Contest Prototype

Here is the rough cut.



This is the second version. I felt it needed to really drive home some important points.

The Terrible Two-timing Toy Thief

Here is a video my nieces and nephews put together on a whim during Thanksgiving. Enjoy.

Captain Keke, Francois and his buddies

Francois is new to making appearances and interacting with humans and although the video quality is poor and so is my accent, I think you can see how children enjoy seeing him.

A Question for the Artists

Is this art?





This is my shower wall and that is all the hair that left my head that morning. I made this face of hair as a declaration of my attitude toward hair loss.

The Lantern Festival

I'd like to include an excerpt from my manuscript: The Story of the Norwegian Pirate and the Fairy Princess Maynan.

The boy looks out to the darkened sea again but this time instead of seeing nothing but darkness he sees hundreds of glowing amber orbs, floating in the night sky.

It is the lantern festival on the Isla de la Luna. The festival is an annual tradition of a small population of islanders known as Roes. Roes are small human like people with smaller than average body proportions, squinty eyes, tanned skin like leather and strong lean bodies. Roes smile a lot and are a jovial group of people. To celebrate an Isla de la Luna year of hard work and labor the Roes put on; a lavish feast, dance, tell stories of their ancestors and play music all night long. A special event is the creation of giant lanterns that, with the aid of a very old and secret incantation, will hover in the air…sending each pilot on their very own voyage through the night sky. As each of these lanterns takes off it begins to glow a soft amber color and gracefully hovers in the calm and gentle air. If any two lanterns should bump into each other they simply bounce off of one another and go in opposite directions. The lanterns stay in the air for as long as the flier wishes, but never past the rising of the sun. An interesting tidbit of information is that Roes have two eyelids; one covers the eye like an alligator or a crocodile does when they go below the water enabling them to see without having to rely on masks or goggles, the other is just like yours’ it helps keep the light out when the Roes are on land and when they go to sleep.

I made this using some oil pastels my father gave me. There are not many different colors to choose from so I used what I had and rubbed them together on the page with my finger. I'd like the pictures to have more detail and look cleaner, but for the purposes of this blog I think the colors give it a dream- like quality.

An Introduction

True to my promise I’d like to take this moment to introduce you to a character from a story I wrote a few years ago. But first I must begin with how this all came about. When my wife and I were in college I told her a bedtime story of the Norwegian Pirate and the Fairy Princess Maynan. Years passed and I forgot the original story, but I liked the name so I used it for other purposes. When Pirates of the Caribbean came out my nephew was captivated by the incredible character Jack Sparrow and the cursed pirates or what he referred to as the “monsters”. Pirates were the rage. My interest in pirate lore and the popularity with my nephew and the Pirates of the Caribbean movie motivated me to write my own story based on my character the Norwegian Pirate. Being that I had plenty of down time at my old job I bought a small notebook for sketches of characters and my story. I wrote the beginning of a children’s story, but my motivation soon fizzled and the story of Zaxson and Neptune’s Trident fell by the wayside.

Then, last summer I was to turn twenty-eight and I set a goal for myself that I’d write a book in thirty days, no matter if it was any good or made any sense I was going to write a book- and I did. The book was not finished in thirty days as I originally set out to do, but nonetheless I had started and finished a book by the end of the summer. It’s a story about a boy who has lucid dreams in a place called the LOLD or, the Land of Lucid Dreams. This particular story takes place in the Oceanus realm where most of the Norwegian Pirate’s adventures happen. In his dreams he encounters strange and unique places and creatures. One of these creatures is the turtle pirate Francois.

Francois is best described as a seasoned pirate known for his bon vivant ways. I would consider him to be a cross between Peter Seller's Inspector Clouseau and Baron Munchausen. He has been imprisoned on the Island of Lost Souls and is known on the island as an excellent source of information in the Oceanus Realm.

Without further ado I introduce to you, Francois the turtle pirate...

Here is what Francois looked like when I first came up with him.

Then I began drawing a storyboard.
















Two weeks ago I spent the week putting him together. I wish I would have taken pictures of the process showing his development. I mean, I only waited a year and half to put him together.
I showed him to my niece this past Sunday and she really loved him. It may have helped that she was sleep deprived and a big talking turtle was probably completely normal to her at that point.















Here they are enjoying a Pixar movie, Monsters Inc., together. You can't tell but there are huge red bags around the eyes of a little blond someone from not taking their nap.

Watching my niece talk to Francois and give him a kiss and a hug was one of the coolest things to see, I got to see my creation do exactly what I intended, help kids imagine. My heart just about exploded.