of queens and shamans

Another two weeks has gone by without a post here. Can you tell that I’ve been busy?

During this time I’ve:

~ Finished the cover for Doomed Queens and hand delivered it to Broadway Doubleday. Fortunately, they were all very pleased with it! Once I have a scan, I’ll post it. Oh, and on a related note, there’s now an Amazon.com page for it, over nine months before the pub date — sort of like being pregnant, only with a book at the end instead of a baby.

~ Got Doomed Queens edits back from my editor. Final revised manuscript is due March 1st.

~ Along with those edits, I was asked to revamp the manuscript into a 32-page blad (book laid out and design). Doubleday plans to send the blad out to various publicity outlets in advance of my October 2008 publication — a very good sign that the-powers-that-be are excited and supportive of my book.

~ On top of this, I’ve been hard at work on the art for Nicki Scully and Linda Star Wolf’s The Anubis Oracle. This 35 card oracle deck and book set will be published by Inner Traditions/Bear & Co. this winter. I’ve finished just about everything save for the cover (below), which is still under development.

I also illustrated Nicki and Star Wolf’s Shamanic Mysteries of Egypt, which came out last year. The art for The Anubis Oracle is adapted from this book, using both digital and traditional watercolor techniques. It’s been a very intense process, since the deadline for it was hot on the heels of finishing the manuscript.

~ Am still moving stuff into the new-and-expanded Kris Waldherr Art and Words storefront. Everything is coming together nicely, though it’s a slow process! A friend will be helping me with my window signage later this month, as soon as I design my logo. I have a few ideas, but need to spend some time focusing. Which I will do as soon as I finish the queens’ edits and the oracle cover.

Toward that end, I love the idea of a somewhat arts and crafts-themed design, maybe a bit fin de siecle Vienna meets William Morris in the type treatment. But what’s giving me pause is the thought of branding: Whatever I ultimately choose to do will reflect on my business, my work as an author, and my art. So I need to plan carefully. I’m also planning a relaunch of this site sometime this spring, so I’d like to tie in my studio design with that for consistency’s sake. Anyway, lots to think of here!

And that’s the latest here. I did manage to take an afternoon off to see Persepolis, which I highly recommend. It’s wonderful — it gave me hope that we author-illustrators can make a difference in this world through our art and words, if we create powerful enough products that make it out there. I was simultaneously devastated and enthralled by it.

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the new studio!

Presenting the official new headquarters for Kris Waldherr Art and Words. (Which is, as you can tell, still very much a work in progress).
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View of the entrance. Nice big storefront window! Note half pint assistant on chair awaiting instructions (or inspiration).
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View of my work area — drawing board and tables. Still need to bring my desktop computer set up and file cabinets over.
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What will be the gallery area. Already I’m planning three exhibitions for the year, the first of which will probably go up this spring. (The recycling is not an art installation.)
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Another view.
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To get to this stage of semi-completion took a lot of work — all done while finishing up the queens book and working on a new oracle project. (No wonder I’m so tired these days!) But there’s much more to be done, stuff to be moved and so on. But all of this will be done over the next few weeks. The important thing is that I can now paint and work in the space without tripping over boxes and cans of paint.

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