daily doodle for August 3 2010daily doddle for August 4, 2010

These goats are brought to you by the numbers 3 and 4. I finally have a good grasp on goat anatomy and decided to have some fun with these two.

Today was the day my first official blog post for the middle-grade group blog went live. I haven’t had a chance to go over and check the comments yet, but I did get an email from one of the author/artists whose book I mentioned. If you are interested in how graphic novels are being used to promote literacy in the classroom, head on over to From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle-Grade Authors. I am at the end of the rotation, so there are a few dozen other articles there as well. I am truly honored to be among the people of this group and I hope I can live up to the very high standards they are setting.

In other news, my brother-in-law is in town for a few days.

Smoky and the feast of mabon coverSmoky and the Feast of Mabon officially releases in 17 days. I attempted to find a cool count down widget but the search kept being put on hold when more pressing projects came up. Any who, the book is available now from the publisher and on amazon. Please help support me and my fellow creator, author of the book, Catherynne M. Valente. If you already have a copy, THANK YOU. Really, I mean it. If you don’t have kids or can’t buy the book for whatever reason, please ask your local librarians to purchase it for their collection.

Red Lemon Club

Red Lemon Club: Online Self Promotion for Creatives.

I am still working hard on the final illustrations for Smoky and the Feast of Mabon by Catherynne M. Valente. The book is now up on both the publisher’s web site and amazon for pre-order which really puts the pressure on me because people are ORDERING the book already. LOL

After I finish up with the book, the next big project on my to-do list is to make this site fully functional and work harder at bring me paying illustration jobs. I am learning all about marketing and SEO specifically geared toward creatives. The link above is my newest find.

Of course, having the info and taking it and implementing it are two entirely different animals. I have yet to figure out a good way to go about the implementing part where I actually follow through before another project distracts me. I have been on Twitter for a few months now (@lyonmartin) and the community I have found there tells me this is a common failing among my fellow artists. Seems we are all easily distracted.

I am itching to get back to my daily doodle. And my daily exercise routine. I don’t know why, but the stuff I do to keep myself sane the rest of the time slips away when I am finishing a book. The drug of choice this book has been cheese doodles. Go figure.