An illustration I drew with my FINGER!!!

I bought a new app because I love new apps and I'm a software geek. I can't help it. The app is called ASKetch, and it's made for an iPad.

And it rocks.

I found out about the app because of Laura Zarrin (who I follow on Twitter) who retweeted a tweet from Christina Forshay (who I now follow on Twitter because of this great blog post) who wrote about what she did with the app. I was hooked.

A couple nights ago I sat down with my iPad and, within maybe 15 or 20 minutes, drew this completely with my finger:

 (!)

I'm totally in love with this app! There's no learning curve to use it (it helps if you already know how to draw, I suppose, but I'm sure that's not an absolute prerequisite), and the lines and textures it makes automatically make the simple lines I made look incredible.

As it turns out, I wasn't drawing this little guy for nothing. I'm working on an illustrated manuscript that I needed the drawing for. After a little work in Photoshop, here's how the final (pending editorial approval) version turned out:

 
Thank you, Andrew Kern for this fantastic addition to my media arsenal!

New site up and running

I spent a whole, whole lot of time redesigning and updating my website:

http://www.nora-thompson.com

Among other things, I added media queries (that may or may not work; I'm hoping may) for surfers on mobile devices. I also added some things about my writing since my writer's critique group keeps trying to convince me I am one. I ditched everything Flash on the site, mainly because my iPad doesn't recognize it, and despite loving how it looked.

Something else I'm working on is getting my sites to look like they belong under the umbrella of the same parent company (Thompson Graphx). I updated The Rots' site previously to get things started, and I started building a new site for my new book (both far from being finished) using the same layout.

The geek side of my creativity loves the challenge, and the writer side of my creativity loves the distraction. That would be a win-win I would say.

New portfolio to Issuu

I've uploaded to Issuu the portfolio I'll be bringing to the New York SCBWI conference next week, and here it is:

They must like me

My employers had these flowers delivered last week because of my surgery. I like to think I'm too much of a tomboy to go for flowers, but somehow they get me every time. Aren't they pretty?

Oh, God. I'm such a girl.

Small violinist, big room, part 3

Finished my drawing of Nick & Clarice, and here it is:

I did this one in graphite, both pencil and powdered. Here are the original sketches for it, if you missed those.