Judge This Book by its Cover

I was just about to send off the latest installment, when I realized that I'd grown sick of looking at the old cover. It was the only ink & watercolor piece left, and it looked more and more out of place with every new drawing I finished. So I whipped up a new cover, seen below on the snazzy story-so-far document at the bottom of this post.

This cover features dogs based on photos from the Mendlow family (Phil, Fran & Susana, and I'm guessing Susana's roommate Rebecca) and Kevin Marbury. The interior dog is, well, Rob Brown, but that's neither here nor there. I was originally going to feature Joann McVicker's dog – the drawing came out really well – but it didn't fit with the spread and will have to wait until next week.

By the way, I'm going to email everyone whose dog gets drawn a print-resolution JPG of their drawing. I should get everyone whose dog I've already drawn his or her drawing by next week (it's been a busy week). In the meantime, SEND ME YOUR DOGS. If you have friends who have dogs, tell them about this email, and have them SEND ME THEIR DOGS. Please.

More soon, promise. In the meantime, keep sending in dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog, read the story so far or check out seltzerstudio.com.

Open publication

All New!! All Different!!

Welcome back to the brand new Not-So-Daily Dog. Sorry for the long layoff. Around the beginning of April, I suddenly found with the urge – no, more of a compulsion – to do my taxes. That done, I had to dig myself out from under my actual paying work before I could get back to this book.

The break gave me a chance to re-work the book a bit. The most radical alteration was that I changed the book into a square format. This required reworking a couple of pages, most importantly the cover (see above. Ain't it pretty?) I'll be unveilng the new look over the next couple of updates. 

I've also changed this little email blast. No more hopping to the blog to see the complete post, and I'll be featuring all the text in legibly sized type right below the picture. I know, I know, will the innovation never stop?

More soon, I promise. In the meantime, please, please send me emails or make some comments on the blog.

A brief intro, and the cover

Part-Time Dog is the story of a PhD candidate in philosophy in need of some extra cash. A rich couple in Brooklyn Heights hire him to pretend to be a dog for their kid, because they don't want a real dog peeing all over their rugs. It is not uplifting.

Enjoy today's image, the cover! Click on the preview for a larger image. By the way, please tell me if you think the enlarged image is too small. I can always upload a larger copy.

Free bonus fun!! Count the number of individual brushstrokes it took to render the dog hair in this image. Then try not to think too hard about it. Then don't feel your fingers start to cramp up. Then take some aspirin.