First Take

Well this is my first time blogging so here it goes. I have always loved to draw and doodle on what ever scrap piece of paper I could find. I never really had a direction or any formal training. I just loved to see what would spill out of my mind and onto the paper. About three years ago my wife and I found out we where going to be parents, and at that point I found a direction. My wife gave me the idea of trying to write a childrens' book for our little one on the way. I had never written anything before, and I had never worked with anything but black ink and pencil.

Shortly after that conversation an idea popped in my head. In the next fifteen minutes I wrote the first book in our Rocco and Joey Series. "The Widdly Wink that Lost its Wunk". I liked the concept but something was missing. So I recruited my amazingly talented wife to work her magic. She took what I had written and improved the flow and meter and just made it work. I spent a few months trying out different mediums before I finally settled on colored pencil. I found it was the easiest to work with for someone who never used color before. It took awhile before I was comfortable enough to do the final page layouts and share it with anyone besides my wife.

So, almost three years, two kids and a few job promotions later here we are. I set this blog up to share some of the images and to spread the word that we are trying to get this book published. Since this little projected started we have written six books for the Rocco and Joey series. Each one deals with a different character value that we want to pass on to our kids. I have also started a few other projects that I'll talk about later. I'll be setting up a different site for that.

In the mean time, here are a few of the images with more to follow. Thanks to anyone taking a look, I hope you enjoy the pics as much as I enjoy creating them. Any feedback is welcomed, feel free to contact me at joeromano31@roadrunner.com.