Last Friday, my little man Titus came into the world. I can’t wait until he can build puppets with Daddy.

At least once a week as I’m building puppets in my workshop, I come across some doodle or painting that I’ve done over the years (like the one above that I did on our honeymoon in Ireland) and I always think…”Wow—I forgot all about that!”…and nobody sees it but me. Maybe that’s a good thing, but when you create something you at least want SOMEONE to see it…besides your wife.

Puppets are my art now…and I put everything I’ve learned over the years into designing and performing them. So I’ve created a new blog as a place for me to show some of the artistic journey that I’ve taken over the years. So for anyone who’s interested, I’ve dusted off a bunch of images and will try to update it as often as Thistledown will allow.

For the last several weeks, I’ve been working hard on a new project that I developed with Thistledown writer and Mad Flamingo Media owner Alex Lucas. The book is now for sale and you can purchase your copy from us directly here. It’s only 99 cents, and the good news is you don’t even need a Kindle. If you have an Amazon account, you can go to the Kindle Store and download free Kindle software for your PC, Mac, iPhone, or Blackberry. There are over thirty illustrations in the ebook, and you’ll have to get your own copy to see them all! Update–The Mac app is not yet available in the Kindle Store. Sorry for this inconvenience, you Mac users out there. You can sign up on in the Kindle Store and you will be notified when it is available.

This project has been a bit of an experiment really, and it’s based on an idea that’s been floating around in my head for a long time. I have a love of illustration. Growing up I was fascinated with the work of N.C. Wyeth and Arthur Rackham. Actually, when I studied art in college, my original plan was to either end up as an animator or an illustrator, and by some weird twist of fate, I’m doing both but in a medium I never expected…puppets.

Back to my idea: I’ve always thought it would be cool to see elaborately staged puppets as illustrations in books. I’ve actually seen it done brilliantly by Chris Sickels who uses stop motion style puppets. My idea is to make illustrations using the moving mouth style of puppets that I build. Now, I realize that the intended purpose of a puppet is movement, but I appreciate puppets visually and artistically as well. I love the idea of looking at an illustration and knowing that I am looking at a real and tangible object (and also, hopefully, one that is pleasing to the eye).

Hence our illustrated Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. I like to imagine the images as film stills–carefully crafted and composed. Let’s add another layer to this whole idea. Alex and I are also tech-geeks, and we’ve been intrigued by the Amazon Kindle. As a lifelong lover of books this new technology initially rubbed me the wrong way, but my sci-fi spirit has won out, and I’ve embraced it wholeheartedly. The little Kindle screen is just begging for images as well as words. Who knows where this technology will end up, but right now it’s limited to 16 shades of grey. This doesn’t mean that the images need to be boring does it?

We chose the Raven because it is a timeless American classic…and let’s face it, it was hard to pass up the chance to build an Edgar Allan Poe puppet. My idea in crafting the illustrations was to capture the feel of the Raven. I used a black “burn” around the edges of the images both to add a slight ancient and Gothic feel, and to add emphasis to the image. The Kindle has an interesting feature when you “turn” the page. The image blinks for a second. We used this to our advantage when crafting the images, so you get to see the Raven’s eyes fade in and out when turning the page. Some of the images follow each other in succession which offers a slight touch of animation.

Look for more ebooks coming soon!

Here is the third puppet that I built for The Kids Music Underground. She’s an Anime style catgirl named Yuki. What I like about this character is the funky, colorful design and the varying textures in her outfit.

Her tail is flexible and attached to her back with monofilament. This allows the tail to wag and wiggle when she moves.

Here’s the second puppet that I made for The Kid’s Music Underground. The idea was a cubist painting come to life. The intial idea was to have him be flat (like a foam finger), but that presented challenges with movement. I’m really pleased with the three dimensional outcome.

One of the cool features of this puppet is the movable eyes. They are what give this puppet it’s expression.

This past summer I was approached by the guys from The Kids Music Underground in New York City to build some puppets for their new show. The group makes really fun music for kids and travels around the city teaching and putting on live shows.

What intrigued me was the really eclectic mix of characters they had in mind, including a koala with dredlocks, a Cubist (think: the painting style) bull, and an anime style catgirl. Usually the challenging projects end up becoming the fun and rewarding projects, and that was definitely the case here. How was it challenging, you ask? Well…how, for instance, do you turn a Picasso-like painting of a bull into a believable three-dimensional object? I think we figured it out.

I want to spend the next couple of posts giving you a closer look at the puppets, including some pics from production. Up first will be the Koala. He’s the laid back, easy going one of the bunch:

I absolutely love this guy’s color and texture.

Very soon I will reveal a new project that we’ve been working on. It’s been fun and a bit of an experiment. Stay tuned…