Good Bye & Hello.

Encouragement can do wonders!

Work for a fellow bus driver.

These are some projects that I did for a fellow bus driver for Christmas gifts for his kids. It has been a LONG TIME since I did caricatures and I am a little rusty but it was for a coworker so I gave it a try again.

Merry Christmas.

Christmas and New Years Trading Cards for the kids on my school bus.

These are the cards that went out to the kids for Christmas and New Years.

Help I've become an assembly line!!

Shannon fell in love with a couple of the characters from the new comic strip and she wanted them on this years Christmas cards, so for some I HAND MADE EACH CARD, I believe this is wave 1 of 3.

Lets not rush things.

It's all in how you look at it.

Believe!

Sharing is caring.

LOVE snowdays!

....somethings missing here.

Giving a little of yourself.

It's all up hill from here!

Fetch!

Hello Cyber Monday!

As I was updating my website with a merchandise spot I realized that I had not updated for a while so here it is.

First, last week I created the Thanksgiving Cards they went over well, for all the different buses, from what I understand. The new cards looked like this...

Second, I have really been studying this new style of illustration work. It's pen and ink, sometimes with color, and after doing it for a couple of weeks, I am hooked on it, we have affectionatly started calling it "Doodleton" as in the city of Doodleton. When asked what Im doing I say; "Oh just doodling." and the name has stuck. For those of you following Cartoons By Sketch Studios on Facebook, you will see that I have been publishing them in an album, it's very addicting, very calming and I have already finnished most of our Christmas cards! I'll put some of the work from my sketch book here...

I even managed to get a Thanksgiving one done, which we called "Thanksgiving at Fort Doodleton." Shannon like it so much that she framed it and put it up in the hallway.

I'm now working on a new one for Shannon with Snowmen in it for the Holidays, PLUS, I have to get a Christmas and New Years card ready for the kids before vacation time.

I am starting to get geared up for Christmas...family vacation to Florida....Disney! Here we come!

Giving a hand.

Getting ready for Halloween Trading Cards

I am just finishing up the trading cards that I am doing and have found that a couple other school bus drivers from ANOTHER BUS COMPANY might be interested in getting my cards to give to their kids!! So in lue of that I sat down and redid the Halloween costume that I am dressing the bus in, after going through a few ideas I decided this year to go with something more....modern, more superhero "ish." My wife gave me a couple of ideas, I messed around in Adobe Illustrator for the morning and...VIOLA! Its not "Batman", it's "Busman!"

I can't show the rest of the card because a lot of the kids that will be receiving them, watch this blog regularly. Maybe as we get closer to Halloween I'll put the blue line work up. We'll see.

Olofson Annivesary project.

My Brother-in-law hired me to make this project for his wife, she loves the movie. I finished it before the due date but could not publish these because she subscribes to my feed! Presented it to her at dinner, she cried. Happy Anniversary Mr and Mrs. Olofson!

 Because there are so many subjects in this one you have to plan for head space without looking uniform.

 

Pencil.

 

Ink outline.

 

Black inked foreground.

 

Flesh tones

 

Anything that is NOT black.

 

Different shades of black for the uniforms and guns.

 

 

Finished and scanned into the computer. Signed and presented to client.

4 Days until Fall Con!

Falendor: the Forgotten Kingdom #2 is finally totaly completed and is off to the printer yesterday morning!! So for the rest of the week I am going to be working on get some cards finished and into the book! Here are two that I did this morning, or finished up really I did them a while back and just never got around to coloring them.

If you are planning on coming to the show this weekend at the MN State Fair Grounds let us know, we'd love to see ya at the show!

Countdown until FallCon: 18days!!!

18 days and I find myself actually somewhat relaxed. Everything is starting to fall into place and I am finishing up the last few thing in Fallendor #2 and Ill send it off to the printers. I will just enclose a unfinished piece for the new "Princess" in this copy :)

It has been SO NICE now that I am back to work for the school district and be only 10 minutes away from work again and it gives me more time for family and for work. I am working on making something for the person whos name for the choice of my new school bus cartoon...but thats going to have to wait until after the Con ;)

Enjoy!

Update: 46 Day Progress Report

So, as of right now. The stories are written for Falendor #2 they are penciled, inked and I am just finishing up on coloring and lettering the last story. I should be done with THAT sometime at the end of this week.

Since I am doing this comic book different from the first one, as far as coloring and assembling, all is working out nicely.

We are still working on the trading card game but I am confident we will have it ready by the show, more of that later.

We will be doing the same at this show as we did at the last. We will have the Falendor #2 for sale for $5.00 and then we will be offering a special limited edition comic with a hand drawn cover, trading cards that can only be found in Limited Edition and there will be an extra story as well. At the last show we sold out of them which was VERY exciting.

So, there is the update.
I am going back to work now:)

Update: Where have you been?!?!

I know that its been a long time since I last posted but I have had many things going on in the last month. I am just going to speak of a few here.

I recieved the invite to "Fall Con" being held at the Mn State Fair Grounds.

 These guys really know how to through a Con and I am pleased to be invited back for my 3rd year as an independent artist. I am always pleased when I see these invites in the mail and I am glad to be a part of it. I can't wait. October 5th, 10am-5pm at the Minnesota State fair grounds, come and see us!

Which brings me to my next subject.

Everytime I announce a new show, somebody always asks, "Are you going to have anything NEW to sell at the show?"

The answer is always "Yes."

This show I will be releasing, along with the numerous cards and prints that I have for sale, "Falendor: the Forgotten Kingdom #2!" Over the last three weeks I have been working on a new story for the series which is called "H R H King Chub."

It is a new story line that I have worked in and I am excited to show. As of TODAY, I have finished "King Chub," the story has been written, penciled, inked, lettered, and laid out, so, I am on to the next story line. As it stands right now F:tFK 2 will have stories of "King Chub," "Sir RoD" and "High Tide." I will also be doing a Special Edition Falendor: the Forgotten Kingdom with hand drawn covers, some trading cards inside and some other little "surprises" that I will be selling the day of October 5th at Fall Can, so come on out and get one. Last time at Spring Con, I sold out of the Falendor #1 Special Edition, so come early to get your copy!

The other thing that I have managed to do today, as you can see by the cover of the new comic is I managed to get the Coat of Arms done for Falendor this morning.

I really like it and am positive that it will be showing up in MANY location through out Falendore.

As I am writing this right now the next story for "Sir RoD" has been written and proofed and I am starting the pencil work today. So we will see how long this takes :)

Lastly, I am also working on a SECOND comic comng out at Fall Con on October 5th. It is a collection of all the Falendor Online comics that I have out. The great thing about these comics is that this other book's (which is yet to be titled)  timeline fits inbetween Falendor #1 & #2. So look for that as well!

Thank you to all of you who have supported my work, believe in Falendor, and have blessed me by being fans!!

Well I think that just about takes care of everything, I gotta go back to work.

Be aware of your surroundings!

Anyone got a needle and thread??

"A little help here?!"

"Bragging Day"

Can you get me to...South Bloomington Transit Center??

So every day, I stop at this stop in Bloomington that is called the "South Bloomington Transit Center." In fact I stop there during the course of a day like FOUR times. After a while a guy gets tired of calling out this long name and at one time a passenger got on and sang to me (to the theme of Sesame Street) "Can you tell me how to get, how to get to the.....South Bloomington Transit Center."

That was it. It stuck.

So I started using it every time. Now, I have a special group of riders that I take out of Minneapolis to South Bloomington, we laugh and talk and make fun of each other. These types of customers help make the time go by faster and it relaxes me as I am driving a SIXTY FOOT BUS in RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC in DOWN TOWN MINNEAPOLIS. Anyway, I have started announcing the SBTC as "Sesame Street" and saying with it, "This ride is brought to you by the letter (insert letter) and the number (insert number) and then put them into a sentence wishing the riders to have a good day and what not.

Fast forward to this week. It has been a terrible week. Drs visits, problems at work, problems with graphics etc. Too much drama for here.

YESTERDAY, one of my riders gets on the bus....wearing a green Sesame Street t-shirt. She said she thought of me when she picked it out. Brightened my entire day....brightened my entire week!

I thought to myself, one good turn deserves another. I made the work below for her and them and hopefully it will brighten their day like that one simple choice of apparell did for me.

This post is brought to you by the letter "A" which can be found in...I have AWESOME customers.