Feeling Blocked

Lately I’m finding it hard to work in my sketchbooks or other art projects. I’ve been slowly pecking away at the finished illustrations for the now titled, Catnip Coco Cats. My 100 Studio Days project of working in my studio for one hour a day for 100 days has tapered off to NONE. I think I made it to 67 or somewhere about there.

I will finish the 100 days project but I haven’t much to show for it so far, except a finished sketchbook. I also spent some of that time getting ready for the Rainbow Artists and Makers Fair at the East Shore Area Library last weekend. I was busy printing, trimming, folding, and packaging art prints, zines, stickers, my children’s books and nature journal art kits. It was my first time having a table at any kind of event and I sold more art prints that I thought I would. It was a good experience, so much so, that Brenda and I have decided to apply to have a table at the Harrisburg Zine Fest in September.

The one small thing that I’ve been able to keep up with is my illustrated Traveler’s Company monthly journal. I’ve managed to complete every month so far with a small daily drawing of whatever’s happened that day (mostly what I’ve eaten that day). I find looking at the finished months very satisfying. I’ve been using pen and ink and color pencils. Some of my monthly pages are shown here.

So, here I am, ready to start down the path of creativity again. I’m going to finish that 100 days in the studio project and see what I end up with. I’ve started dabbling with making a couple more zines. And I’ve borrowed a few drawing books from the library just to get more pencil miles in the old sketchbook. Some of things I want to explore are the new Himi Gouache set that’s been sitting on my art table, unopened. Tempera and mixed media art sticks, and a set of Caran d’Ache Neocolor II Aquarelle wax pastels. What are you experimenting with?

Digital Urban Sketches Just Published

What is urban sketching? It is the recording of time and place, on location, in the form of a sketch. The sketch can be made with pencil, ink, watercolor, markers, or color pencil, usually in a sketchbook. In the case of this book, the urban sketches were made with an iPad and Apple Pencil using the Procreate and Tayasui Sketches Pro (now called Tayasui Watercolor) apps. I first became interested in urban sketching in October 2015, sketching around my hometown of Hanover, Pennsylvania. 

Eager to find a group to sketch with, I joined the Harrisburg Sketchers of Harrisburg Pennsylvania, and Urban Sketchers Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, both in October 2017. In 2018, I became interested in Digital Urban Sketching using an iPad after I saw several others in the urban sketching community sketching in that way.

Over the years I have used several iPad Pro models (12.9” and 11”), iPad 6, iPad Air, iPad Mini 5, and an iPad Mini 7, all with Apple Pencil. The iPad mini fits nicely into my everyday bag so that I always have it ready. I received for my birthday in 2018 an Etchr Slate Art Bag that was handy for standing and sketching. The Slate Bag converts to a portable easel with a strap around your neck and shoulder. It also has a tripod mount on the back, which was great for when I used the bag at figure drawing sessions. 

Etchr Slate Art Bag

I like my digital urban sketches to look like traditional sketches. I use a set of watercolor brushes for Procreate that mostly look like watercolor, but I haven’t settled on an ink brush that I like. I use the Tayasui Watercolor app (formerly Tayasui Sketches Pro) for most of my digital watercolor sketches. I love the fountain pen tool and the watercolor looks very vibrant and more realistic than Procreate. Adobe Fresco has live watercolor brushes, but I haven’t worked with those much. 

The great thing about sketching on an ipad is that you can use many different brushes and effects if you like to experiment without having to carry all those extra supplies with you. Another great thing is that you can work in layers, making your initial sketch on one layer and adding the ink and color in layers for more flexibility. Of course, there’s the two-finger tap to undo.

It is a little harder to sketch on an iPad when you are in bright sunlight, it’s best to find some shade in which to sketch. It’s a good idea to have a portable charger with you when sketching on an iPad for an extended period. 

Though I love to sketch on an iPad, I still like to draw in a sketchbook with a real pen, so I carry a sketchbook, pens, and watercolors with me in my everyday bag.

I think you will enjoy browing through this book of sketches made on an iPad!

Illustrating Catnip Cocoa Cats

I’m working on a new children’s book, tentatively titled Catnip Cocoa Cats. I wanted to write and illustrate a book about my son Isaac’s two cats, Moose and Bean. Moose was a rescue cat and Bean was found outdoors in need of a new home. The story includes our two cats, Dali and Escher, who are brother cats that were dumpster kitties rescued by a previous supervisor of mine. My story idea went through a few revisions and title changes before I finally settled on a storyline. I’ve gone through the process of creating rough sketches and I’m now refining the sketches page by page. A few of those sketches are shown here. After finishing the preliminary sketches I’ll start adding the line work and final color. This is while going back and forth between the sketches and page layout to place the text.

I’ve decided to try out the recently updated Affinity software to publish the book. I previously had used Adobe InDesign, which I have worked with for many years. I want to learn more about using Affinity as an alternative to Adobe software. I will be self-publishing the book on Amazon KDP, as I have the other books that I’ve written and illustrated. I’m using the Procreate app on my iPad Pro to create the sketches and the illustrations. The next step after finishing the story illustrations will be to create the end pages, title page illustration, any other spot illustrations, page layout, and then the cover. The exact cover dimensions are determined by the number of pages in the book. Amazon KDP has a cover calculator where you input the paper type, whether or not there is a bleed, the number of pages, and the size of the book. A bleed is when the images go all the way to the edge of page. The illustrations must be larger than the page size so that they can be trimmed down to the size of the book. This way there are no white edges around the pages.

When the illustrations have been completed and the page layout with the type has been formatted, the page layout is exported to a pdf file. After the cover is finished, the interior of the book (the manuscript) and the cover are uploaded separately to Amazon KDP. Amazon assigns the book an ISBN number (unless you’ve already purchased one). All that’s left is to answer the questions about the book and then decide on a selling price based on the cost of printing. Once you input all the information, the files are reviewed by Amazon and then published, usually within 24 hours in my experience. After the printed book is finished, there’s the option of creating a kindle book file from your pdf file.

Well, it’s back to working on my sketches for now. I’ll be updating the blog as I go along working on the rest of the book.

Illustrating My Next Book

While hanging out in the living room with my wife and two cats, I finished writing and illustrating my third children's book, Buffy & Roxy Decorate a Cake. Buffy is our original character in the first and second books, and Roxy is a new character inspired by my son and daughter-in-law’s Golden Doodle, Roxy. This book won't break any sales records or win the Caldecott medal, but it's my work and I really enjoyed the process of illustrating and publishing it on Amazon KDP.

I discovered while illustrating this book that the method I was using to illustrate the characters didn’t reproduce very well on the proofs that I received from Amazon KDP. I had to change the settings a few times to get the colors to pop. I’m still not entirely happy with the final colors but I had to let it go. I found that I should be using the CMYK color space for the illustrations in Procreate on my iPad.

While I was working on Buffy & Roxy Decorate A Cake, I kept thinking about a possible story line for one of my illustrations from a couple of years ago. The character is a winter wizard and he sorta resembles Santa Claus. Different story ideas kept running through my mind but I was firm about taking a break after the third book before starting another book. Finally I set a rough timeline for myself and got started on The Santa Wizard of Mrakovich Mountain by sitting down with my laptop and ironing out a story. Rough sketches started in June 2025 and now I’m at the stage of inking the pages in digital ink in Procreate. My plan is to have the book finished and uploaded to Amazon KDP by October, just in time for the holidays. I’m still not sure how I will illustrate the pages or if they will have the look of my other work of black outlines and watercolor fills.

Here are a few preliminary pages of the book, I plan to ink all the pages before starting in with the full color illustrations.

The Wizard drives the same brand of electric scooter as Buffy The Happy Laughing Dog. And he has a cat. I’m not sure who would be cat-sitting for the Wizard while he goes on his trip.

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New Buffy Book Just Released! Buffy & Roxy Decorate A Cake

I’ve just released my third Buffy The Happy Laughing Dog Book - Buffy & Roxy Decorate A Cake! Can Buffy and Roxy win a prize in the cake decorating contest? Pick up your copy of the book from Amazon, in paperback or kindle. Thank you for your support!

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