Using a Professional Illustrator

Pretty cool picture, eh (yes I am Canadian)? Well these amazing designs are not done by myself. No, they are the ultra cool works of artist/illustrator Andre-Guy Landry and his company called Brain Slug. I have hired Andre to work on projects for/with me for over a year now and I can't say enough good things about him.

There have been many projects that I have hired Andre for. One of these is a new company website that is almost complete (I will bolg about this at a later time). Here is a cool picture of me for that website that Andre did.

As I said Andre is an amazing artists and has tried his hand at building a great puppet and has me hooked on a super online comic series called "Alein Tongues".

The bottom line is that as far as using a professional illustrator goes, it is a practice that I intend to use as often as I can. In fact I used Andre to design the icon of me at the desk for the top of this blog.

I have even used his services to polish a beaver puppet design that I had. The results gave me an even clearer idea of what I wanted. Like anything well done there are costs involved. However, much like puppets, you get what you pay for.

So if you are serious about your designs, or you just want to treat yourself to a spectacular design, then be sure to contact Andre-Guy Landry and let him know what you are interested in having drawn.

A Chensational Avenue Q visitor!

It was last month that I received and email from a past client of mine (Andrew MacDonald-Smith to be exact) letting me know that he had entered the puppet I had built for him into a contest from Avenue Q. The contest asked puppets to be entered for an opportunity to win a trip to visit Avenue Q in New York City.

The entries were whittled down to a handful and then the public was asked to vote for their favourite puppet. The top three would be posted and would win the trips. Well I just went to the website for the results.

Maurice Tipo was one of the three puppets chosen. I am proud to say that a Chensational Puppet will now have the opportunity to visit Avenue Q and be surrounded by the puppets that were built by amazing puppet buider/puppeteer Rick Lyon who built the cast of Avenue Q.

I have included some of the original text from the website for you to read over. I wanted to wait until the results were in before I wrote about this in my blog. Enjoy.

I am glad that a puppet I built was able to bring happiness of a different kind to someone I have built for. It is a good feeling sometimes being a puppet builder. Actually more often than most people can imagine.

Congratulations also to the other winners. Well done.

Double the Trouble, Double the Fun

Alistair Ant is not only a Chensational Puppet, but he is quite an amazing character who has a "quickly growing" following. Most toddlers can not seem resist his incredible charm...and now he is back with a new CD storybook.

Yes, Alistair Ant Productions has done it again.

I wrote about Rob and Soli Joy a while back and talked about their wonderful stage shows. Since their last CD storybook entitled "Bigger the Better Said Alistair Ant" Rob and Soli have created and performed a new live stage show entitled "Double Trouble For Alistair Ant". This successful show has now been adapted into a wonderfully creative CD and Storybook. Full of catchy songs that are sure to get any young child (and yes even adults have been seen tapping their toes to the music) up and dancing. This latest CD lives up to the high standards of the first.

The story revolves around Alistair and his new friend Sluggo (another Chensational Puppet created for the new show) and a bit of a problem. After Alistair makes a wish for a friend more like himself, he comes face to face with some of the problems that come from being too much like someone else.

Others have noticed how talented these two performers are and there are whispers of Alistair possibly speaking with a very well know production company to try to bring him to television.

I encourage anyone who has small children to grab a copy (go to the Merchandise section on their webpage) and enjoy some high quality entertainment.