You may have noticed the picture of a book in my sidebar. I wrote that book. It is actually a very long novel that I have broken down into four parts. The first part is now available in many electronic formats and in paperback. If you click on the picture of the book in the sidebar, it will take you to the paperback version. This book, which took me four years to write is both humorous and exciting. It is also full of aliens.
These are just some pictures I did of what I imagine these aliens to look like. I have never met them myself. That is the other me from the other dimension, the one who really wrote the story, even though I take credit for it. So these may not be exactly what these beings look like. But I had fun doing these, and I hope you enjoy them.
That is a Xxo. Humans also call them the Giant Broccoli. They are over twelve feet tall.
.
That is a Bat. Humans also call them Trexes (or a Trex, in singular form) which is just a clever way to say T-Rex as one word because they do look a little like a T-Rex crossed with a bat. But don’t worry, they are only two feet tall.
That is Mr. Toad. He is a Brain-Friend to a Slug. He is only one and a half feet tall, but he is smarter than you might think.
These are two of the empathic Qualm.
And that is a Wasp Whip. They cause a little trouble.
That is a fleet of ships of some alien race. My daughter’s boyfriend did that ship on the back cover of the book. I just cut and pasted a bunch of them together.
Oh man… I love that picture. That is me with a real model of a Wasp Whip, made by a good blogger friend in England. He took the model out for a pint of beer in a pub…
How awesome is that? I cut the picture out in Photoshop to use in the picture with me.
And that is just me with the same alien, taken from the painting I did of him. I used this picture as part of my shameless marketing campaign.
Oh yeah… alien rock band…
That is a character from book three, Her name is Fawnya. And I did a few versions of her…
You know, just to play with some ideas for what color(s) she might be…
Because aliens might be any color… or no color…
Thank you for stopping by.
Pouring My Art Out 
I’m actually currently creating a whole body of work for my new exhibition called ‘building spaceships’ .
I like your aliens
Thanks so much.
Art, I know you’ve mentioned Adobe Photoshop a few times. Is that the digital drawing program you utilize?
I’m still trying to get the artwork done for my debut novel. I suppose I could do it myself, but I’m not the best artist. And I really don’t want to use stock photos or art either. I’d like to get someone with more drawing experience to do it, but I haven’t been able to find anyone yet. I figure I’ll just try to do it myself and see what happens.
What digital art program or software would you recommend?
I use Photoshop for just about everything. It is really a photo manipulation program, but you can use it to draw, or fix drawings. Go back and look at some posts I did about my two children’s books. I did drawings, and sketches, and a few watercolor paintings, but I cleaned them up in Photoshop.
Okay, good. Thanks!
Photoshop is also very good for changing the size and DPI of images.
I don’t really want to download a royalty-free stock image or photo just for the mere sake of using it. That almost feels like a lazy and/or last-ditch effort. I would only download something to use as a base for the image I ultimately want to create.
I put out a proposal on a Facebook book cover design group, but there were no takers. I also listed a proposal on a separate web site that helps independent authors get things organized, such as editing. I’ve already paid a professional book editor to scour through it, which she did. But I had wanted to submit the cover art as well to whatever publisher I decide to use. I figured it’d be best to pay for as many features as I could upfront.
In looking at the proposals, I get the feeling I’m being too specific, even though I mentioned that I wouldn’t mind if the artist let their creativity run with it. Those specifics were just a base outline. Oh well…I’ll see what I can get done!
Thanks again, Art!
Well, if I knew what the cover was supposed to be about, I could help. I do all my own covers except for the one that my son-in-law did in a 3-D rendering program.
If you had all the details, about how much would you charge? I definitely don’t expect any artist to work for pennies or for free! I don’t care for that “starving artist” mantra or working for “exposure.”
If you want, email me at JLADeLaGarza@gmail.com with “The Silent Fountain Cover Art” in the subject line. ‘The Silent Fountain’ is the title of my book, a paranormal romance.
How about if you email me at brownemonkey@gmail.com and just give me a rough idea of what kind of artwork we are talking about, or a rough sketch, or whatever. I would just end up sending you a bunch of questions about that anyway.
Okay, I will. Thanks again!
Yup.
great characters
Thanks
I love these aliens!
Found at yadadarcyyada
http://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/03/22/walking-on-sunshine-blog-hop-will-there-be-sunny-bunnies/
Thanks so much.
Those are some uh…interesting aliens I see 🙂
Thank you… they live in my head… and my books…
Very sweet one.
thanks
I am so happy to know you
Oh stop…
et tu m’embrasses
well I am shy…
too shy too shy
ummm… yes?
hush hush
mush mush, as the hungry dogsledder said…
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh
wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
ça commence xo
I don’t know how to answer that
xxx
okay, that sound dirty… HA!
Tell me about Qualms. They look interesting.
Will we be aliens to the aliens if you’re thinking from the point of view of the aliens? Because I really want to join that rock band.
I did a picture of my aliens in a rock band. The Qualm can feel the thoughts of other species. But they never quite react to them correctly. The hero end up using them as lie detectors and… some other stuff.
The Xxo (Giant Broccoli) is what happens when you actually light one of those 1970s candles. projects.https://www.etsy.com/listing/130400672/carved-candles-green-candle-unique?ref=market
Trexes look like crows who tried to apply too much product with a scorching hangover.
Mr. Toad slipped and fell into a Southwest Airlines toilet bowl at 44,000 feet, didn’t he? ‘Fess up.
The empathic Qualm are sun-dried tomatoes with excellent fashion sense.
The Wasp Wisp is what happens when you stare at a Police Line Do Not Cross tape while on acid. (I hear.)
The spaceships just remind me that it’s May 31: Dalek Day.
You might be overthinking these a little… which I love, by the way… thanks
The WordPress comments section is my first line of defense against writer’s block or *sofa ass.
*Occurs when I discover yet another beloved movie uploaded in its entirety to YouTube.
Your mind jumps around a lot… you might also have a cranium infested with crack squirrels…
Oh, god, don’t say “squirrels.” My neighbor thinks she’s feeding them but the crows are scooping up the damned shelled peanuts, dropping them in my birdbath, and letting them fester and rot there until they’re good and soft., which they love.
I walk outside each morning to find a putrid pond of slimy ooze where there should be happy birds enjoying their morning ablutions. Imagine mixing peanut butter with sock sweat and urine and you’d about have it.
Today’s the day. I’m marching over there and telling her to stop it. I’ll say store bought peanuts give squirrels stomach cancer. She’s elderly and has no internet. I win.
Or, give her some crack to feed to the squirrels, and then let them move into your head… does wonders for writing output… even if the content is a little weird.
Nah, the meerkats I’ve had since ’06 are workin’ fine. They come with a twenty year warranty.
Crack squirrels don’t last nearly that long… but they do make new crack squirrels all the time…
pmao- Enjoyed this a lot. And look forward to readin more posts.
Will definitely check out yer books as they (from brief perusal) seem right up my alley.
Thanks fer stoppin by my mad blog,
Oh and Alien Rock Band are they available on i-tunes?
Thanks so much… and they are available, but not in this universe… sorry
Now i am curious about this novel. Must check this out but if there are images it would be nice to have a the book, not an ebook. By the way, I had such a time chuckling (laughing out loud a few times too) reading through your comments. I usually don’t stop by for the comments.
The books don’t actually have the pictures in them. My daughter said they weren’t professional enough, so I put them on the blog. And yes, I have the best commenters. I am very proud of that.
They are hilarious (ooops) had to have spell check there…hehe; but I don’t always agree with all spell checks cos we have our expressions and Canadian English is not American English (not completely); So the book has no pictures, you say? I was going to get it for my grandson..hmmm, well, I’ll try to download it on my Kobo then.
My children’s book… the monkey one… has original art I did… but it is for sort of young kids… and the e-version of the novels is cheaper…
Oh I will check the Monkey book. My grandson reads better in French than in English so if it’s for younger, he may enjoy it PLUS feel great that he can read it so well.
I am all aquiver with excitement
I love your Wasp Whip, my son loves it even more.
Thank you. Any day I can make a kid smile is a good day.
The more I read the more I am considering that.
I’m sure the Queen is thrilled to hear that. Perhaps she and Parliament will declare a national holiday or day of mourning.
When your novel becomes so popular that they start producing action figures, I want a Wasp Whip.
I can’t believe that a model of a Wasp Whip went out for a pint of beer in England…
Isn’t that what one does when in England? He must have gotten a guide book before taking the trip.
And he was there with a local, so…
Still want that action figure.
Me too.
And the Halloween costume.
Well…I can’t pull of horizontal stripes, but go for it, you.
They are very slimming, aren’t they?
Good God, no. Just the opposite.
uh oh
sliming? slimming?
Ah…I understand…
I picture him being flexible like a Gumby figure.
He’s made from Plasticine, and he’s more like an old man with rheumatism; he’s a bit big to be as malleable as I’d like; I’m in the process of making another but I have a plan for old man.
If it involves dressing him up as a French maid or a cheerleader, I withdraw all support from theis project.
You know that when you pooh pooh ideas like this it only makes me want to do them more…?
Does this idea invlove pooh pooh? Like with you laying under a glass-topped table while… never mind… I don’t want to know.
My idea was clean, and funny, and involved a wing-back chair being used as a wing-back chair…you have taken tone-lowering to a whole new level!
I feel ashamed of myself.
It’ll pass.
I am squeezing it out right now.
On a glass-topped table………
oh man… don’t throw my own poop joke back in my face like a rubber monkey mirror…
I just nearly choked…with laughter…not poop…
Rubber monkey mirror… a new name for the band?
The only name for the band.
I will suggest it.
Good luck.
I’d sleep with one eye open. He might have plans of his own. 🙂
They are pirates remember… he wants you to show him your booty…
I’ll defend my booty until there are no more whip wasps standing, by God.
wasp whips… Arthur had the Professor test it to see which way it was better as a tongue twister.
He does come from the mind of Arthur Browne so anything’s possible!
He has a probe and he isn’t afraid to use it.
Quite right. 🙂
Mind schmind… my boobs are down here!!!
Snort.
That is more like it!
I bet you do…
Hey! 🙂
HA!!!
He does, he really does. But I get the first one.
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Oh man… oh man oh man oh man
Awesome aliens! Just out of curiosity, is the title a reference to Douglas Adams’ “Restaurant at the End of the Universe” ?
It is written in sort of the same style, although that is an oversimplification. Mostly it is an old West saloon on an alien space station run by an old guy who grew up in the middle of nowhere and likes that much better.
Cool!
It has action and adventure, but strangely little bloodshed.
Not a problem, death is overrated anyway. Does it take place in the future?
Yes… but only about 10 years or so… and in another dimension… almost exactly like this one… except the aliens are already there in this year… if you see what I mean…
Aha, multiple dimensions are great.
I live in at least 2 dimensions myself… ha!
I believe all artists do! 😀
I never thought of that.
Because every medium can be though of as another ‘world’, don’t you think?
Then I live in about 63 dimensions, because I do every kind of art there is.
I just noticed that you are hiding your smile behind your hand in that picture. There is a female human character in my book that does that. I have no idea why I threw that detail in when I was writing it. Her name is Candybar Venezuela.
Sounds autobiographical. That means written about the author just in case. After perusing this blog, I hold no assumptions not in evidence as to the author’s literary knowledge and skills. I’ll try to keep future posts more simpler. What do you mean, “Who?” I say simpler is a word. That’s who!.
You might just be way too smart to fit in here…
I see no wasp whips – tell me I got that right – and I know the image exists!
It isn’t there???
It isn’t there… I will have to fix that…
I fixed it. I don’t know what happened. Thanks.
No problem…I’d better do that one then!
It is going to be really thin and breakable.
I’ll put some wire in it…I’ll experiment.
Life is an eperiment.
That it is…and one of the four-letter words.
Life starts with a four letter word… ha!!! That is funny on so many levels.
Or an experiment maybe.
Excellent job! You may want to change the page title to Novel Illustrations; it will look cleaner.
I was thinking about that.
I will never eat broccoli again. Thanks for the nightmares.
Hey, I don’t make these things up. We just haven’t met them yet… here…
I’ll be sure to keep a pot of boiling cheddar on the stove.
Did I mention that they are 12 to 18 feet tall, virtually indestructable, and come from a very warlike race?
That’s a lot of fibre… But I will bring a large block of cheese and make sure their demise is both flavorful and nutritious. I’m not too scared of their warlike prowess, cause I’m Canadian you know eh. Plus it’s not like they’re cauliflower or anything.
Yeah, you do not want to piss off a 12 foot tall cauliflower…
You Americans… have you not heard of the Cauliflower War of 1828? It was hell up here.
The beavers won, right?
In a cauliflower war, no one wins.
Beavers love cauliflower, and they could cook it with their flaming bodies.
Clearly, sir, you have not met a beaver. At least a flaming one. They only eat moose. Mounds and mounds of yummy greasy moose meat, big steaks slathered with sauces made of maple syrup and whale blubber. For dessert, they consume hockey pucks. It’s what makes them so nimble.
And constipated…
That would be half the fun. When it’s really cold here, it’s actually all of the fun.
They just end up making new pucks, right?
Well said sir. Pucks indeed.
Careful now.
Go to sleep already!
It’s 9:30…
And I will have you know that I have lived amidst beavers for my whole life… okay, people who were not here for the WordPress revolution and don’t know about our flaming beaver flag think I am a pervert, but they are mostly wrong!
Mostly.
Entirely.
What is it about you that draws Canucks to this sight. Thank God the subset Newfies haven’t found us. I think you should look into it and have it surgically removed. At least he’s not as recalcitrant and obstreperous as hiddinsight. He knows his place and stays there. She keeps trying to overthrow us and usurp our authority as the rightful heirs to the world. Right Pinky?
The Brain
I watched that show with my kids. But I don’t see myself as a sidekick… or an evil genius. And I am also very popular in England.