A completed Children's Book: Puzzled Pauly

I just finished a children's book for Tippy Tales Inc.

The book is called Puzzled Pauly and was written by Ben Orlando. I was contacted by them earlier this month to do all the illustrations.

It was a lot of fun to work on...although it couldn't have come at a worse time. It seems like the second I agreed to this job I was suddenly approached by The Mighty B (a new show here at Nickelodeon) to do some freelance for them...

Well - 'some' freelance is a bit of an understatment - I was asked to do A LOT of freelance for them. It was pretty cool too because I really wanted to work on that show, and I finally had my chance.

But that wasn't all. I had the children's book to draw AND the freelance - and suddenly two jobs opened on Ni Hao Kai Lan (I never could spell that name properly until now, since I've had a lot of dealings with them)...and I HAD to try and test for those jobs.

And, on top of all of this, another small publishing company approached me to do a spec picture for an upcoming book they're doing on Brett Favre. It was a nightmare. I originally agreed to work for them as well - but I eventually had to turn it down because I had no time to devote to it. And while it could have been a good opportunity, it was the only thing I had on my plate that wasn't paying...well, the animation tests weren't either - but at least those were on my list of priorities.

Anyhow - I did the first animation test last weekend on Martin Luther King Jr Day. I spent an hour to an hour and a half each morning, as well as my lunch breaks, working on the children's book (Puzzled Pauly) and then in the evenings Tracey and I would clean-up and color the finished rough pages...all the while I was also doing clean-up for The Mighty B.

It's been a hard few weeks to start the new year...although it'd be nice if the level of interest in our freelance work continued...hopefully not consistantly at this level, but at a high rate...we do need some weekend days off...some time...

Here's the first page in Puzzled Pauly - I can't include the words so none of ya's steals it. I did the original rough and Tracey did the clean-up and the color.