Friday, October 24, 2014

The Power of Social Media
I joined Facebook in 2010, after becoming a finalist in the Washington Post's America’s Next Great Cartoonist contest. I joined Twitter after that. Social media has been an excellent way to connect with other artists that I never would have met otherwise. I’ve been extremely fortunate in that respect.

To that point, and completely out of the blue, 3D artist Shane Olson reached out to me after I started posting glimpses of the new children’s book illustrations on Facebook. Shane said he really liked Nicola’s rendering of my Dozi the Alligator character, and said to let him know if I ever consider creating a 3D model of the character. I did not personally know Shane Olson, but soon discovered that that he was a greatly talented 3D artist who worked at Disney Interactive Studios. After spending some time messaging back-and-forth, Shane agreed to create a 3D digital model of my Dozi the Alligator character. What he created blew my mind...

(3D models of Dozi the Alligator by artist Shane Olson)