The Wreck

It's been almost a month since a driver broadsided us, tossing our car across the highway into the oncoming traffic lane. I'm very thankful that we both walked away from that car. It's difficult to know what to say or how to feel. This ordeal has been painful, frightening and frustrating, and yet I know how lucky we are. I've spent countless hours on the phone with insurance companies, rental car agencies, and car dealerships wishing every moment that this could all go away and I could have my car and my life back exactly as it was. So while it may seem incredibly petty, I was more than a little thrilled when I got a package in the mail from Sasha Bell.

You see, the day of the wreck, I was wearing my favorite pair of earrings (handmade by Sasha) and at some point while we were flipping and rolling, one of them was ripped from my ear. The next day when we were able to visit the car to salvage any belongings that weren't destroyed, I was only able to find one piece of the poor earring. I sent a note to Sasha, explaining what happened and asking how much a repair would cost. I nearly cried when she offered to fix them for free. I know it sounds silly to get emotional over an earring. But it's really about much more than that. An act of kindness is like a glimmer of light in the dark. Despite all that has been taken from us, I feel a little better about the world knowing that there are people like Sasha Bell in it. I currently own three pieces of her jewelry, but I hope to collect many more over the years. If you're looking for something truly special, from a truly special artist and person, please check out Sasha's shop. Each piece is crafted with pride and love that she passes on to her customers. I may not feel completely whole again yet, but one small piece is back in place.
Sasha Bell Jewelry

Unleash the Kraken!!!!

Hooray! Our ImageKind shop is open, so you can now purchase prints of many of the wonderful eVille illustrations. Please take a moment to check them out. We appreciate all of the support we've received over the last year. There is still a rough road ahead of us. Many startups don't make it very far past launch. We hope we're not in that bucket, but only time will tell. You can see our prints for sale here. The Kraken above is one of my all time favorites. There was the opportunity to make him dark and super scary, but our game requires a certain level of contrast for the images to be seen in thumbnail form. Besides, I eventually decided that a giant pink monster on a lovely summer day was far more humorous. Someday, I'd love to see him made into a plush toy so I could throw it on people while yelling "UNLEASH THE KRAKEN!!!!". It's the little things in life :)

 And of course, if you have time, you can check out the game on Facebook.

The Pit of Despair

Working on eVille has given me a great opportunity to brainstorm fun ideas for various card art. The Pit of Despair kept coming up while we were trying to think of cards that could protect your buildings, but for the longest time, no one could figure out how to make a pit interesting. We weren't trying to recreate the pit from The Princess Bride, which really was a torture chamber. We really wanted it to feel more like a booby trap. The trouble is, everyone thinks of seeing a pit from the top, rather than the bottom. Jason finally came up with a brilliant sketch. I illustrated it, and must admit that it has become one of my favorites. Unfortunately, this type of card is more downplayed inside the game, and so the artwork cannot be appreciated as often as others that are in the spotlight. Hopefully we'll be able to sell prints of some of the card art soon, allowing fans to take their own favorites home. You can see more art (and have some fun too) by checking out eVille on Facebook.

A Little Post Valentine's Day Round Up

Over the last year, I've been working more in illustration than ever before. I still end up doing lots of User Interface work, because well- it needs to be done, but most of my joy comes from completing an illustration. My current project is eVille, a card and location based Facebook game. Now that the game is live, I hope to share some of the pieces I've contributed to it a little at a time. These are two from our limited edition Valentine pack, The Florist, and Bad Cupid.

It's difficult for me to grasp where exactly I fit in the illustration world. Almost all of the pieces for the game, including the ones above, were originally sketched by Jason English, a extremely talented concept artist. I don't have the right kind of mind for translating an image in my head to paper I suppose, but when it comes to taking the sketch and making it come to life in digital form- that I can do. Both are vector images created in Adobe Photoshop.

You can see these guys in action inside the Facebook game here.