I just love Fairy Tales. There's just something about them that is so wonderfully imaginative and timeless. When I am trying to think of new stories and also when I am looking at the new books that come out I wonder if they will be around in the future and if they will be as timeless as so many of those original tales.

For this weeks IF subject "grow", I immediately thought of Jack and the Beanstalk. So this is my little sketch of it.

*edit: I added a second version of it. I've seen a lot of people adding textures and effects to their work and thought that maybe I would try to experiment with this one a bit. Let me know which one you guys like better.




Take care,

-Mike

Well I was able to produce a little Illustration Friday sketch today. Been a while since I participated and it's nice to get back into it again. Sometimes being creative is difficult and just sketching from uninspired thoughts starts to reflect itself in my work. So being challenged to think differently and really push out something that I would have not normally drawn from is a challenge that I am enjoying immensely. This weeks work is Extremes and being from the great white North, extreme temperatures is very common. We go from very hot long days in the summer (28-30ºC with sun up at 6am and setting at 10-11pm) to very very cold winter days (-40ºC with sunrise around 8-9 am and sunset at 6-7pm!).

These are quite extreme changes in weather, at least in my opinion, and I wanted to show what it looks like quite often after the first snowfall. We seem to forget just how cold it really gets and as soon as the white stuff appears we bundle up for the worst. This is especially true of kids and mothers dressing their kids as I wanted to draw for this weeks IF.



Take care,

-Mike

Just a quicky I did last Friday while I was thinking of something to do for IF (which is still coming - maybe tomorrow?)

Take care,
-Mike

Hello again everyone. I've been busy with life the last few weeks with family weddings and family funerals. Life continues to progress and especially this past week we have been able to reflect upon what we are thankful for. For all you Canucks that read this blog, Happy Thanksgiving, and well, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone else as well! I was asked why we celebrate Thanksgiving early and if was different from American Thanksgiving, and I had to say I honestly didn't know. So if you know, share the info with me please.

I've still been working and doodling new things. I know I've neglected Illustration Friday lately and so tomorrow I will get on it again. One new project I am doing on the side is a comic strip, and I was approached by a writer to get involved with this. I will fill you guys in with more details as I get the ok from Grant, but it's been a lot of fun developing so far. I really enjoy character development and the creation process at the beginning of any project.

I've also figured a way to get my tear sheets (samples of my work) on here for anyone to download. So Download my sample tear sheet pdf here or on my side bar by clicking on it. The pdf has three pages each that are different examples of what I illustrate and many of them are on here and my site already. So save it, print it, file it, or scrap it (preferably recycled if possible) they are yours to do with as you please.

Below are some samples of recent stuff:
-First is a Thanksgiving sketch I did for my agent;
-The second is another of the same character that I am actually developing a kids book for and you should be seeing more of in the future;
-The final is a possible character lineup for the new comic strip I am drawing that you should also be hearing more about in the near future.






So thanks for stopping by again, I will have more updates and another IF drawing coming soon.
Take care,
-Mike

Hey hey everybody! I just wanted to send out a quick update. Sorry no real artwork post this time. I've been busy this week trying to get a web page done and it's finally up. It's nothing fancy but it works for now. You can check it out by clicking here or I also now have a link on the side panel.

I also wanted to finally fill in the deets about my agent. Her name is Jennifer Jaeger and she is an agent with the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. She represents me for anything that has to do with children's literary works. She's really helped me out a lot already in preparing for the next steps and has even taken my book, that I'm trying to get published, to NYC and sent out copies to a couple of editors that were interested there. Her contact info is on the side as well.

The Andrea Brown Literary Agency is a small company with a big reputation and I am VERY fortunate to be represented by them. They are not a huge faceless company that accepts anyone who applies and then doesn't do much work to forward the careers of those they represent. They seem to be a tight knit team who works together and works closely with those who they represent. They were exactly the kind of company I was hoping to get in with. In fact, they were my top and first pick. Jennifer, as well as many of the other agents there, do many workshops at all kinds of conferences around the States. I only have good things to say about my experience so far and I'm super excited for the future.

I've also been working on some tear sheets that sample my art work. I hope to have a version available on here but they are mostly to mail out to publishers for work. Figuring out how to attach those to here is my next project.


So that's it for now, if you have any questions please feel free to ask. I'm no expert on this, but I can tell you what I do know.

Take care,

-Mike

Well, seeing as I missed last weeks I.F. I thought I would whip something up quickly for this weeks "Momentum". I've had pirates a lot on the brain lately for another story idea I came up with a number of years ago, but pirates are tired. They've just finished 3 major movies and ran the marathon the host of TV, marketing and advertising companies put them through. So, I'm giving pirates a break, well sorta. I have moved on to their earlier cousins the Northmen - aka: Norsemen, Barbarians, and Vikings. I'm fairly excited about this new idea for a book, but it needs some major work yet. So today I was just getting a feel for theses Icelandic adventurers. I wanted to also tie my sketch in with this weeks IF and so I felt this guy may have some momentum as he jumps out of the boat. I just hope, for his sake, that he's close enough to shore and there are no sharks, because I think he just past the point of no return.



Thanks for helping me out with the poll on the font size. I'll be sticking with "normal" from now on. Oh, and I have not forgotten about my promise to tell you guys about the updates on my book and on my agent. Please stay tuned, I hope to fill in the remainder of the deets next week.

Take care,

-Mike

Here is my pic for this weeks I.F. Visitors theme. I know it's pretty much over already, but I didn't have that much time this week to do it. Been fairly busy with work, or more accurately, finding work stuff.

This sketch is for another story I hope to have on the drawing board soon. Who's really the unexpected visitor here eh?






Take care,

-Mike

I have been inspired by many things in life and various ideas I have for stories and books have come from many different places. However, lately many of my ideas seem to be "sourced" by my oldest niece and to little quirks she has. She is such an individual already it's hilarious. So this pic was basically a summery of the last few dinners I've been able to share with her.

Have a good weekend!

-Mike

Hello again. I was on holidays for the last few days and so I'm just sneaking in this picture for last weeks Illustration Friday subject "Captain". It's a rough sketch with some basic colors behind it of something I believe most of us drew this week. Pirates are just about my favorite things, chasing Science Fiction, The Incredibles and Mexican Food. They have so much character and have so many great stereotypes.




Take care,

-Mike

PS. I would like to thank everyone for their very kind comments last week. It's very encouraging! Thank you!

I recently discovered Illustration Friday and figured why not. Obviously a great way to "stay in shape", so here's my contribution to this weeks "Emergency". I didn't want to draw exactly what the emergency was but rather how they effect people. In this case the emergency could be anything. Most likely it's a dastardly dragon or rampaging army, but who's to say he isn't just racing home to the old royal throne.



Take care,

-Mike

Well, there's been a bit of a breakthrough on the book front. I believe I have found an agent who wants to represent me and the book that I've done. I won't give any names until the contract is signed, but I'm pretty excited. She's from a really reputable agency and has been great to talk to so far. I'm pumped! I'll give you the lowdown on the whole who, what, where, and why once all the paperwork has been finalized.

Until then I have to be preparing some tear sheets for her to take to the publishers, so I've been doing some sketching. The first sketch is for another story idea I hope to develop in the near future, and the second is a B&W drawing for a chapter book...uh chapter-title page. Been quite a while since I've done anything close to finished in pencil so let me know what you think.







Take care.

-Mike

Hello again, I've been rather busy finishing off my book and starting the path to publishing it. These days there are so many options :self publish, print on demand, get and agent, or try straight through the publisher. I'm sure there are more but I have not been drawn to any of them.

So here is the cover illustration I am going with at the moment, though it does need some serious design work. Let me know what you think of it.







Here are some sketches I was working on today for a new idea I have for another book. It has been inspired my my oldest Niece.




I will see you again....soon.

-Mike

Well, wow, it's been a while again. For those of you who think I'm a terrible blogger, you're right. I don't update very often. So, it is something I struggle with, ha ha, oh well. I have been busy though. Just this morning I finished the last spread for my book that I've been working on. That's about 10 pages more into the book since my last post! Now I just have some proofreading, some edits and alterations (my wife has been a great new editor!), some small design stuff that I will definitely need some help on (all my designer friends prepare for emails haha), and the cover. Oh and then that small task of finding a publisher. I decided that I didn't want to show the whole story already, people need some suspense and to wait for things sometimes. It makes things more exciting....errr I least I think it does. I kinda cracked a bit though and figured, maybe I could give you a "small" sneak preview of the whole book, that wouldn't be too bad. So here it is:




Well, I did say small...

I've also been saying for a while that I would post some sketches of a series of pictures I was doing for my son, Eli's room. In the end (eventually) it will be three pictures all of the same size, that will be in "sequence" sort of like a short, very short key-framed animation. Though, that makes it sound a lot better than it really is.





I know it's not much of a post, but it's something. Thanks for all the comments so far. I really appreciate them, and please leave them. It's nice to know that people have been by, that, and my blog get's lonely during the long breaks between posts.

Take care,

-Mike

Yeah! It's that time again. BLOG TIME! We have had a busy week 'n a bit but now it's time to post the bit of progress on the story. Just two images this time, but there will be more soon. I've also been working on a little series of pics for Eli's room, so I will post the progress on those as well. So much to do...

Hello all. Well, it's the May Long weekend and that consistently means one thing for Edmontonians, if you go camping, it will rain or snow on you. It also always happens to be on my beautiful wife's B-day. What a blessing she is in my life, and what an amazing mother she has already become! I am always learning from her, a true teacher, though she doesn't know it. She is also the inspiration for almost everything that I do (as well as a great "art director" and "color coordinator"). I am truly thankful to be married to such an awesome woman.

Happy Birthday Babe! I love you!



I've been still pluggin' away at the same ol' project and so I have some updates. I know they don't happen to often, but at least it's more often than the last few.

Hey, it's under 10 million months and I'm bloggin' again, wow. Well it's really just another small update of what is currently filling my time. I'll be filling you in with more deets about it more as it's developed.




Thanks for stopping by.

-Mike

ps. "Hey" to all you former co-workers, thanks for the comments, much appreciated!

So... right, a blog. Something that I am supposed to update once in a while, and it's been, a while.

Anywho, I have been busy, I just haven't posted anything for a while so here are some of the things I have been working on:

#1: Being a dad. My son Eli rocks! He has grown so much already and I just can't wait to see what he is going to do next.

#2: Some initial kid's Tshirt designs see here below. They were rather preliminary and rather simple artistically as I was aiming to do them in only one or two colors. I don't even know if they are cool or not. I may do some more if I feel like it, and if I suddenly get really ambitious maybe try to print/market them.





#3 is a kids book from the sample spread above. I am having a lot of fun doing this one. I hope to finish the book in the next few months and so I will continue to leave some teaser pics for it and keep you up to date on the process.

#4 was for a very good friend of mine who is starting up a software company. You can check out the teaser page here:Launch CMS.
They have some very cool ideas for web software (and more) that are in development and I was able to do some fun icons/graphics for it. They have a super cool blog as well.

#5 Check out my younger brother Darryl's webblog. No, it's not something that I have been up to, but there are a few things he has been up to lately. He's been doodling much like me for most of his life, but in the past few years he has taken some time off and is now getting back into it as well as painting (you should see those if he would only post those!). Now he just got a wacom at Christmas and has never used digital media until now! He is super talented and will be surpasing me shortly - gives me some motivation to improve as well.


On a less related to what-I've-been-doing-lately-list, the Legendary Anthology that I joined a while back is complete (though the blog isn't updated at the moment - Matt is a super super busy guy) and the hunt for publishers is near. Matt says that he is hoping that it will be done and printed even by this fall, maybe even for the San Diego Comic Convention (SDCC I think). He says the finished product looks great, and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy! I hope that I can be involved in another of these anothology type comics again in the future - though I definitely have to do my Chuck Chance as well, though at this rate it will be done when Eli graduates.

So yeah, that's what I have been up to the last few months. As again, I will try to update this thing a little more often. Thanks to those of you who have stopped by in the last few months and made comments. I really appreciate them.

Take care,

-Mike

Hello all, this is just a short update today. Been pretty busy getting into "life" with my new son. He's so awesome!

So here is a quicky of a new project that I am starting soon. I will keep you informed as I develop it more. What do you think of it?

-Mike

Few more "oldies" from the past. I promise that new stuff is on the way...soon.









The comic is from my Chuck Chance story that I am redoing. The link is on the side if you are interested or check it out here. The others are random projects.

Take care,

-Mike

These are some sample pages from a project that I was recently asked to join. The Legendary Project is an anthology type comic that I hope to see published later this year. I am really looking forward to seeing this all in print because I know some of the other people that are involved with it. It has been collaborated bt Matt Schuler, known to many as Cosmic Pencil. You can check it out here. Matt is a great guy and has put loads of time into this above and beyond his own story contribution. The final product should look great.

So here are some of the pages:








So take care for now!

-Mike

Well, it's been an amazing week and a bit. My beautiful wife and I have been celebrating the birth of our first child, a son born on January 18th. Eli Owen is already amazing and we love him so much. What a blessing he is! I look forward so much to what his life will bring ours!

Well, I better put some illustrations up here or it won't be much of an art blog would it. These are some older pictures that I had done for parents birthdays. Some more current stuff is coming soon.

-Mike

Well hello world,
I finally decided to get on board the art blog bandwagon. I will try to upload sketches, pictures and other things as I get them done, so stay tuned, this is just the beginning.



Unless otherwise noted, all artwork is copyright of Mike Boldt.