Winkie Covention 2011

Last week was the 2010 Winkie convention. Regretfully, I was not able to go. I decided that I am going to try my best to make next years con. Hopefully I will be able to meet with any of you going. The theme for next year is The Sea Fairies, so I thought I would put up a picture of Trot as a mermaid from that book.

Princess Ozma

In an effort to improve my skills inking with a brush, I did this picture of Princess Ozma.

The Old Man of the Jungle

I am currently working on The Umbrellaphant in Oz. For this one I decided to use a different inking technique. Most of this picture was done by brush with a little bit of nib and tech pen for some of the little details.

Scarecrow head model sheet

As I improve as an artist, one of the characters that pretty much stayed the same over the years is the Scarecrow. Just like the model sheets I did for the Tin Woodman and Dorothy, I wanted to show different views and expressions of his face.

Project updates

I thought I would put an update on all the projects I'm currently working on.

1. The Ransom of Button-Bright: I am trying to get this finished as soon as possible. Most of the penciling is done and I'm trying to get it lettered and inked.
2. Marcus Mebes' projects: Marcus gave me 2 books to work on. He wants them to be secret for now, but they will be very interesting once they are completed.
3. The Umbrellaphant in Oz: Now that I'm done with Bucketheads in Oz, Chris Dulabone sent me a new book to illustrate. Umbrellaphant is written by Carlos P. Silva and Marin Elizabeth Xiques. Chris knows how much I love Captain Salt in Oz and thought this would be perfect for me.
4. The Talking City of Oz: Ron Baxley Jr's story is currently being edited by Chris and Marin right now. Once that's done it's off to me to illustrate. Ron is hoping to have it done by the fall, but I'm doubtful that I'll complete it that soon.
5. Images of Oz(working title): This is the art book I'm trying to put together. I have plenty of art I can put in the book. I just have to figure out what I want the book to look like.

Hopefully I can get some of these projects done soon.

25 years of Oz

This week marks the 25th anniversary of when I discovered the Oz series. Like most people, my first encounter with Oz was with the 1939 movie. It wasn't until I saw "Return to Oz" that I wanted to learn more about Oz. Luckily my neighborhood library had all 14 of the white editions of the Oz books. So what does this picture of "The Road to Oz" have to do with it? I'm sure you can guess which book I read first.

The Three Girls of Oz

In Oz, Three mortal girls came to live from the great outside world. Sometimes when he drew the girls, John R. Neill didn't show the distinction between the three. Here is a picture of Betsy Bobbin, Dorothy, and Trot, to show the differences of each girl.