James Burks

Bah

Here is a model I just finished of Bah. For those of you who don't know who Bah is, he's one of the characters from my forthcoming picture book entitled Beep and Bah, which will be released in 2012 by Carolroda.

Here are the two of them posing in my front yard. (Yes, I need to mow the lawn)

Here's an in process pic. His insides are made of chip board and covered with paper-mache.The ears,hair and tail are made of paper clay and his eyes are ping-pong balls and his legs are wire.
 

 
 

Playing with Angles

 
The goal with my new graphic novel is to make it more cinematic. This means moving the camera around and exploring more dramatic angles, in the hopes of making the world more believable and the scenes more dramatic. The sketches above are various possibilities for one scene where Bird and Squirrel come to a ravine where a fallen tree serves as a bridge.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

 

I forgot that I had done these a while ago. I was going to use them for a Leprechaun hunt for my daughter and they've been sitting in a folder on my computer ever since. May the luck of the Irish be with you on this wonderfully green day.

Waterlogged

Here is another color sample from Bird and Squirrel.

Bird and Squirrel Color Sample

I've been busy lately putting together the materials for my next graphic novel submission. The panel above is from one of the sample color pages. So far I've got the first 40 pages roughed out, three pages colored and a complete outline/synopsis, along with a few other odds and ends. My agent and I are hoping to get this sent out this week to various publishers. Once that happens then it's just a matter of waiting to see what they think. In the meantime I'll start working on something else or maybe I'll rough out some more pages. I'll post some more color tomorrow.

Final Gabby and Gator cover

Here is the final cover for my forthcoming graphic novel. Which if you are so inclined you can now pre-order, follow this link for your local indy bookseller http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780759531451 or if you can't find it there then there's always Amazon or Barnes and Noble. It's a 192 pages of Gator goodness with no trans-fats or homogenized oils.