Look Ma, I'm a movie star!

I've been playing around with the ole' video camera and put together a couple of art videos for practice. I intend to create some painting demos and book trailers if I can figure out what the heck I'm doing. 

Here are my first award winning videos. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd2IIH6xIOE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEaIlc9zROE

And I've been using songs that I created a few years ago (thanks to garageband) as soundtracks...so they aren't exactly fitting for these videos but I used them, anyway. I'll work on new music to go along with the new videos...in my spare time.

That's all for now...back to the painting.

Not Your Typical New Book...

My newest children’s book hit the shelves, last week. Not Your Typical Dragon by Dan Bar-el, published by Viking Juvenile.

Not Your Typical Dragon-cover

Here’s a description of the book:

Everybody knows your typical dragon breathes fire.

But when Crispin tries to breathe fire on his seventh birthday, fire doesn't come out—only whipped cream! Each time Crispin tries to breathe fire, he ends up with

Band-Aids

marshmallows

teddy bears?

Crispin wonders if he’ll ever find his inner fire. But when a family emergency breaks out, it takes a little dragon with not-so-typical abilities to save the day.

Happy Birthday, Crispin!

A birthday surprise...

The parents are a bit concerned but the little sister is fine with the outcome…she likes whipped cream.

Mr. Blaze (Dad) takes Crispin to the Doc for help.

I dedicated this book to Betsy and Jeff Woytovich who started an organization called The Children’s Alopecia Project (C.A.P.).

About alopecia-

Alopecia is an autoimmune disease that is not life threatening, but is life altering. It is not contagious. You can't catch it and it does not hurt. It is almost like your body is allergic to hair, which causes it to fall out.

Mission (C.A.P.)-

The Mission of the Children's Alopecia Project is to help any child in need living with hair loss due to all forms of alopecia.

For children, living with this condition can be difficult. Being teased, bullied and receiving hurtful comments are common among kids with alopecia. I hope that more awareness and understanding will help the situation and make the lives of many of these kids, a bit easier. To me, this story is about discovering the  special uniqueness and seeing the good in every “not your typical” dragon…and child.

I really enjoyed working on this book. The character's proportions were fun to play around with and the big buggy eyes added a bit more humor. These paintings were done in acrylic on illustration board. An earlier post describes the acrylic painting technique that I usually use.

That's all for now...back to the paint.