Axolotl

When I Grow Up Picture Book

In its Fifth Week on the New York Times Bestseller List, When I Grow Up has moved up to Number Four!

On Amazon:

• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #696 in Books 
• #3 in Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Careers
• #7 in Books > Children's Books > Issues > School
• #25 in Books > Children's Books > Humor

Shaved and unshaved tarantulas.

Poor fellows.

Wes Hargis: New York Times Bestselling Illustrator!

Wes Hargis' When I Grow Up is on the New York Times Bestseller List!

I think somebody named Al wrote it.

Congrats, Wes!

Slip

SuperTed

I'm going to try to start posting some early cartoons of mine. Most have been lost, but I still have a few. I drew this when I was twelve. Drawn on 6" x 9" note pad paper with, probably, a BiC pen. Possibly Papermate.

Click to enlarge

reddit alien

I drew this for someone on the board there. Great news aggregate site.

Publicity photo.

I thought I might get all touched up for a decent photo here.

Well, heeeeere we go.

"When I Grow Up" is released today!

Al is on TV this week. Today at the "Today Show" and later with other big appearances including the Joy Behar show. I'll just stand back and try not to do anything too stupid. (no guarantees on that)

Oh and I will release this photo to the world.

-W.

Spider-man Rebooted

These are un-retouched photos and not CGI generated images.

Source

Lemonade delivery service.

Just in time for all this lovely weather we're not having.

Done in Watercolor-pencil with digital touch-ups on Arches natural white 140lb. I Love certain things about detail work on this paper,but for big pieces, I think I will stick to Strathmore imperial 500 from now on.

Wes

Books we're reading ...

We've been enjoying reading the book "Life of Leaf Clan" by Sara Dawson, an extremely talented young author.

The book follows Redscale and her clan of raptor dinosaurs while they navigate the hardships of daily life hunting, patrolling and defending their land from other clans and dangers that border their territory. These are a special group of Raptors that have managed to survive since prehistoric times. There are complex themes of loyalty and identity to a group that are fun to follow. The only thing that pulls me occasionally out of their world is the thought that "I can't believe this was written by a nine year old" but then I'm pulled back in. Great stuff.

There is a vulnerability of the raptors here that is engaging. A constant sense of their little crew being all too easily extinguished. I will continue to report on how much we are enjoying this delightful little book. -Wes

p.s. There is an excerpt of the novel along with ordering information on the link above.

The Blight Before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas!
And at the North Pole
Santa's sleigh was all loaded,
But his tummy was bloated.

He pulled off his hat and his coat,
Y'all,
And away he did run
To the end of the hall.

He was feeling much better
And hopped in his sled,
When again came the feeling
And he ran to the head.

"This ain't good,"
said he to the missus.
"I've got the runs but
I've got to run!"

"Tonight's Christmas Eve!
The biggest night ever!
I'll never eat jalepeno peppers with raisins and rum-cake chocolate-chip ice cream again!
No, never!"

"You're lactose-intolerant!"
said Mrs. Claus tartly,
"You know ice cream makes you
gassy and farty!"

Then what to his watering eyes
Should he see,
But eight tiny reindeer with
Imodium A-D.

"Take this," said Dasher,
"You'll be fine in a flush!"
Santa winced at the pun,
But he was in a rush.

He downed the whole bottle
And chased it with a cookie,
He hoped that for now
There would be no more dookie.

The reindeer were all hitched,
And the sleigh was all loaded.
Santa had to admit
He was feeling less bloated!

With no time to spare,
They were up in the air.
Destination:
Children's homes everywhere!

And I heard him exclaim
As he shifted in his seat,
"Happy Christmas to all!
And watch what you eat!"

8-Year-Olds Publish Scientific Study on Bees

Graduate students the world over have got to be feeling like slackers right now: A group of 8- to 10-year-old British schoolchildren have published a scientific paper in the peer-reviewed journal Biology Letters.

The paper, written entirely in the kid's voices, found that bees can learn to use spatial relationships between colors to figure out which flowers have nectar in them and which are dry, Wired Science reported. It's not a game-changing finding, but reviewers said the methods were sound, said University College London neuroscientist Beau Lotto, who helped the kids with the project, in an interview with Wired Science.

The paper and a supplemental video are available online. The paper itself features a figure done in colored pencil and a thanks to the local pub for offering free Cokes to the children while they wrote up the manuscript.

The study may be the only scientific paper to contain an emoticon. "We then put the tube with the bees in it into the school's fridge (and made bee pie :) )," the students wrote, explaining how they calmed the bees so they could dab them with paint to tell them apart.

Of course, Wired Science reports, the main goal of the project was to get kids interested in science. On that front, the study was a rousing success.

"Science is cool and fun because you get to do stuff that no one has ever done before," the chlidren wrote.

Original story

Sketch

Nonprofit Wants to Buy the World's Biggest Communications Satellite

There's a huge satellite for sale and the nonprofit group A Human Right wants to buy it to provide internet access to the unconnected.

The TerreStar-1 satellite is the largest commercial communications satellite ever built—it's roughly the size of a school bus. It was launched by the TerreStar Corporation in 2009 to great fanfare. At the time, Jean-Yves Le Gall, the CEO of Arianespace, the company that provided the actual launching services, said TerreStar-1 would "revolutionize telecommunications over North America" by providing phone and laptop users with a fast, universal voice and data connection.

But the TerreStar Corporation recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and it's selling off the TerreStar-1. Seeing an opportunity, A Human Right has started a campaign, Buy This Satellite, to raise $150,000 for the first phase of a three-phase plan to buy the satellite, move it over a country that needs internet access (Papua New Guinea, for example), and then connect it with people on the ground via low-cost modems.

Clemson Wallpaper

My wife made me do this.

More Than A Feeling - Iggy

If you like the song More Than A Feeling, you'll love this rendition by guitarist Igor Presnyakov.

New Purchase.

He does the whole job once you feed the sketches in from the drum scanner.

The only problem now is we both fight over certain pages we'd like to do... And he makes this high pitched whirring sound.

When I Grow Up.

Sneak peek at my recent picture book.



p.s. The answer is Yes, Weird Al is amazing.