Animation Almost Finished

I am so close to finishing the Abington Bank TV commercial I can almost taste it. I submitted a final cut to the producer this morning. Hopefully there won't be too many changes and I can finally put this project to bed...and get paid!!

It's been a lot of fun and I look forward to the next animation project. When the final version is finished I'll post it. Stay tuned...

Emergency Room!

This is what happens when a cartoonist sits in the ER with his daughter for 5 hours. Micki's fine, now. She just has a bad virus and needs to take it easy for a few more days.

Work, Work, Cough, Work

Between a pile of freelance work, two big gigs, Family Promise Board meetings, and being sick, I haven't made space to post anything in the blog for the past couple weeks.

Last week I invested two evenings to networking for parties. On Wednesday I drew for Mintahoe down at the Nicollet Island Pavillion. They were showcasing their vendors for all of their clients. I met some great people and will hopefully be able to line up some good gigs for the Holiday season.

On Thursday night I donated my services to the Coon Rapids Rotary Club Silent Auction Event. Once again, I met some great people and will hopefully be able to get some good work out of it.

A nice stream of small jobs has been pouring in this month. Everything from sketch style gift caricatures for a marketing company to a T-Shirt design for a Zoo in West Palm Beach Florida.

The biggest job on the plate right now is the animation. I am in the final production of the TV Spot for the bank. I hope to have it completed by the beginning of the week.

During all of this I've been pretty sick. The energy came back at the beginning of the week, but my head is not totally clear. Freelancers can't afford to get sick, so I've been in denial.

This morning I am making a presentation about Family Promise at the Compassion Action Network Fall Forum. We want to raise awareness of our new organization and recruit some new people to help us get this incredibly important work off the ground.

Tis the Season to Have A Caricature -- for Parties or Gifts

It's definitely party and gift season. Here is postcard mailer I'm sending out this month. Feel free to pass it on.

Website Overhaul

In an effort to "rebrand" my business as, well, me, I spent the week giving my site a total makeover. From now on I will be advertising the site as www.stevethomason.com. I need to put more emphasis on Party and Gift Caricatures, so I printed up some postcards and used the graphics as the main image on those pages. Check it out.

Intruder Alert!

"Steve, I think I heard the doorbell."

I'm instantly awake.

The blue-green glow from the alarm clock is the only light in the room. 2:20am

"I'm not sure if I dreamt it or not."

We both sit and wait.

Shasta's barks rip through the house.

"You didn't dream it. I'll go check it out."

Barefoot and bewildered, I move to the top of the stairs. A light shoots through the window in the landing and floods the stairwell with glowing movement.

A hundred scenarios run through my mind. None of them good.

I have to bend over to look through the side window where the curtain is gathered and exposes the glass. Through my canted gaze I see a police officer standing on the porch.

I'm not sure why, but I forget to stand upright when I click on the porch light and open the door.

"We're with the Coon Rapids police. Your garage door was open and your car..."

I'm standing now. My thoughts interrupt him. My car? The internal alarms are at Defcon 4. Someone stole my car?

"...it looks like someone went through your glove box. Would you mind checking to see if someone took anything?"

It's amazing how the law of expectation effects every part of life. My glove box? Oh, no big deal, at least the car is still there.

Now that the panic is gone I realize the oddity of the situation. I'm barefoot, in my pajamas, bags under my eyes, standing in my driveway at 2:40am, talking to two police officers. Life is full of wonderful surprises.

Someone had definitely gone through the van. They took the Monster. Now we can't plug our ipod into the radio and listen to it while we drive. Bummer.

Nothing else is missing in the van, so I check the rest of the garage. The only thing I discover is that the concrete floor is like a block of ice and my feet are freezing.

The officer takes my name and notes the stolen item on his little spiral pad.

As I walk him out I explain what must have happened. We have a spider that lives in our garage door sensor. If she moves around in there while the door is moving, she trips the sensor and sends the door back up. It is easy to hit the button, hear the door moving, and walk into the house without confirming that it is closed.

The police car drives away while I try to fix the sensor. I can't get it to work, so I give up and detach the door from the drive chain and close it manually.

As I go back to bed I thank God that everyone is safe. Then I question why He made spiders in the first place.

But, that's a discussion for another time. When I'm awake.

Psyche Out

A potential client presented a challenge to me the other day. He needed good caricatures at a really low price. In my world, that means I had to figure out how to do them FAST! Now that I'm 100% digital I had to reach back into my retail Caricature days (drawing at Six Flaggs and the Excalibur) and translate that speed mentality into my Wacom tablet.

Here's what I came up with. It's Shawn Spencer from the TV show Psych. It took 20 minutes. Unfortunately, this still wasn't cheap enough for the client. We'll see...



I'll be drawing Gus soon and creating a fully painted Psych caricature in the near future. Stay tuned..