Voodoo Child

Hey check it out ...
I finished another illustration for The Canadian Sportsman. I really like how this one turned out, probably because I didn't have to draw a horse this time, heh. Here are the stages I went through.

Ink stage

Sketch stage

Introducing: SNOWBANK! GIJoe Meet exclusive figure

For the past several years I have illustrated/designed the exclusive GIJoe figures to the GIJoe meet/con in Hamilton. This year, Larry Hama (GIJoe: A Real American Hero creator/comic writer/artist) will be the guest of honour and he was kind enough to write the filecard for this year's figure "Snowbank". In a way, I was part of a collaborative effort in creating a new GIJoe character for the GIJoe universe with Larry Hama's blessing (along with GIJoe meet organizer Michael Heddle).
The Canadian GIJoe Meet takes place on April 19th at the Marriot Courtyard on Upper James, in Hamilton, ON.

Robotic disco inferno

Here's another robot who comes equipped with his own dance party. These robot paintings are fun little exercises inspired by my nephew Owen. He goes crazy over them! I'm curious to see what's going to happen when Pixar's Wall-E is released. I'm sure his room will be overflowing with merch.

Robot and kitten

Not even big angry robots can resist the cuddly love of a cute widdle kitty!

This mini-painting was created for my March 31st facebook group giveaway. There's still time to get your name in the draw - visit Alana McCarthy Illustration Group for more details.

I love doing these paintings. They give me an excuse to create some work for myself. They also help to expose and promote my work to a brand new audience.. and sell some prints in the meantime. Speaking of prints, if you loved some of the past paintings, but weren't the lucky winner I will be making them available as prints and selling them at the conventions this summer.

2008 See me at the...

June 7 - 8 MoCCA Art Festival 2008 - Puck building, lower Manhattan, NYC

July 12 - 13 Paradise Comic Convention - Holiday Inn on King, Toronto

Aug 22 - 24 FanExpo - Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto

Sept 28 Word on the Street - Queen's Park, Toronto

Box Lunch Promotion

My rep, Three in a Box, has an editorial and book publishing promotion coming out called The Box Lunch. The theme of the promo is "duality." For my spread I decided to focus on parallel universes, and put it in the context of a children's book.

I would love to do more children's books. The last one I did was in 2006 for Scholastic. It was about the carousel in North Bay and how the whole town came together to create this gorgeous hand-carved carousel. It was really labor intensive, but so much fun.

I frequently drop by the children's book section of Chapters. There are so many inspiring books there. My favorite at the moment is a wordless picture book called Flotsam byDavid Wiesner. The imagination and creativity that went into the creation of the illustrations and story is just mind blowing.

AWOL'd : Chapter One REDUX

It's been a long while since my last blog. I've been pretty busy working on AWOL'd and recently completed Chapters 01-02 for the graphic novel.
Here are pages 6-8 of Chapter O1. If you happen to own the first draft/print of AWOL'd issue 1, hold it up and compare those pages with these. There is an improvement.