Bumble Bee

Just finished up a couple new spot illustrations for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's new science book. This is one of them.

PickUp Sticks

Here's a quick look at some of the art I'm working on for Klutz.

We're reworking an old favorite, "PickUp Sticks". You all played this fun-filled and challenging game when you were a young'n. You remember, back when Big-Wheels ruled the road and Lawn Jarts, Easy-Bake Ovens and those insane 5 oz. resin ball numb-chucks were all just a quick station-wagon ride away from the emergency room.

I'm predicting "PickUp Sticks" will be on everybody's short list this holiday season. They make a great gift for angry frustrated siblings and can double as shish-ka-bob skewers in a pinch. Hmm, shish-ka-bob is a really cool word. Hows come we don't have a superhero named Shish-ka-bob?

Scotty & LuLu

Just finished up a quick caricature of Scotty & LuLu. Two talented children's entertainers over in the UK. This is phase one of the project. We're going to be developing some fun, educational, interactive iphone apps for children in partnership with an ad and marketing agency in Hong Kong.

Scotty & LuLu will provide the audio, Hong Kong will build the animation and programming, and that leaves me with the easy part. So stay tuned. Scotty & LuLu will be coming soon to an iphone near you!

Emergency Artwork

Here are a couple of B/W spot illustrations for a new project I just finished up last night around midnight. Nothing like a deadline to motivate a little loss of sleep. There were about 20 of these little spots that I worked on for Weekly Reader. They're part of an educational poster and learning exercise to teach kids about when it's appropriate to dial 911.

Kind of like... it's really not OK to dial 911 just because it's 10:30, your deadline is about to expire and you've run out of coffee. The very least the 911 operator could have done was tell me the location of the nearest 7-11. They really ought to train these people better.

National Dairy Month

Here's the latest calendar spread for the Adventure Children's magazine. June is national Dairy Month, and I needed some practice drawing cows. The original sketch had some really fun looking udders, but the client asked me to remove them. Udderly ridiculous.

I'll have some more fun stuff next week, I'm working on about 4 projects at once; 9-11 emergency for Weekly Reader, a new Klutz book project, Characters for a revised Gingerbread man story, and a really cool new iphone app. Stay tuned for updates.

Chuck your Recyclables

Here's a new character I worked on for a national recycling program. Stay tuned for the details...

May Calendar

Here's the latest calendar spread for May 2010.

Late Christmas Present

I just got the Velvet Christmas Art book from Klutz today. I'm really stoked to see how great it turned out. But it's Klutz, so that's what you expect.

Working on some new stuff. will post up soon. Happy New Year.

Ben Franklin... of course

Here's a tidbit of science history. It's widely believed the Benjamin Franklin did not actually preform his famous key tied to a kite string experiment. But had written a paper accurately describing that lightning was in fact electricity, and one could produce electrical sparks from the key if the experiment were conducted.

A few lesser-known and shorter-lived scientists who attempted the experiment in the years following Franklin's paper, posthumously proved Franklin's theory was correct. This would have been a nice way to eliminate the competition for patents, but Franklin also never sought any patents for the numerous inventions he fathered in his lifetime. He felt it was his greatest privilege to serve the benefits of his fellow man.

If Ben had tried the experiment himself, we may never have had bi-focals, lightning rods, catamarans, refrigeration or a public library system.

More Characters for HMH

Here's a collection of spot characters for the Science book project. We're just about to wrap this one up. I should be finished with my part by the end of the week. It's been fun working on this, and it keeps me off the streets.

Build Your Own Robot

So here it is... the plans to build your own robot. Just send $9.95 and a SASE to the address below and I'll place your plans into a hermetically sealed, cardboard toilet paper tube and rush them (pony express) right to whatever turnip patch you just crawled out from.

I'll Take Your Money

PO Box 1234

Fallingfer, IT 97665

Or it's another spot illustration for the 4th grade science book.

Generic Sorta Map Thing

Getting down to the end of this assignment. Here's the latest. This is a background for a page that's all about drawing a map of your neighborhood. I think in the final version of the page, most of this will be obscured. So this is the only place you'll be able to see it in it's full "if somewhat simple" glory.

New spot

Here's quick one I finished yesterday. I'm working on a bunch of new spots for HMH today.

Big City Scene

HMH is keeping me jumping these days. Here's the latest spread for the 2nd grade science/english project. The large blank areas are for text. It will be fun to see this in it's completed form. 

I just picked up another 20 spot illustrations for grades 2 through 4, so it's time to break out the pencils this morning. 

Common Connection?

So what do all 4 of these new spots have in common? If you answered, "james drew them" your right. But you wouldn't be smarter than a 4th grader. They all use magnets. Any 9 or 10 year-old could tell you that. Maybe you should go sign up for those adult-ed classes you've been considering?

It's already snowing

My sister-in-law told me it's already snowing in Colorado, so here's one of my latest spots for the Grade 4 Science book to play along with that theme. I'm so glad to be living on the California Coast. 

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

It's almost midnight and I'm just finishing up the last couple of details on this one. It's a large spread illustration for a 2nd grade English/Science book project. This one shows how electricity is used. More to come...

New Spot Germs

Here's some of the final art for the Weekly Reader assignment. Hmmm, maybe this should go with my medical illustrations? 

February 2010 Calendar

Green, Green, Green. Another calendar spread for Lifeway. I have a couple of other projects in the works right now. Should be posting some new stuff in a couple of weeks. 

Oh yea, and the vacation was great! 10 days in the new and improved Toy-Camper was really fun. We drove up to the Eel River in Humbolt County to camp in the redwoods and then down the coast camping at Fort Bragg, Salt Point, Point Reyes and finally Monterey. I'm finding it a little hard to get back to work. 

A quick one sheet

Just made a quick one-sheet for a simple promotion. Might need to do a little more work on this one. Most of this stuff is fairly old.