Stoloff
http://www.goldinlit.com/submissions.html
Agency represents Rutu Modan.

The Literary Group: Jaimee Garbacik
http://www.theliterarygroup.com/submissions/submissions.html

Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency: Kelly Sonnack
http://www.dijkstraagency.com/agents.htm

Sheldon Fogelman Agency: Sean McCarthy
http://sheldonfogelmanagency.com/submissions.htm

The Zack Company, Inc
http://zackcompany.blogspot.com/search?q=graphic
http://www.zackcompany.com/submissions/what_we_want.htm

Agencies that don't take unsolicited queries: ...but you might want to know about just to know they're out there.

Judith Hansen
http://hansenliterary.com/
Represents a very many comic artists whose work I adore, but I don't have a list of names.

Kitchen, Lind & Associates
http://www.kitchenandlind.com

David Hale Smith Literary
http://www.dhsliterary.com/Comics-Graphic-Novels.aspx
Represents Jill Thompson, Greg Rucka, others.