Julia reminded me last weekend that we are just about ready to announce the winner to the silliest dinosaur question ever…. So I made this little video to let you guys know when and where the winner will be announced (I’m nowhere near as good as Ryan Seacrest but I think you’ll get the idea).
I just wanted to give a quick thanks to everyone who participated. If you’d like to check out some of the silly questions you can find them here: Silliest Dinosaur Questions on Facebook
Cover art from our new eBook Where are the dinos. Written by Julia Dweck and illustrated by Bob Ostrom
Hello readers. Whew, its been busy here at the studio lately… not just busy but the kind of busy where you just wish there were more hours in a day kind of busy. The funny thing about this business is I’m not really allowed to share what I’ve been working on outside the studio until the art has been published. Sometimes that can take up to a year. So, you didn’t hear it from me but I’ve got some really big projects in the works that you guys are going to love… including a great new interview I did last week with my good buddy Mr. Carlos Castellanos over at DrawnbySuccess.com
I recently emerged from hibernation long just enough to do an interview with one of my favorite artists and pod-casters, Carlos Castellanos. Yes, THE Carlos Castellanos creator of the Baldo comic strip and my co-host from the wildly successful DrawnbySuccess.com. This time the tables were turned however and I found myself on the opposite side of the mic. I just want to say its great being a guest for a change and not only was I a complete natural but I enjoyed myself immensely.
Anyhow, Carlos interviewed me and my good friend author Julia Dweck where we both appear as guests on the latest episode of DrawnbySuccess.com. Julia and I spent a little quality time with Carlos discussing our new eBook, Where are the Dinos available on Amazon right now as we speak! We get into lots of details about the creative process, scoring a top spot on Amazon’s top 100 and some of the killer marketing techniques we used to get our book seen and reviewed. I couldn’t be more proud of the work we’ve done and was thrilled with the opportunity to collaborate with someone as talented as Julia.
So here’s the skinny… If you’ve been thinking about getting into the eBook market as a writer or an illustrator you won’t want to miss this interview. It’s chock full of super valuable information about how to create publish and market an eBook. This is the kind of artists gold you will only find on a site like DrawnbtSuccess.com. So put your phone on vibrate, shut off your email for the next 32 minutes, tell the receptionist to take a message and please come check us out over on Drawnbysuccess.com.
Where are the Dinos Facebook page - Want the latest on the the Where are the Dinos book. Here you can interact with the Author and illustrator and ask them any dino questions you’d like. You can also find free printouts and lots more. Like us on Facebook and for a limited time only Bob gives you permission to tell all your friends he said you were to cool for school.
Julia Dweck’s Website – Ever wonder what it’s like to be a children’s eBook author? Well wonder no more. Head on over to Julias site and get the inside scoop
Youtube Where are the Dinos Contest – Got a question about dinos? Bob Ostrom Fake Dinosaur expert is a trained professional and will answer all your dino questions. Who knows maybe you’ll even be featured in Bob’s next dino video.
Here’s a little video I put together last week to help promote my new eBook, Where are the Dinos (illustrated by me and written by Julia Dweck). Julia and I are both highly trained fake dinosaur experts and we’d love to answer all you dinosaur questions. If you’d like your question answered in my next Fake Dinosaur Expert video here’s all you need to do…
Get your question in soon this offer is for a limited time. I will try to answer as many questions as possible. Good luck can’t wait to hear your dinosaur questions
Hi readers this week and next I will be featuring art from my latest book Where are the Dinos ?, written by author Julia Dweck and published by Kite Reader. You can find it in the hot new release section over on the Amazons. So far it looks like we’re doing pretty well. Lots of very positive reviews. WHOOT!!!
Illustrating a children’s ebook is no small task. It takes lots of planning, an endless amount of sketches, roughs, layouts, revisions and many late nights at the drawing board. The amount of work that goes into producing just one book is staggering. It is truly a labor of love. Surrounding yourself with good people always makes things a little better. I’d like to give special thanks to my good friends artist Richard Carbajal, author Julia Dweck and all the kind folks at Kite Reader for making this look easy (trust me when I tell you it’s much harder than it looks). Here is just a small part of what we do…
Start with a rough sketch. How rough is rough? Just enough to get the idea down on paper.
Once I have the idea down on paper it’s time to tighten up the sketch.
Every piece is reviewed several times before it goes to publishing.
The final art with type in position.
Editing Video in Photoshop
Is there anything you can’t do with this program? I swear, it won’t be long until you can ask Photoshop to make you a cup of coffee and take the dog for a walk. This week I had a chance to sit down and actually learn how to edit and create video using Photoshop. I know, sounds crazy doesn’t it? One of the great parts about my job as an instructor is that it really gives me a chance to learn these Adobe programs from top to bottom. Before I began teaching I would just focus on a small part of the program, only the small part I needed to complete whatever illustration I was working on at the time. I wish I had known then what I know now….By taking just a little extra time to learn the program completely I could have saved myself hours of wasted time.
Most of the functions in Photoshop are not a huge stretch to learn. Admittedly though, they can sometimes appear a little intimidating. Editing video is one of those functions. When I first looked at it, it seemed overwhelming but after about an hour or so of research and working with the program I felt totally at ease. The learning curve is gradual and best of all it relies on many of the functions I’m already familiar. You’ll find everything pretty much right where you remember it to be. The time line interface is predicable and easy to use and adding audio is as easy as clicking a single button.
Up until now I had been using I’d been using Apple’s latest version of iMovie to edit my videos…ugh. Maybe because I’m familiar with the Adobe programs or maybe because I’m just not in love with iMovie, I feel like comparing these two programs almost seems unfair. While iMovie is clunky and counter intuitive Photoshop uses a platform I’m already comfortable with and allows me to do all the things I’m not able to do in iMovie. iMovie is great if you don’t mind using pre-fomatted functions. Photoshop really allowed me to create whatever I wanted to and whats more I feel like I’ve just started to scratch the surface. All in all it was a great experience and I can’t wait to see what else I can do with it. The only drawback I’ve run into so far is that it’s tends to be bit of a memory hog when working with it. File sizes however are still manageable so far. This file for instance is under 10mgs. If you’ve worked with video editing using Photoshop I’d love to hear about your experience and how it’s working out for you.
If you are interested in learning more about video editing here are some of the the resources I used.
I highly recommend:
Photoshop CS6 Classroom in a book - (Ok yeah, the cover’s a little creepy but it’s a great book)
YouTube video tutorial – http://youtu.be/praOG6jJxpc – Straight forward look at editing with Photoshop and how to get started. Walks you through from start to finish.
If you are interested in Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign and happen to live in the Raleigh area you are always welcome to join me in any of the locations where I teach-
Wake Tech community college
The State Personnel Development Center
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