In September, I officially became a client of the terrific children’s book agent Steven Malk, of Writers House.

A selection of my doodles are now included in the Writers House illustrators portfolio.

Take a look — and if you’d like to hear about upcoming books (oh yes, I said books) please subscribe here.

PS Somebody pinch me!

I offer three products: cards, prints, and refrigerator magnets. You can get any picture on any product, within reason (e.g., I can’t put the entire catalogue of Skymall Captions on one fridge magnet).

Ordering is absurdly primitive for the moment: clicking on the “ORDER HERE” link will prompt you to tell me, in email, which picture you want, and how you want it (card, print) and how many you want. I will reply with particulars, including shipping information.

I print all paper goods to order, on acid-free heavyweight stock. Fridge magnets are not archival, but they are cute.

Feel free to suggest additional products. Someone asked for bookplates and those will be rolling out soon.

Someone also asked for a quick way to browse through all 52 pictures. Click here to get to Week 1, then follow the link above the picture…and happy shopping!

This is it. The year is over. And so is 52 Pictures.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who visited, subscribed, commented, linked, bought art, pirated my work for unauthorized greeting card use or just whispered secret encouragement. It was great to know you were out there.

In the next week I’ll be making available fine stationery and other tasteful and useful items bearing your favorite 52 Pictures images. Just in time for those holiday thank-you notes! Selected pieces of original art and limited edition prints will also be available. This is probably something I should have set up months ago, but I’m still getting used to this here intreenet.

So please feel free to stay subscribed. I don’t promise a picture a week in ‘08, but I will keep posting things I’m working on for your enjoyment.

Happy New Year.

Make a nice business card, though.

Up, up, and away, Poodles!

(Thanks to Jorge and Matt for their suggestions.)

That wasn’t a Python ripoff, my friend. THIS, however…

Anyway, looks like our friends Mr & Mrs Poodle are getting some unwelcome news. I wonder what it’s about?

(Suggestions made via reply form below will be considered for the next installment.)

Ah, September in New York. Welcome home, everybody.

Packing for vacation.

The perfect time for a Skymall reprise…

And now an experiment in Longform Captioning. If you can’t read it, click the image to enlarge.

A commission in progress.

About six months ago I started to make a picture book. I had in mind the story of how two single parents met and fell in love (like the Brady Bunch, if Robert Reed and Florence Henderson were flightless birds).

I thought the father should tell the story over the course of an evening, as the family made and ate dinner; as he’s a bit of a “dad” the others would have to chime in to correct his memory and add embellishments. At the end they’d all leave for a walk before bed, feeling connected, imaginations exercised, to enjoy the pleasures of a night ramble. Good. Fine. Sounded like it could become a book.

I played around, making thumbnails and experimenting with how to handle a story taking place in two time periods with multiple voices. Eventually I had a serviceable rough dummy:

It felt good to have finished my first dummy, but there were problems. The flashback scenes I’d chosen to illustrate were boring, and the tone felt smarmy. (How many “blended families” can like each other this much?) The book screeched to a halt at the end. Most importantly (and probably key to the other problems), there were no words. I had just drawn thirty-two pages thinking “now this will happen…and now this will happen.” I don’t know why I thought that would work.

I started trying to add text to the existing pictures. You know, write something that might fit the speech balloon and wedge it in with a crowbar. I quickly realized this wouldn’t work either. It led to some of the most meaningless picture book text I’ve ever seen.

So with great trepidation, I put the dummy aside and began making notes on the book I had half-imagined. I tried to put into words the story that played out wordlessly in my mind. I tried to include the funny sort of details I like, and to imagine scenes of real action that would make for lively illustrations. Some of my notes:

And so on.

The more I wrote, the more I fell in love with what I was now imagining. But it didn’t fit into the structure I’d previously envisioned. I started groping for what to discard, what to keep. Cutting and pasting. That’s when things really stopped making sense.

As of today, here is what I’ve got to show for my best efforts over six months:

My favorite part is the two blank pages at the end.

If I keep working for a few more weeks, the book will probably have amassed enough negative energy to collapse into a black hole. If I’m lucky, it will take me with it. In all seriousness, I don’t know if this thing is going to come together or not. One minute I think I’m going to pull it off; the next, I suspect my struggles indicate that there isn’t a 32-page picture book here at all. Maybe a chapter book, or maybe nothing. And here’s the caution at the heart of my tale: don’t start illustrating a book without a story. You’ll just drive yourself insane.

I know today’s post is not in keeping with my promise of a new picture a week. This blog isn’t called 52 Excuses. But when I looked at the clock this afternoon and considered my options, they seemed to be 1) dig out an old picture and post it, or 2) share some of what I’m grappling with as I try to evolve into a book artist. I thought the latter might be more interesting. But I promise not to make it a habit.

You really want it for your kitchen, but can’t decide if it’s worth the $10. If you don’t buy it, you regret it for the rest of the summer. If you do buy it, you regret it for the rest of your life.

I’d like to dedicate this week’s edition to someone who is very good at “something new each week”:

(Thanks to Dawbis, mastermind of the project.)

Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone.

I’m glad some of you enjoyed the captions.

Next week we’ll return to format, but here are a few more tidbits.

This week, I just feel silly.

And I’ve always enjoyed a good SkyMall caption.