Oshi and Otto

Last year I was commissioned by the Fitchburg Public Library to write and illustrate two books using grant money from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. They were looking for one picture book which would be distributed to all of the city's Kindergarteners and one comic book that would be distributed to all of the city's Sixth Graders. My assignment was to teach the students and their families about some of the services the library offers in an entertaining way. Fitchburg has a very diverse population and a many of them speak only Spanish so both books were to be bilingual. Printing was finished in April of this year and they were distributed to the students in May and June.

Oshi Goes to the Library is about Oshi the octopus who recently moved to Fitchburg with her family after her dad got a job on land. Her mom heard that the library is a great resource so the family take a visit and get a tour from a very wise librarian.

Otto and José Save the Library is about an alien who crash lands their spaceship on the top of a library. With help from Ottos' new friend José they need to find a way to save the library from being destroyed by a meteor. Half of the book is the story in English and the other half is the same story in Spanish.

Me with a couple of awesome librarians at the Fitchburg Public Library. 

And me reading Oshi Goes to the Library to one of the groups of Kindergarteners.

Oldest child enjoys San Francisco where she lives with her cat and works and plays Roller Derby. Middle child graduated from high school and is now going to college in NH.  Youngest child is in middle school and enjoys friends, the saxophone, anything with wheels and video games. We currently have a bunch of pets living with us including 2 cats,  2 hamsters and the best dog in the world. :-) Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!

I attended the New England Society of Writers and Illustrators conference this past April in Springfield, MA. While there I participated in an intensive workshop with Giuseppe Castellano, art director at Penguin Books. The assignment was to draw an illustration from a Beatrix Potter story in our own style. I chose this scene from The Tale of Jeremy Fisher. 

My oldest child sending Christmas presents to the East Coast by robot drone.

Happy Holidays to all!

Below is last year's family Christmas card where a friendly reindeer flies presents along with some young passengers from Boston to San Francisco.

 

Another piece of art for a new story I am working on. 

I just got some stickers back from the printer. I created these for the pediatric division of an orthopedic imaging company.

A few months ago I was hired to teach a small group of middle schoolers how to draw portraits at a birthday party. Afterwards I drew a caricature of each of them while they took turns drawing each other. Great group of kids and very nice family. The birthday girl's mother sent me some awesome photos and permission to post them. I get photographed while I am drawing at events a lot, but I rarely get to see them. So this is very cool. She said the girls had a great time and they all loved their portraits.

 

New art finished art from a story I am working on. More on this later.

 

On this Christmas Eve, a boy and his dog are decorating the Christmas tree while
one sister is talking to the other sister across the miles on her computer. 

Happy Holidays to all!

Happy Halloween from the Sneaky Ninjas!

This was going to be a multi-panel comic, but I though this one panel said everything.