I always wondered as a child who made the toys I played with, who wrote and illustrated the books I read, and who made the cartoons I watched. I grew up to be one of the people who got to do all of those things.

My long career has included animation, toy design, sculpting, magazine illustration, graphic design, website design and art direction. My career began working on the first season of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse building and sculpting animation models. I was made head model maker for the Penny Cartoon segments. I went on to work for the Jim Henson company, worked on Nickelodeon’s Doug and was the design director for two toy companies.

I am now the author/illustrator of numerous picture books including I Hate Picture Books!, If You Give the Puffin a Muffin, Do Not Open The Box! and I’m Going To Outer Space!, a recent winner of the Family Choice Award. I have illustrated books for other authors and have also written and illustrated two creative drawing books.

When I started writing I didn’t know about school author visits. Soon after my first book came out in 2008 I was invited to a school. Since then I have visited hundreds of schools and libraries and I find that doing presentations with students is one of the most fun and rewarding things I’ve done. I love passing on what I’ve learned.

I started this blog to tell some of the stories about the creative and interesting things I’ve done, the stuff I’m working on and what’s coming up in my life. You can see more samples of my work on my main website: CreaturesAndCharacters.com. You can also find information about booking me to bring my author/illustrator presentations to your school or event.