hasta luego, san miguel

gracias por las memorias.

the little things

with a bay area baby shower coming in a little over a week, i thought it would be a good idea to play with some fun designs in my cafepress.com account. here are a few of the designs i've ordered for the mom & our new arrival:

kuya means older brother in filipino (and winter is our westie). my wife chipped in this idea & i like it. the image on the right is the organic baby bodysuit that will go with this design. mom will also have a maternity shirt with just the westie art & the "winter" text on it.

this will also be printed on the organic baby bodysuit.

this one's *ahem* self-explanatory.

(because i'm also chasing work deadlines, i didn't have much time to tinker with the texts & decided to use photoshop default fonts instead. i would have preferred drawing the letters too (because it feels like cheating), but i think these designs worked out well in the end.

for the stainless steel travel mug.

same westie illustration as the one above. i added his favorite teddy bear/girlfriend (those are indentations on the bear's cheeks). this will allow the art to wrap around the mug.

maternity shirt (black).

this one's a last minute idea. i noticed that on the website's maternity dress template, you could place the design on the belly. so late one night, after a quick thumbnail doodle, i came upon the idea of illustrating a sleeping baby in the womb practicing his or her follow through.

the celtics outfit was a no-brainer, but the moon was a late, albeit suitable, addition. i needed something to frame the design and my wife has a thing for moons, so merging the two concepts felt like a personal 3am stroke of genius.

----

i've actually had thoughts of designing my own clothing for years now. i prefer not wearing shirts with logos & enjoy a well done print on them. so, this might be the shove i need to learn to print my own stuff. i already have plans to learn the printing craft on our next destination. we'll see. check back with me in a year.

sneak peek: my next picture book

i mentioned earlier about finding a preview of the book cover for my next picture book. it's still a long wait until the release (spring 2010) and i've written a few times about this book already (here & here), but i can now show you a peek into one of the interior spreads.

the above image is a low res preview of the page spread with type on it. below is a clearer look at the spread. this is a baseball themed alphabet book and this particular spread is an illustration for the letters S ("shortstop") and T (i honestly can't remember).

a dog's day

i'm not exactly sure if west highland white terriers like to swim, but mine sure does. winter went straight to the water at the first sight of the parque landeta lake here in san miguel de allende. he's predictable this way. even during our stay in san diego, he would run to the surf as soon as we unlatch his leash. otters & jestskis be damned.

this always worries my wife, fearing he's never going to swim his way back. i love it.

ok, so maybe i got a wee bit worried watching him figure out his way back to the rocks. can those little paws paddle their way to dry land? sure can. that's my boy.

just as i started looking into the bag for the brand new rubber balls i brought for a game of fetch, back he went into the water. again. and again. and again. good thing it was the shallow part this time. i didn't even notice that he still had his harness on.

finally, with the swim portion done, i get to toss a few balls. around this time, winter transforms into a racing west highland white brown terrier.

i'm not sure who enjoys this more, me or the dog. i once said to my wife that i may have found the place i am happiest. the dog park. when my time's up, i wonder if i can ask st. pete for a spot on dog heaven instead. someone's got to throw those balls.

mira! mira!

well, lookee here.

on a recent visit to a favorite bookstore here in san miguel de allende, i found two of my picture books, "bedtime at the swamp" & "i saw an ant on the railroad track", on the display shelves.

the two books (top shelf).

it's always fun to discover any of my books in their natural habitat. whenever i would visit a borders or barnes & noble store, i usually first go to the children's book section to see if they have my books in display.

you know, i've been in the illustration biz for quite a few years now, but it's still always a treat seeing my books in store -- & i don't think i'll ever get used to it.

still, i now kind of expect my books in those popular bookstores.

but a privately owned bookstore in our quaint little mexican town? not really.

the bookstore. libros el tecolote.

a few years back i remember seeing one of my chapter books in a mall in my hometown davao, philippines. i must confess to thinking about grabbing the nearest saleslady or security guard to show them. look! my book! in davao!

nope, i'm never going to get used to this. and that's certainly a good thing.

spring (abc) training

above is an early look at the cover of my next picture book "baseball from a to z". i recently found this image on the author's website .

it's a book using baseball as a enjoyable introduction to learning the alphabet. lots of fun illustrations in here (ok, maybe i'm a bit biased, but i liked them).

i've written about working on this particular picture book in the past (here & here) & i've been looking forward to seeing what the final product will look like.

spring 2010 can't come soon enough.

dia de los locos

last may, the locos came out to party in what seemed to be a cross between halloween & a carnival. yet another festival in san miguel. this one's to commemorate both the spring harvest & san antonio de padua.

one of my favorite locos. a pre-spanish god with cup relishing the crowd.

while other kids waited for candy giveaways, this boy had prime seating on dad's shoulders.

hal & family. little green lantern doing some stretching.

umbrellas for the sun.

shoes.

a fitting end to the parade. catrinas resting by a casa.