Josh St. Nick

A sketch of my friend Josh as ol' St. Nick.

Early Fat Baby Sketches

Here are some of the first attempts at finding Fat Baby's drawing style.

Fat Baby Inked and Colored Artwork

Well, I had said I would post some of the more finished artwork from Fat Baby. Below is a more finished version from one of the first few pages. The pencils were inked by hand, then scanned into the computer. Once in the computer I traced the bitmap with CorelTrace and then used a combination of CorelDraw and CorelPhotoPaint to color it. Enjoy.

Art & Fear

So I have laid aside the book I have been reading, Animating Culture. It is a bit too academic, but I will finish it eventually. I think it was actually written as a textbook so the academic part is understandable. That's not why I put it down for now though. I got as a gift this week a book I have been wanting for about a year. It is called "Art & Fear". I read an interview with Glen Keane, a disney animator whom I admire greatly in the field of art. Glen had suggested that every artist should read this book, and I am already starting to understand why.

Here are a couple of excerpts:

"Operating Manual For Not Quitting...

A. Make friends with others who make art, and share your in-progress work with each other frequently.

B. Learn to think of [A], rather than the Museum of Modern Art, as the destination of your work. (Look at it this way: If all goes well, MOMA will eventually come to you.)"

"Art is a high calling - fears are coincidental. Coincidental, sneaky and disruptive, we might add, disguising themselves variously as laziness, resistance to deadlines, irritation with materials or surroundings, distraction over the achievement of others - indeed as anything that keeps you from giving your work your best shot. What separates artists from ex-artists is that those who challenge their fears, continue; those who don't quit."

And then this great excerpt about vision...

"After a few months' practice, David (Bayles) lamented to his teacher, "But I can hear the music so much better in my head than I can get out of my fingers." To which the Master replied, "What makes you think that ever changes?" That's why they're called Masters....Lesson for the day: vision is always ahead of execution - and it should be."

It is all great stuff, which I think applies to other realms of expertise, such as missions, home-making, leadership, etc.....

I look forward to finishing it, but don't want to for fear of it being the end of the material. I guess if it is that good, I can just read it once more.

Route 66 Photo Book

Well, the Route 66 photo book is finished. I didn't have time to do any original artwork. It includes only the photography that Angie and I took while taking our two trips down the old path. In a future edition I will add some original artwork based on Route 66 highlights, as well as add more shots from the front half of the trip (Chicago to Claremoore, Oklahoma). If you are interested it is available at Lulu.com by clicking here (http://stores.lulu.com/mcrosser).

New Photo Book

For our ministry we had to travel across the country in the beginning of 2006. On two trips we actually loosely followed the path of Route 66. First from Tulsa to California, then from Chicago to Tulsa. Since we had to go those directions anyway, we decided to have fun with it. We got travel books about Route 66 and stopped and took pictures of many notable sites along the way. We saw leaning towers, ghost towns, the largest cross this side of the Mississippi and many other things. I am currently working on a photo book that compiles many of our best pictures. I will also toss in some original artwork based on some of the sites we saw. Hopefully, it will be done at the end of this month.

What I Am Reading

Ok, I finished the book titled, "The Complete Animation Course." It was good, but towards the end it was focusing on Computer 3D animation which I am not into doing. I like it, I just haven't been interested in that medium.

So, now I am reading another book called "Animating Culture". It is all about the sociological impact of cartoons on society and of society on cartoons. I just started it, but it looks good so far.

Perugia Window Sketch

When Angie and I first moved to Italy, we lived in Perugia where we went to language school. Out of our living room window was an incredible view of the old Italy skyline. Here is a sketch I did of it, six years ago.

Art for our Ministry's Coffee House

Each month, we offer an American style Coffee House, where Italians can practice their English and experience American traditions. At each one, we have a theme (like Thanksgiving, American football, etc....). In February, our theme is "The Valentine Blues". I created this heart playing the blues just for this theme. Included here is the black & white inked version and the final colored version. Enjoy.

Fat Baby Pencil Sketches

Here are a few pencil sketches from my new children's book, Fat Baby. After I sketched the artwork, I inked it. Then I scanned them all into the computer, where I colored the images, assembled scenes (where necessary), then exported the images for the final product. I will post inked versions of these pencil sketches later.