This particular blog won't have any real focus today because I'm just busy as all heck, but I'm committed to writing something on this blog at least once a week because, well, it's just good business, ya know?

What shall I talk about today?

1. WHAT'S ON MY PLATE?

This is what's on my desktop and what I'm working on today (as I promised)

I'm juggling a ton of projects all at once right now while the other half of my time is spent being Daddy and being my own secretary answering email and phone calls and sending out invoices (which I'm behind on.) It's been hard for me to find myself putting in a full day devoted just to art. I would say I'm averaging about five hours a day to paint, which is kinda rough considering what I have to get done in the next few months. I have adopted some of my graphic novel habits which is good in terms of streamlining the efficiency and process of things. I've also added a few new tricks...

I now include a "COLOR PALETTE" layer in all my art files so I can just easily use the eyedropper tool to pick the colors I need. I can also move the layer anywhere about the screen when I zoom in to get into fine details.

2. THE SOCIAL EXPERIMENT

I'd like to say that I think my plan of having people buy my graphic novel directly through me to help independent book stores has taken off to a pretty good start, so far.  In the week and a half since I started the offer I've received 40 orders and received inquiries from many independent bookstores from around the country about it so I feel like it's getting some attention. I'm not the type of person to be really preachy about my beliefs so I'm not really vocal on the matter (other than this blog.) Here is an interesting article from the Utne Reader about the monthly costs of operating a middle sized independent bookstore.

Of course, costs will vary depending on where you live in the country. After reading this article I realize that 40 books sold is not even a drop in the bucket relative to where I live. I'm hoping I can sell at least 100 copies by my July release date. I'm not a big name in the business so I don't think the outcome of my actions will be huge, but let's imagine if four other local authors were able to collect 40 orders like I have? Between the five of us we would have sold 200 books and that would help an independent bookstore break even for the day. If large corporations are capable of using globalization to cut manufacturing costs then I don't see why communities can't globalize their collection of sales to help themselves at a local level. I encourage you to spread the word and/or try it yourself if you are an author having your own book release. I think if we all tried to make some greater effort to help smaller businesses then this little social experiment might be able to make a greater impact on the independent booksellers market.

OK, now I sound preachy. Time to get off my soap box.

Here's a sneak peek page of the free PDF book I'm giving everyone who buys my book. It's a concept piece I did waaaay back in 2004 back when there were six main characters and had a different title...

For your information, as a new thing for my blog, I've decided that every time I post I want to show a piece in progress.

The image above is for a project I'm currently working on. I'm not done with it yet (this is perhaps 85% complete) and as you might notice, I'm currently experimenting with a slightly different style which involves more line-work. The actual pages of the book will undergo a change which I will probably share in the next post if I have time.

In other news, I've added a new section to the site. The BOOK VIDEOS section! I've placed all the videos I've made for books in this little archive so that if you just feel like watching me dance like an idiot, you can at the click of a button rather than going to Youtube and doing a search for "Dan Santat dancing like and idiot"....

Lastly, Happy Valentines Day! I'm taking my lady to go see Kate Micucci LIVE in concert.

Kate is probably best known as "The Gooch" from the NBC show "Scrubs'. She is also the other half of the hilarious singing duo Garfunkle and Oates.

I like to treat my lady right.

Here is my Super Bowl Ad for my upcoming Graphic Novel, SIDEKICKS....

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A FREE PREVIEW OF THE BOOK (3.7MB)

    So I've been thinking about the socioeconomic effects of the internet and how it effects sales at book stores. Specifically, I mean independent bookstores. The fear is that if eBooks pick up steam then no one will go buy books at bookstores. If bookstores can't drum up business then they suffer and end up going out of business. I love my independent book store. I love any independent bookstore for that matter, but to hope that eBooks won't replace printed books, I think, is a futile wish. eBooks are easier to acquire on-line. That sums it up in a nutshell. People bought music on-line because they could have the music instantly and you had the entire internet at your disposal in terms of selection. The experience of going to an actual record shop is irrelevant.  Convenience always wins out.

Now, I want to try something different and I hope you will all help me out.   

I'm sure you've all seen the "Buy Independent" buttons and tags all over the internet endorsed by indiebound.org. and many authors embrace the cause by putting the button on their websites, but the best that can do is ENCOURAGE you to buy books. I'm going to assume that the average on-line consumer will buy their books on-line at the cheapest, quickest, most recognizable place you can get it (i.e. Amazon.com) Most people probably don't even consider buying the books on-line at an independent bookstore's website because it isn't the first place they think of.

I can't make you buy my graphic novel, but if you are one of those folks who were planning to by the graphic novel anyway then I can at least entice you to buy the book from me. As many of my readers of my blog know I've been working on my graphic novel for seven years and along the way I've ended up with lots of extra stuff. TONS. Stuff that I hate to see go to waste. So, I decided to compile it into another book. A PDF actually, and I'm going to give it away for free. To you.

IF you buy my graphic novel from me.

Also, if you want a tangible version of the PDF book, and I mean a real book you can hold in your hands and turn pages and so forth, then I'll provide a link for you to buy the book at a print-on-demand service with no profit to me. You just pay for the cost of it getting printed and shipped to you. 

Here's the idea....

The one thing I've been hearing often is that perhaps picture books are suffering due to the lack of justification in spending $17 on a hardcover picture book. Well, in this case, I'm trying to bridge that gap for you, the consumer. You buy the graphic novel from me. I collect the money. In that exchange you get something extra that you can't get anywhere else. The hardcover graphic novel sells for $24.99 plus shipping and handling. I'm charging you $25 plus shipping and handling. What I'm hoping is worth the cost is me exchanging my knowledge and experience of making the book for you to enjoy at your leisure. I don't go on book tours and I don't do many signings because, quite frankly, most people don't care if Dan Santat is coming to town. The contents of the PDF book are essentially what I would share at a book signing and MORE. If you're interested in someday making your own graphic novel then I promise you that this book can help in certain aspects. If you happen to be a fan of my artwork, then you'll also get that added benefit of seeing my process of coloring, design, storytelling, and ideation. You'll see what the editor suggested I keep and what w

    As you can see I just cleaned house. The website needed a serious upgrade. I looked at the book section and realized that the last book I had mentioned working on was "The Secret Life of Walter Kitty" which came out in 2007. I've added some new color work to the portfolio, I updated my contact page which features a business card I recently designed for my agent, and most importantly, updated the books page, which shows all the books I've done. You'll also notice the banner up top promoting my new graphic novel, "Sidekicks." That, my friends, is going to lead you to another site that I've been creating behind the scenes for when I reveal my first ever Super Bowl book trailer this Sunday. I'll be taking a different approach to marketing the book and, hopefully, people will like the idea. For now it's locked up but I'll release the hounds on Sunday (hopefully it will be ready by then)

I still have a few other things I need to tweak around with on the site but in the mean time, run around, check things out, and I hope you enjoy.

I want to begin by thanking everyone from the bottom of my heart for all the warm and sincere comments, emails, and Facebook comments from my last post. I'm sorry I couldn't reply to everyone but I want you all to know that I do truly appreciate your kind words of encouragement. If there's anything I learned after my venting last week is that I think we all share a common badge of honor when it comes to freelancing. There's a certain pride in terms of being able to live on your own terms that has been lost in this society (especially in these hard times) that money can't replace and I tip my hat to all of you who are trying to do the same. 

With that said I wanted to make one other comment that recently popped into my head when I was thinking about the decision I made...

Back in art school, one of my art teachers asked me what type of artist I wanted to be. He was a fine artist who did very well by his own means, but it was something he had to work hard to earn. He didn't find much validation in working for a large company, but he admitted that each persons choice in life was their own. One time in class a girl had mentioned that she wanted to be a background artist in animation and his response was along the lines of, "You spend all this money to get this degree and all you want to do in life is paint backgrounds?" The point he was getting at was if you get an art degree and you are given this enormous set of skills, isn't it more worthwhile to do your own thing and cultivate your own body of work rather than to work yourself to the bone to bring honor and glory to a place like Disney or Activision all in the name of a paycheck?

I thought about that question and it made sense to me. It's not to say that I don't think it's worthwhile to contribute to a great project and be recognized as part of a team that developed the end product, but there was something about taking the lonely road that really inspired and excited me. Regardless of whether I have a hundred people read my books or a million, the fact that the end product is out there and exists is the real reward and getting paid to do what you love really just keeps the ball rolling. Not to say that getting a job at a place at Pixar is easy, but being able to sustain yourself by expressing your own thoughts and ideas is the much tougher route to go in life. To be able to live on just enough to keep that ball rolling and not be tempted to quit is the satisfaction that you get and that's the road less travelled.

I simply chose time over money.   

Anyway. With that said, I put this discussion to rest.

Now, on to other news....

Today is a big day for me. My graphic novel is done. I mean DONE DONE. No more changes. For the last few weeks I've been busy making changes to the book, like creating a brand new title page such as this....

to replace this...

I now find that I have a huge stock of unused art that will never see the light of day and I'm considering making a "cutting room floor/how to make graphic novels" book

2011 is the tenth anniversary of when I graduated from art school and began pursuing a career in the publishing industry.

As the first post of 2011 I have to get something really heavy off of my chest. It's something that has actually been stressing me out for months and even after making my decision I'm still flip flopping in my mind about whether or not I made the right choice.

You may have wondered why I haven't blogged until now and it's mainly because I've spent the last few months trying to find out where my life was actually heading.

You see, I was recently Googled.

Not searched online, I mean I was offered a job by Google. To be a Doodle artist.

This is a Doodle....

A random email came ot me in October from their HR department. The gist of it was "We like your work. We'd like you to come up for an interview."

At first I thought it was a joke. Then I googled the name on the e-mail and lo and behold it sent me to a Linkedin page informing me that the person was indeed a member of Google Human Resources.

I spoke to some friends of mine who work at Yahoo! who basically told me that there are people who dream of working for Google and they try to apply over and over again. Now, here Google came knocking on my door, and that it was an opportunity I would be foolish not to pursue.

So I did.

They flew me up. I interviewed. Then, just before the holidays, I discovered that I was offered the job.

It was an unbelievable offer. It was a Google offer. I can't say more than that.

Then after weeks and weeks of discussion with some close friends and family....

I decided to turn the job down.

I know this is not a bad problem to have, but these days, with a horrible economy and an unemployment rate of over 9% coupled with the slow dissolve of the middle class it really makes one wonder if they're completely out of their mind for turning down an offer like this. I have an entire family to keep in mind, all discussions about uprooting, selling the old house and buying a new home and moving to a new city is not a decision to be taken lightly, nor is it a decision that is entirely my own. 

Thus begins the spiraling uncontrollable feeling of self doubt.

There are two sides of me arguing in my mind.

One side is the author/illustrator side who is passionate about writing and illustrating and spending time with family. The future of publishing is in a huge transitional stage with literature slowly converting into eBooks and bookstores like Borders slowly going the way of the dodo. The money isn't great but, between me and my wife, we're fairly comfortable, we have benefits through her work, and the kids are enrolled in a great private school. I love doing what I do so I should keep doing it because 2010 was a fairly good year for me. Maybe in the coming years there will be room for bigger and better? You never know.

The other side is the husband of a lovely wife and parent of two kids. If I work for Google then everyone would be taken care of. I can probably buy that BMW I always wanted. Everyone would be less stressed. There would be money in the bank saved up for college. Great benefits. Great school districts, free meals at the Googleplex, and more. But, there's also the chance of burn out, not seeing the family as much, and not

I stood on the scale this morning and I'm 28 lbs lighter than I was exactly this time last year. That's how much my two year old son weighs now. To me, this feat was a huge achievement. For many years I've just been too busy with work and family to care of myself. It's not that I didn't care about my health, but let's face it, there is only 24 hours in a day and somewhere after you graduate from high school life kicks into overdrive and years fly by. Then you have kids and it speeds up even faster. Suddenly you look in the mirror and you're 35.

This year was different. How did I do it? Well it all goes back to baby steps.... Diet for a week. Take a few days off.... Diet for another week and so on so not to break my spirit. I also knew that my life of working myself silly wasn't ever going to change so I decided to cut down on what I ate. Then I downloaded a calorie counter app for my iTouch to keep track of the caloric value of everything I ate. I gave mysef an allowance of 1700 calories a day (which isn't much) and I budgeted myself 1000 calroes or so for dinner so not to subject my wife to my diet when we made dinners together. Breakfast and lunches consisted of a lot of chicken, steamed vegetables, and cereal. I'll admit it got old after a month. Suddenly, ten pounds flew off just by cutting down on calories. Ten pounds was a pretty good feat for me. I was usually lucky to just get past five.

I started running after that. The only thing anyone ever really needs is a little encouragement. A simple belief that they can do something. You figure if you're on a roll then you want to keep the ball rolling. To see if you can get to 15... to 20.... and so on. Running wasn't the motivation to lose weight but, rather, the weight loss was the motivation to run. The other great thing is that it afforded me more calories to consume. I can have that chocolate bar if I run 2 miles (literally)

Numbers don't lie. Here's a great article about a Kansas State University Professor who lost 27 pounds just by rationing what he ate. It's called the 'Twinkie Diet'.

Now here I am. Back to my college weight. I'm aiming to lose another 15 and for the first time in my life I'm totally confident that I can reach that goal.

I was originally going to do a blog post about all the great things that happened to me in publishing this year, but this achievement is much more special to me, and ultimately I think it's greater than anything I could ever ask for career wise.

Happy New Years to all of you. Here's to a great 2011 and the belief that you all can begin to do whatever you wanted and more.

If I can do this, I'm sure you can reach any goals you want to achieve.

All it takes is a little encouragement.

I've been doing a lot of sketching and not as much painting lately. I thought I'd share some stuff...

BATMAN and THE INCREDIBLE HULK

A PIRATE

AGENT Y

ALIENS

MORE ALIENS

LITTLE GIRLS

It's been a madhouse around here. I'm just trying to keep my head afloat while putting in the last of the 30 parent hours at my kid's school. I'm so busy playing daddy that I've been having a hard time getting a full day of work in thee days

It's rough being an adult I tell ya!

So Publisher's Weekly released a STARRED review yesterday of this book which I was honored to be a part of called Manners Mash-Up: A Goofy Guide to Good Behavior.  Kirkus said...

"Good advice waggishly packaged and not completely tasteful—a winner."

It features the great talents of folks like Leuyen Pham, Peter Reynolds, Adam Rex, Sophie Blackall, Bob Shea, Judy Schachner, and many many others.

Here is my spread where I was asked to discusses the proper manners at the theater.

I was recently asked to design the look for next years Scholastic Book Fair campaign starting in the Fall of next year.

These are some recent sketches I did over the Thanksgiving break...

The thing is... I never do sketches this tight. I was looking at some William Joyce sketches on-line prior to this and he left me so inspired I think I ended up rendering the work to much more of a finish than I usually do. This just goes to show how much influence can affect ones work.

One of the biggest struggles I had while I was in art school was to find an art style. Eleven years ago I was a 24 year old art student who had a portfolio that was all over the place trying to find a personal voice or some way to express my work in a way that I felt was most comfortable to me.

Correction.

The way I felt that would make me the most marketable.

Just like any other art student I wanted to succeed in the business, so I learned by imitation. It's a natural thing. You see someones work that you admire who has become very successful in what they do so you try to imitate it so that you too can become successful, but no matter how hard you try you become a shadow of that person you're trying to imitate. I knew I wanted to try my hand at editorial illustration, animation, graphic design, and entertainment design, but that was pulling me in all sorts of different directions and my work as an individual wasn't cohesive. I didn't know it at the time but my true passion was to illustrate books for children.

I remember years ago I met award winning author/illustrator David Shannon at his house so that he could critique my work. I had about 8 months left before I was to graduate and I wanted to make sure I was headed in the right direction.

DAVID SHANNON

He was blunt and honest about my work. That was, 'It wasn't working.'

The one thing he told me that stood out in my mind was that artists are hired for their style. An art director will find the right style for the right project and if you have a unique voice then you will stand out from the rest of the pack. Imitating others would get me nowhere. Why hire someone who paints like someone else if they can just hire that actual artist I'm imitating? Right?

This made me frantic. How am I supposed to get work if this amazing artist thinks my work is going in the wrong direction?! I need to find a unique style that stands out from everyone else and is interesting enough to be marketable all in EIGHT MONTHS!

Thus began my even harder pursuit in finding a distinct art style.

So I started looking for more inspiration and trying different techniques that other artists were doing, and trying different mediums and using new tools to paint with. The pro

I'm sure this guy is thankful for not being a turkey this holiday season.

ANYWAY....

Kiss off Christmas and wait your damn turn!

Lately, I've noticed that Thanksgiving gets no love. Look outside your window. Did someone already put up their holiday ornaments? Maybe you are that person. Is Target already having a huge 30% off sale on LEGOs? Oh man, can't miss out on that!

"Hey, the Christmas music is already playing. Huge sales are going on! I gotta get my X BOX KINECT before they all sell out everywhere! Wait! WHAT!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY TURKEY DINNER!??!"

NAY, I SAY!  Stop the insanity. Slow down. Have some turkey and pie.

Oh, you forgot about Thanksgiving?!

Well, allow me to refresh your memory. It's AWESOME and you people haven't been giving it the respect it deserves!

Allow me to enlighten....

*AHEM*

Thanksgiving is not only the day we give thanks and remember when the Native Americans helped the Pilgrims through their first cold winter (for lack of planning on their big move to a new fricking country. *Geniuses*)  It's also the start of Black Friday and the holiday shopping season. More importantly, it's also the time of year when everyone shuts their brains off and nothing in the working world gets done.

Now, If I recall from my old 9 to 5 work days the slowing down of society actually begins the day after Halloween. You wake up from a Halloween party, tired and hung over. You really can't get anything done because you feel like you cleaned the entire bathroom with your tongue and your head hurts from the sugar rush of a thousand Keebler elves kicking your brian stem in. Then, before you know it, it's November 5th. Now you're left with only three weeks until Thanksgiving, but you're so excited about seeing friends and family that you can't concentrate and get anything done. Now, when I say "not getting anything done" I don't mean you're just sitting around playing solitaire on your monitors, but let's be honest, you're not working at 100%. More like 78%.....

Thanksgiving happens. After that, you can't get anything done because people start taking their holiday vacations at your own company, at a company you're working for, or at the company you're working with. Sure, you get your own tasks done, but the ones that require team effort are pretty much on a standstill. No one is around! All those vacations go right through the holidays and right into the New Year which is only 6 days from Christmas. Suddenly, you find yourself in a new year.

From Thanksgiving all the way to maybe January 5th the job has been at a standstill. We have to give thanks to the inefficiencies of the world! You can't get anything done if everyone else around you is on auto pilot, right? Sit down. Relax. Have turkey....

I SAID SIT! YOUR STUPID SALES CAN WAIT!!!

Who were the idiots who decided to shove so many holidays in the last few months so that nothing gets done? I'm not complaining mind you. Who in the working world doesn't appreciate feeling like they're getting paid to do less work? (Am I the only one or is that just me and my lazy work ethic talking out loud?)

Don't fret. I still love you Thanksgiving. If holidays were people then Christmas would be that overanxious jerk who likes to steal the birthday boys thunder by standing on the table shouting "HEY LOOK AT ME AND MY NEW PANTS!". Christmas just looooves try to infringe on the Turkey Day. The day we celebrate by stuffing bread crumbs up a dead bird's butt. Christmas gets enough love with holiday TV specials, and crappy movies (When was the last Thanksgiving movie you saw?) Christmas can just shut up. He'll get his turn.

But it'

I had a pretty good week last week. EPIC WINS if you will....

EPIC WIN #1: Surprise surprise! (Well I guess it's not that big of a surprise)

I've started sketches on a new dummy book. Can you guess what this sketch is for?

The first book can also be found on the new NOOK. My first eBook! If someone has downloaded the book can you let me know what interactive crap they've done to it? (And by crap I mean..... stuff.....)

EPIC WIN #2: Congrats to OH NO! for making The Huffington Post's TOP TEN BEST PICTURE BOOKS OF 2010

The Adventure of Nanny Piggins has made Booklist’s Top 10 First Novels for Youth

BOBBY VS. GIRLS (ACCIDENTALLY) has made the California Collecitons list for 2010

EPIC WIN #3: The SCBWI Illustrator's Day Conference was fun. Thanks to everyone who came out, especially East Coaster Brian Foca (the guy on the left) who travelled 3000 miles to come speak in fancy schmancy Arcadia, California. The Dim Sum afterwards was fantastic! DIN TAI FUNG!

EPIC WIN #4: I've been dieting for two months straight now and I've lost 15 pounds.

EPIC WIN #5: I was in the local Apple Store here in Pasadena and who do I see?

That's actor, Neil Flynn, who plays the dad from one of my new favorite TV Sitcoms "The Middle" (He was the janitor on Scrubs)

Lastly, I recently bought this app from iTunes called EPIC WIN. I don't normally endorse products or games but this handy little program has totally made me way more efficient with my life. It's a to do list but it treats all your tasks in life like a Role Playing Game (a la Dungeons and Dragons). You assign tasks you need to get done during the day and gain experience points when you complete them. Your little character (I made a dwarf) levels up earning gold coins, loot, and you watch your character change as he "levels up". Now, I find myself doing things that I normally hate to do (post office) I highly recommend this app for people who have the need to get things done and have a gamers sensibility.

Here's a video...