Sentence Shaper

These images will be featured in a new program for people with language disorders called "SentenceShaper® II" which will be released later this year by Psycholinguistic Technologies.

For the past 12 years I have had the privilege of completing roughly 1300 illustrations for the Sentence Shaper program as well as the design of the program's look (buttons, etc.). Overall my cartooning has had to remain the same which has been difficult considering my artistic growth. However, the biggest challenge has been that each illustration needed to easily and recognizably portray an action or entire scenario without the use of words. You'll note that motion lines are emphasized. This was to help draw the patient's eye and bring attention to an action or variation.

This latest batch of scenarios were "point-and-click" colored (due to time and budget constraints) with the help of Drew Phillips. I'll post more as time allows, God knows I have plenty to show.

Charles Schulz

Okay, I'm ready to talk about it.

If you know me, you know how much of a fan I am of Charles Schulz and Peanuts. Recently I finished the newest biography by David Michaelis, Schulz and Peanuts. While I enjoyed the book I found that some parts were extremely hard to read since it felt so close to home. However, as I read I found that it helped heal me of many of the struggles that I have been dealing with my entire life, but the most important of all was this:

1. Never put your work before your family or your God.

Shepherd.

Forgive me, but sometimes I get bored at church. Don't get me wrong, I'm listening, I just need to do something other than listen. The sketches I do usually tie in with our pastor's message.

The story behind this sketch:

Sheep are considered to be the dumbest animals on the planet. If a sheep continued to wander, shepherds would break one of the sheep's legs making the sheep more dependent on the shepherd. That way, the shepherd could keep track of his flock, keep it safe and guide it in the right direction. Sometimes it's good to have your leg broken.

Daguerreotype

I've been pretty busy with creating the sets for our Vacation Bible School, but I wanted to get something up here for everyone to see. Here's another hidden picture created for Highlights Magazine. This one is based on early Daguerreotype photography with French artist and chemist Louis J.M. Daguerre.

Try to find the following in this one:

Umbrella, spoon, knife, candle, fishhook, bendy straw, banana, bell, flag, flashlight, paintbrush, muffin, and a pencil.

Rock Climbing

The latest hidden picture for Highlights Magazine.

There are 16 hidden objects to find:

Mitten, diamond ring, fish, fishhook, apple, turtle, shell, mug, acorn, sock, candy corn, boomerang, ladybug, magnifying glass, wishbone, and the proverbial sailboat.

We are all dumb tourists.

A recent conversation I had with a friend reminded me of these dumb tourists Daisy and I ran into while in Italy. You really should do everything you can to blend in, God knows we did but they still knew we were Americans. Others, on the other hand, don't get it at all and act as if everything should be catering to their needs. 

10 hours.

Last summer my wife, Daisy, and I went to Charlotte, North Carolina for an extremely restful vacation. Daisy drove the entire 10 hours home to our home in Mount Laurel, New Jersey and I took the opportunity to sketch all of the fun stuff we encountered on the ride. I have become quite accustomed to drawing on trains (three days a week during the school year) but drawing while she drove at 70+ miles per hour in a small SUV was a hoot. Here are the sketchbook pages from the trip. I did have to clean up some of the lettering.

Paper Sculpture

I promise to keep on top of this blog more frequently. If time will allow it I hope to do weekly postings.

June 2 was our first wedding anniversary. Unsure of what I was going to get Daisy I did a little research and was tickled to find out that the traditional first wedding anniversary gift is paper. Rather ambitiously I decided that I was going to a create a paper sculpture for Daisy of a scene from our honeymoon on the island of Capri in Italy. Considering it had been 15 years since I made a paper sculpture it took me much longer than I had planned. Thankfully it was completed on our anniversary and Daisy loved it.

It's amazing how much the lighting effects the look of it. Here's a few photos of it as well some of the scenery that it is based on.

While hiking down Monte Solaro, Daisy and I stumbled upon the shrine to Santuario Santa Maria a Centrella. I'm not entirely sure who Saint Marie was or what event the shrine is associated with. Ancient stone ruins surrounded the mountain side as well as snakes, lizards and flowers. To add to the beauty of it all low flying clouds continuously collided into the mountain.

You'll note that I removed the stone "cap" on top of the shrine for the sculpture.

One of the many lizards on the island. Daisy was fascinated by them so I added one into the sculpture.