Skipped Heart Beat

Skipped a weekly post due to a couple weeks of life busy-ness and craziness, but I still managed to get some drawings inked and a few more tiny illustrations done. I'm hoping to get back in the saddle soon, and find some time to relax and dive hard-core into the book.

Next week will likely be another "Inspiration Monday" post.

The Kookaburra

Just some in-progress shots of one of the weirder poems I've written: "The Kookaburra." This was partially inspired by the fact that I saw a real one when I got to travel to Australia last year.

Mommy, there's a Kookaburra knocking at our door,
He's in a suit and tie, he must have bought it at a store, 
I think he wants to sell something, but what I cannot say,
Should we let him come inside, or make him go away?
© Ken Priebe 2013

A Phoenix from the Ashes...

A couple of sick days with a flu bug didn't stop me from making progress on the book this week (even if it was pretty much all in one day...)!

I began sketching up layouts for one of the longer poems which spreads over several pages (in this case it's looking like 8 of them) and these ones will likely be in color (with the help of my wife's beautiful watercolors). 

This particular poem is The Baby Elephant and the Cranky Monkey, which had another life as an animated short film I labored on for several years. The film was never finished in its intended form, so I'm rising it like a phoenix from the ashes to be re-incarnated as a long-form poem for the book. Half of the film was already told in rhyming verse anyway, so it was pretty easy to adapt...although the poem "ends" much differently. 

One of my general methods for rough layout of the pages is to cut out the snippets of the poem that are on each page, and place them on the paper to draw around them. I'm also doing mock-up layouts in the computer to help visualize it. Overall I'm happy with how this is coming together so far, and it will be nice to put this story to rest in some sort of final form. 

If you'd like to read more about the history behind the animated film (originally entitled Storytime with Nigel) behind this particular poem, visit this page on my website. >>