Texas book signing for COWBOYS

Well, the visit to Texas was great, I got to meet some folks from one of my publishers and I was happy to spend a bit more time with David Harrison, the author and writer for the Pirates and Cowboys books. We signed a ton of books and had a great time, met some interesting characters and came home save and sound, not bad for small town boy. Here is a photo of David and  Me ( I'm on the left) and one of the wondering characters who stopped by our booth. Well, back to work on the next book, this one is another Christmas book, I'll share images soon.
Dan

COWBOYS Reviews

Here are a couple of reviews of the "COWBOYS" book. Reviews are scary. I worry about a bad review. What if the reviewers don't like the illustrations, or say something about my technique that is painful to read... oh well, after all these years I've come to realize that not everybody is going to like what I do, thats ok. I try to make paintings that I like, that's all I can do, if they like it, great, if not, well I guess I'll try to do better the next time, if there is a next time. These reviews aren't too bad, I think they like the paintings but I'm not completely sure.

Here are the reviews:

Reviews
Publisher’s Weekly
“In a companion to Harrison and Burr’s Pirates (2008), first-person poems from the perspectives of several cowboys create a candid portrait of life out west, following a cattle drive along the Chisholm Trail. Harrison’s work includes traveling songs with a lullaby lilt (“One thousand miles/ of burnin’ sun,/ swollen rivers,/ stampedes, wolves/ three thousand cows,/ fifteen men,/ one thousand miles to go”) and upbeat poems in peppery dialect: “Ha!/ My granny’s quicker’n you/ and she’s eighty!/ Reckon that grizz’d/ be pickin’ his teeth by now.” Burr’s dramatically lit, realistic digital artwork nails the determined expressions of hard-working cowboys while creating a character in the sweeping prairie landscape. Readers who long to ride and wrangle should be entranced.”

Kirkus Review
“Free-verse cowpoke ruminations on the trail to Abilene, with paintings of long-horned dogies and grizzled riders beneath big skies. Saddle up, pardner, leave the bunkhouse (where "[bugs gnaw plugs right outta your hide") behind and look fer dusty days, freezing nights, rattlers, storms and meal after meal of beef and beans from Cookie. Harking back to cattle drives of yesteryear, Burr portrays leather-skinned figures with near-photographic realism. "You need sand in your gizzard / to wrangle wild cows, / chaps for fendin' off thorns / or horses with a taste / for cowpoke leg." They pose in full regalia, branding a calf, mending barbed wire, gazing up at the stars, trying desperately to stay on horseback amid a stampede, lazing around the chuck wagon, riding at last into town and ruefully bidding hard-earned wages goodbye at a poker table. Two saloon floozies at the end, a dark-skinned trailhand ("I'm on a journey of my own / figuring how it feels / to be free") and a spirited filly in blue jeans left back at the ranch to fulminate are the only ones here who aren't typecast Marlboro Men. So git along, there, anyone with a mind to share cowboy dreams in romanticized, Old West style.”

COWBOYS INTERVIEW

COWBOYS is out. Some reviews are in and one interview has been done. Sylvia Vardell's blog, "Poetry for Children" has an interview with me this morning about "Cowboys". It's always interesting writing about the process of creating a book, in this case collaborating with David Harrison again. If you scroll down on her site you can read David's interview from yesterday. I'm not a writer ( I'm sure you've noticed) so to verbalize what I do is sometimes difficult, the process of my daily life as an illustrator becomes intuitive after 23 years of doing it and I guess I really don't think too much about it anymore. So it's nice to be asked specific questions that I have to think about, and then try to come up with intelligent answers that are somewhat coherent. I appreciate any opportunity that comes my way to promote the projects I work on and this Sylvia's blog interview is a big one. If your interested in reading the interview you can click here to go to Sylvia's site. If your interested in buying a couple dozen copies of the book for everyone you know, you can click here. Thanks again for visiting, your interest in my work is humbly appreciated.

thanks again,

Dan

New Book

I am working on another book for Jenny Phillips the singer/writer. I thought I would post one of the paintings from the book, it's been a while since I wrote anything, I've been busy on projects and family stuff. Jenny's projects are always fun to work on, she is great to work with (very creative) and I am amazed at her business prowess. The book will be out for Mothers day.

Hope you like the painting.

The Mansion

The Mansion, a book by Henry Van Dyke, is celebrating its 100th anniversary and Deseret Book asked me to do the illustrations, it's a great story for Christmas and I really enjoyed doing the art for the book, it is designed well and the final product looks great. here is a link so you can check it out or buy a couple hundred copies for everyone you know. "The Mansion" I hope you enjoy it and share it with your family this Christmas Season.

Merry Christmas.

I Finally finished the "COWBOYS" book

I can't believe the that I am actually finished with this book, it has taken probably more time than any other book I have illustrated. I can't remember when I started it but it seems like years ago, I think we started talking about it years ago... anyway barring a bunch of changes from the art director, I am confident that it is finished. The process has taken me all over cowboydom, I have tried to represent cowboys from all over the country, not necessarily in any specific order, just a good smattering of different regional cowboys. It's interesting that there is so much difference in what a cowboy wears in Texas and what a cowboy wears in Nevada or California or even in a drug store. Saddles, headstalls, hackamores, chaps of all different shapes, who would have known... I hope I have done a respectable job of representing them historically correct and not done just another hollywood hack job. I spent time in a saddle on a roundup, I have breathed the smoke of burning hair and flesh from a hot branding iron and even wrestled a calf or two to the ground to be branded, what a great time, both the learning and the drawing and painting. I hope the book is well received and makes all the time and effort with it. A hearty thanks to all the models who sat for me and patiently waited while the light was just right for a photo shoot and to all those who helped with the historical aspect and details, getting things right is important and these guys know their stuff . I can't wait to see the finished book in person, it is always interesting to see the finished product and I have no doubt this one I will hold with pride and count as some of my best work.

I hope you rush right out in the spring and buy hundreds of copies for all your friends and family.

thanks,

Dan

COWBOYS Getting close...

I'm getting down to the wire on my Cowboys book, only two paintings left to go, it's been a while since I posted so here is one more from the book, the model is one of my best friends and models he is also an illustrator so he makes a great model,we laughed hard at this painting and decided to entitle it "living the dream". The painting is about a stinky old bunkhouse, they were infested with bed bugs and smelled awful in the summer, this poor ol guy has been awakened by the smell of something bad and decides to sleep outside for the night. I hope it makes you laugh too.