New catalogues were sent out this week and I get to share a new party with you. This was done close to a year ago and gets to see the light of day now. It’s an update of the “Class of” graduation party we have had since before I was born. I have been with OTC for abut 3 and a half years now and every year I did everything I could to update the old design. It was a painfully simple blue, red and yellow design.

This is the new one. I really hope it works and flies off the shelves.
It went through a couple of revisions and almost became something completely different. I’m pleased with the look in the end. Larger version with a quick clicky of the image.
I have more on the site. A bunch of product with it.
Just go to the product link above and click party sets.
Then select Class of 08.

Here is the set as a whole

While doing the last post I stumbled across the fact that my new mardi gras tablware set has gone live on the site and in the books.

You can click the image for a line to the products page or you can go to the top of my page.
Click on the product link and continue to the Party Set link.

Find Mardi Gras and check out some of the other product that goes with this set.

I have the pleasure of working with 20+ really talented artists. Every day all of them crank out one impressive piece of art after another that eventually gets turned into product for the public to enjoy.
I learn something new from someone everyday. It’s a great environment.

I would like to share two pieces from two guys that are setting a great tone in our group with the work they produce. I wish the guys I’m posting about had sites to share with you.
As of now they do not.
They should.

Chris  is a very tall man who sometimes wheres glasses, but mainly wears funny t-shirts.
He is new with the group and hit the ground running. This is his latest work. It’s a totally awesome beach monkey theme that has great character and would be perfect for any summer kids party. The party set has many different items to make the party a blast. This was the first time Chris worked on something like this and he knocked it out of the park. Now we hope it flies off the shelves! Click here for the tableware set and Here for more product.

Eric  is not nearly as tall as Mr. Vodicka, but makes up for it with his creativity, use of type, and knowledge of WW2 everything. Eric has been with the group just a tad bit longer than I and is King of the Party Book with more tableware sets than anyone else in the room. He keeps me in check and I get him to loosen up. Or the complete opposite. Both are good for him.
Here is a small collection of works produced by him. Click any of the images to visit the product page if you are interested in owning any of these.

I could go on and on.
we do all kinds of things at OTC, but being able to do a party is something most of us look forward to doing.
It gives us a chance to have a lot of fun, try new things, and push ourselves to do better.
Thats all I have for now.
If I don’t get into trouble for sharing these then I will post more works by our other great artists in the future.

It’s windy as anything outside and sounds like the whole house is going to blow over.

While listening to mother nature try to knock down my living quarters I found this.
can you even imagine the chain reaction that would happen if this was in a large field of Windmills?
One strong storm and the whole wind farm would be destroyed.

I can’t get the video to link right now.

The Old Captain will keep us safe.
I have nothing new to report. I hope new catalogs start to drop soon so I can share some of the work I’ve been doing this last year.
Until then you will just have to put up with sketchbook updates.

Have a good one.

We have finally updated the photo page of our little one.

You can get to it by clicking the photo below.
Have a good one.

It’s been a week of finishing up on a lot of things. I was also feeling really spent. Creatively, Mentally, and Physically. Nothing worked for me.
It’s good to have those every once in a while though. Clear your self out and get back on your feet.
The girls were both sick about a week ago and I feel like I’ve been fighting something off since.
Still doing my best to keeping it at a distance.

Nothing new to post on the art side. I hope to have something very soon. Until then, here are a couple of cool things.

ARKADY ROYTMAN Is a guy my age and just puts me to shame with the works he is doing. I really love looking through his sketchbooks.
he has a great look to his sketching and is very free with it. I need to get better about having my book with me at all times and just working in it. Go look around.

This little cute guys is black death.
I’m sure many people have seen the other large plush microbes
that have been on the market, but now they are selling them
in sets of three packaged in a petri dish!
Pure Awesome.

But not as awesome as these guys
Pee and Poo plush are fun little toys
that prove that you can sell anything and people will love it.
I wonder how much the creators are making from this?
Another Awesome.

I finally received my final set of Trades in the mail this week and have been reading those.
Chris Ware has released his second sketchbook and it looks to be just as impressive as his first. I hope to have a better write up of this one once I have had a good amount of time to go through it.
The first one is still fascinating to me and I will go back to it
once a month or so just to flip through.
First impressions is that he has definitely become himself buy this time in his sketchbooks. No more crumb sketches.
The other is how much writing and ink sketches fill the pages. A lot less color and a lot more to digest. I can’t wait.

I also finally have the second volume of the Ultimates. It’s a Marvel graphic Novel and it’s one of the best works I’ve read with the Marvel logo on it. (Not a Marvel Fan) The art is unbelievable, the writing top notch. Event he extras in the back were great. Not what I expected in extras from a book like this. Good stuff.

That’s about it.
I’m going crazy in the Music realm. I really need something new to rock my face off.
Write me with Ideas.

for family and friends I give you this.

Here is the rest of the page from this week.

9 today. That was the high.
Way to cold to do anything. And I love the cold. Both of the girls have been sick though.
So it was totally one of those days where you stay in and you don’t get anything accomplished.
You don’t want to. You just sit in your own gross all day and think about how the day is never ending.
I did sketch some hands though. I enjoyed that. I really need to get back to basics again. Relearn how to block things in, shade, take my time, line work…
I need a lot of practice. And I hope to have that. I also worked on a couple of things for work. It helped pass the time.
Other than that it was a day with the little one.
Which is always a wonderful thing.
Should get a bit warmer this week.
Here is your gift of awesome for the night.
It’s just mee in my gross.

Amy and I caucused this morning and it was really interesting.
Our Caucus site was at Metro community College in 30th and Fort in Omaha. Really nice looking campus. First time I had been on it.
The building they were using for the event was WAY to small and the numbers of people that turned out were WAY to many. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if 2 to 3 thousand people were there. That may be a bit high, but I could also be under. We stood in line for about 30 to 40 min in the cold with our little one before realizing that people with kids were being let in early.
When we got inside they gave us our voting slip and had us fill it out. We checked in and as we were off to go Caucus they told everyone to turn in their votes and they weren’t having the caucusing anymore. People by this time had filled two buildings and they didn’t have anywhere to hold anymore. Hundreds more still waiting outside, they were just overwhelmed.
They just asked us to turn in our vote and thank you for coming out. We hope it turns out OK. we were not sure what to do. This being Nebraska I don’t know if anyone had any clue what was going on. First time they have had to handle something like this on that scale.
Awesome to see so many people came out for it. Everyone seemed to be really excited and happy to see the turn out.
We wait another half day to see the results. I’m interested to see how it ends.
Just hope we did it right. It felt odd. Hope our vote counted. We asked about 3 people if we were doing the correct thing and they said it was fine.

That’s it.
Get out and vote when it is your time.

Click for larger image

Pizza for dinner. 6 inches of snow on the ground means a foot and a half drift in the driveway this morning.
Large project almost done at work. With any luck it will be done this Friday.
I did the sketch of my little girl at work today while files were saving. I have one file that is 8 gig in size uncompressed. 40+ layers will do that to a file size. It takes about 45 to 50 min to save. I take care of what I can and I sketch. It makes the day go buy.
This was in my sketchbook. I will add both pages when I have both pages done.

Speaking of the little one, she is really sick.
102 temp since Sunday night. It’s no good. She has her high points and her low.  3 days now. I hope this is the last day for it.
You want to do everything for them when they feel like that. You just have to let it ride its way through.

Looking forward to the weekend.
Lost tomorrow night.

Have good evening.

Stay Warm