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| Yay for cows! |
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Playing with Digital pencils.
I still believe in working traditionally, but I was watching a tutorial at svslearn.com on working with digital pencils. a lot of my favorite artists work 100% digitally, and I thought I would start to train myself on how to use pencils as part of my process.... So here is my first digital sketch made entirely by me: created my own pencil and sketched in Photoshop.
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
WEBSITE UPDATED!
I updated the website, trying to make it a little cleaner, with slideshows... and also added more recent art. Hopefully it looks better, and is easy to navigate:
JOEL COOK ART DOT COM
JOEL COOK ART DOT COM
Drawing with purpose:
I can't say anything yet, but I have begun sketching and drawing textures.... I will let you know more later:
Sending out art packages!
Have spent 3 weeks of my vacation sending out art packages to publishers. This is a lot harder than you would think. The spreadsheet alone needed 2-3 days. But this is what it looks like, mid-mailing:
This is one of those things that I always needed to get off my butt and do. To be honest, getting this off the ground was the hardest part. Now it is all about updating art and contacts and repeating...
This is one of those things that I always needed to get off my butt and do. To be honest, getting this off the ground was the hardest part. Now it is all about updating art and contacts and repeating...
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Long Time, No See.
Whoa. Last post was at the beginning of 2014, and it is now 18 months later. Guess I owe a little explanation.
In Spring 2014, we moved to suburban Houston... which was about 20 mins highway driving away from my teaching job. Long story made short, I hated the commute, so I was able to secure a teaching job much closer to home (about 10 mins away)... so summer of 2014 was spent working on the house and getting ready for my new job. and then fall 2014-spring 2015 was spent at my new job working... so I didn't have time to blog. Now that I have a year under my belt, I am able to do the fun stuff again like blogging, and sketching a lot more.
The fun artsy part of the new job, is that I am teaching sculpture and ceramics now, which for me were new subjects to teach.
...but adopted another (this time a BOY!) in April. His name is Thunderpunch! He came from BARC, which is the city of Houston's place for unwanted animals.
Been spending a lot of time trying to get my artwork out there. Fingers crossed... to more success and more blogging!
Oh yeah, and there is a baby on the way (November!)...
In Spring 2014, we moved to suburban Houston... which was about 20 mins highway driving away from my teaching job. Long story made short, I hated the commute, so I was able to secure a teaching job much closer to home (about 10 mins away)... so summer of 2014 was spent working on the house and getting ready for my new job. and then fall 2014-spring 2015 was spent at my new job working... so I didn't have time to blog. Now that I have a year under my belt, I am able to do the fun stuff again like blogging, and sketching a lot more.
The fun artsy part of the new job, is that I am teaching sculpture and ceramics now, which for me were new subjects to teach.
On the animal front, we lost a beautiful dog, Bella in November, who was incredibly special to me, as she was my first dog, and my first life that I was responsible for...
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| 2001-2014 |
Been spending a lot of time trying to get my artwork out there. Fingers crossed... to more success and more blogging!
Oh yeah, and there is a baby on the way (November!)...
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Got a great package in the mail:
Today, I got a picture from my wife saying, "You got this in the mail today....Don't worry, I won't open it."
Anyhoo, the day went by very slow and I ran home and like on Xmas morning, I tore into it with a big grin on my face... and VOILA:
I have to say, I let me wife look at them first, as I wanted to see what they looked like when someone was reading them. I know that sounds weird, but as I had looked at the art probably more than anyone else, I wanted to see if they worked "on a book." ...I dunno if that makes sense. I thought, "Yeah, the art looks like it belongs on the book." ...so I was happy there.
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| OHBOYOHBOYOHBOY |
Anyhoo, the day went by very slow and I ran home and like on Xmas morning, I tore into it with a big grin on my face... and VOILA:
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| The four books from ABDO Publishing |
And then I saw that ABDO included one of the books on the banner of their website. I think this made it hit home more than even having a physical copy in my hand: To see it sit up there with other books... well, I cannot describe the feeling except to say it was a very very good one. Kind of watching your child go off to school with the other kids.
Sometime in the next few months, I will retell the whole process: from portfolio to book signing... that's right. March 29th at Blue Willow @ 2 pm!
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| ABDO's Magic Wagon page |
Sometime in the next few months, I will retell the whole process: from portfolio to book signing... that's right. March 29th at Blue Willow @ 2 pm!
More on that later. I have some conferences to get ready for!
Sakai charity piece
As mentioned in the previous post, I was working on a charity piece for Stan Sakai. I originally was doing more of a rabbit-inspired Usagi, but the more I read my books.... I decided to go with the more traditional antrhopomorphoic one.... so I fiddled with it a little bit, and here is the finished version(s).
...Now I have to send it off! For more info on the auction go here:
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| Original Black and White version |
I have been playing with my comic coloring lately, and I had a little problem with the coloring file, so it's not @ 100%.... but anyway:
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| Colored version |
...Now I have to send it off! For more info on the auction go here:
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