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!

Just a little illustration to tease you

I'm working on a novel geared toward middle-gradish kids (like The Graveyard Book or The Book Thief are considered), and I'll also be illustrating it. I've never written anything of these proportions, and sometimes so many words can be overwhelming to a picture person. A couple of times I felt the need to get away from Word and get back into Photoshop just to keep my sanity and my focus and my love of the story.

I wanted to post one of the illustrations I did for the book, just to tease you a little. If I have my way, the illustration above will cover a two-page spread at the start of the book. The text "Part One: Fliers" will be laid over the image on the right hand page about halfway down, under the bird.