During a typical field trip to 826, students are informed that there is an angry editor that works in the office upstairs and needs a original new stories right away. The students then work together to create characters, plot, and the setting for this story. I get to illustrate their bizarre creations, and at the end of the trip, each student leaves with a copy of their very own story. It’s great to help these kids realize a vision and turn it into a real physical thing.

You can read more about my new album Me Geek Pretty One Day here, or check out some of the work I’ve created for 826: Three Jungle Friends Learn To Swim, Purple Coconut, March Gladness, Rad Hair Day, The French Fryketeer Adventure, and Tie Patches.

The Oakland design firm, Because We Can, was also there demonstrating some of their creations. At their booth, they also had a portable speaker in a thermos prototype by co(act)lab that I thought was a great idea. The thermos housed a small speaker and an amplifier that could be plugged into your music source to bump music on the go. Because of it’s shape, it could be carried around in your bike’s bottle holder. The idea was that when it wasn’t in use, you could roll the cord up and put thermos’s lid back on keeping it weather proof and theoretically discouraging thieves from thinking it’s anything more than just a plain coffee thermos.

Of course, the thieves around here certainly wouldn’t be opposed to stealing a thermos if it wasn’t chained down.

Scott Beale recently posted a cool video by Brainchild about Because We Can on Laughing Squid too.

Here is a quick sketch I made to warm up before drawing The Three Jungle Friends story at 826 last week. I like to loosen up before the kids get there, because once they start writing their book I have to move fast.

This shot also gives you a sense of scale of the art that we create for the books. We keep it large so the kids can see it as we are drawing, but working this size also poses problems for time (ie filling large black areas or even crosshatching).

This image, of being hunched over on a tricycle, had been stuck in my head all morning before I got to draw it out. The funny thing is, that immediately after we finished the kids books, I stumbled upon (literally) a tiny red tricycle just like the one in my head all morning. I thought it would be perfect for photo-reference, but when Mike tried to snap a shot of me riding it, I couldn’t possibly get my feet on the pedals while it was moving (like they are in my drawing).

Once, in the jungle, there lived Mr. Bud, the tiger with super strong six foot long claws and a 10 foot tail! His favorite hidden cave was nestled high up in the mountains where he could keep his purple and pink stripes a secret.

His best friends were Carly the Lioness and Michelle the Giraffe, who happened to be a special short-necked giraffe. Michelle was the fastest giraffe in the jungle because she always ran every day.

Carly and Mr. Bud had a dream of learning how to swim with their best friend, Michelle. However, there was one small problem, they were afraid of drowning and, of course, of The Sea Monster known as Frankie King of the Deep.

The three friends vacationed at the beach on the edge of the Shadow Waters.

“Let’s run into that water!” shouted Michelle.

“Carly said, “No way! I’m just going to run along the beach. Tag, your it, Mr. Bud!”

Carly was running so fast, she leapt over a piece of driftwood and fell into the water.

“Oh no! I have to save Carly!” exclaimed Mr. Bud. Immediately he jumped in after her and then remembered he was scared of swimming also.

Michelle heard her friends screaming as the Sea Monster surfaced…

That’s the end of the group story, at this point each student was given a copy of their book, where they could write their own creative ending.

I came back to 826 later that evening for our pirate craft night event. There where about 20 people there, making peg legs, eye patches, and pirate hooks. Good times.

I brought my sewing machine and showed the basics of pirate patch upholstery, and of course I brought plenty of scrap tie fabrics. We made 15 “tie patches” that I believe the store will sell for $10 each. I’m really happy with my embroidered ones, but some of the other ones turned out specatucalarly.

Click the image larger view.

and of course I wore my eyepatch.

Read it here.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Here are two quick sketches I did today.

Swords for teeth is based on something some kids created while I was illustrating a story at 826 Valencia. It was about an arachnophobic spider with a pet alligator with swords for teeth.

The Monies sketch is just some weird thing.

These both took a few minutes to draw, then about 4 hours in photoshop.