May 8, 2007
Received a packet via "Royal Mail" yesterday. Inside I found three issues of Illustration magazine, a high gloss pub from England. The latest issue features a four-page piece on my artwork, with special notice going to my "scraperboard" work. The Brits call scratchboard scraperboard. The piece was written by David Ashford.

You can check them out at www.illustration-mag.com

Last week I glanced through a CGII looking for an image we needed for the magazine, and I was taken with how the scraperboard, I mean scratchboard, pieces worked much better than the gouache (opaque watercolor) stuff. And the irony is I haven't touched a scratchboard in several months. So even when I do six sketches a day, I still have a tendency to get rusty on one of my fave mediums. Oh, well.

Our Features Editor Mark Boardman flew in on Sunday night and is here all week, helping us get July out the door. He's also working on August stories which helps Meghan get a leg up.

Yesterday, Abby finished the full page Hugh O'Brian ad for The Cowboy Chronicle. I named the painting "Hugh O'Brian: Long May His Story Be Told," and the ad came out rather nice.

I also spent most of yesterday tweaking the Gage Train Robbery shootout for July's Classic Gunfights. Need to do several pieces of art to finish. Deadline is Thursday.

Onion Headline de Jour: Special Boomer Edition
Son, You'll Always Remember Your First Time, Because I'm Going To Film It

"The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving."
—Goethe