I've been so busy at my other sites over the last year that my home base site has suffered from lack of attention. I hope to change that this year with more posts.

I just finished a new poster illustration for Compass School promoting their 2008 summer camping program. You'll find it in the "Portfolio " section.

I have lots of school appearances coming up in 2008. If you'd like to invite me to bring my How to Draw program to your school, click here for more information.

I'm on the home stretch with a 238-page book called The Unsinkable Sub. I"ll post samples from that book soon.

I plan to take an art group to the paradise island of Rarotonga in the South Pacific the beginning of next year to conduct a workshop on painting realistic florals. The tropical flowers on Rarotonga are absolutely gorgeous. We'll tour the beautiful botanical gardens on the island, and in the workshops I'll show you how I paint my realistic florals. Here's a preliminary sample. Right now I'm building a new web site called Painting in Paradise to promote the workshops that I'll be conducting on Rarotonga and other exotic locales. It will be up and running soon. I'll keep you posted. Please contact me if you'd like to be one of the first to sign up. I will cut off at 15 students so the class isn't too large.

That's it for now. Check back soon for more fun stuff from the outer edge of my ever-expanding Cartooniverse.

Just a note to let you know that this week I was invited to joint the Picture Bookies blog ring. I happily accepted and I'm now an official member of this elite group. Check it out at www.picture-bookies.com. If you check out the site you'll note that, at this writing, there are still a couple formalities to nail down...get a picture of myself to them, and complete an interview. I hope to get that nailed down ASAP.

Also, last week I was honored with a most coveted award...the Blue Mug. I never thought it would happen to me, but it did. I've read about people who've received the Blue Mug, but never thought I would actually own one. But I do now.

As some of you may know, I don't do a lot of work in my studio. I used to, but after many years I started thinking: "What's keeping me here in my studio? Nothing. I don't have a boss. That means I can go wherever I want to work. So I started going to parks, beaches, mall food courts, libraries, anywhere that struck my fancy. Now I've narrowed it down to a handful of local haunts. So all of my Health Capsules comic panel is written and drawn outside my office. Ditto for my blog, the Trowbridge Chronicles, except for the color part. I still color in Photoshop in my office. All of my cartoon maps are drawn outside the studio, and so on, and so on.

Back to the Blue Mug. So Last week I'm at one of my favorite afternoon haunts, a corner window seat at McDonald's, where a large part of my drawing and writing takes place. It has only cost me 75 cents to rent a seat for the whole afternoon (the cost of iced tea) at McDonald's. Cheap rent, so I go there a lot. But now I can go to McDonald's and stay there all afternoon RENT FREE! Yes, because of that blue mug they gave me, I can now go to McDonald's and drink all the tea I want (while I work) for FREE! And that's not for a month or a year...it's for LIFE!

They told me that I was one of only two regular customers that received a McDonald's mug. I was so appreciative of their generous gesture that I made a certificate for them, and I thought I would also give them a plug on my web site. This is the plug. Thank you, Terrill, Colleen, Jesse, and all of the other people who keep me in tea at McDonalds.

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Special thanks to Mrs. McCarty and the kids at Tacoma Baptist Christian School. I had a wonderful time there last week. Schools are among the most enjoyable aspects of my work. If you would like me to visit your school, contact me and I'll be glad to answer your questions. Check out my "School Programs" page.

Our Lane County, Oregon Map is now posted. Look for Adventures in Mapland for Lane County soon. Click on "Fun Maps" to see the new Lane County Map, plus dozens of other maps, about 60, that I've illustrated over the years. I have a new web site devoted exclusively to our cartoon maps. The URL: www.funmapsusa.com. Our son, Eric, (www.motionsmithstudios.com) created the new web site...he also did the cool Flash effects on the home page...just roll over the buildings on the top of the page.

I hope you don't mind if I use a paragraph to brag about Eric. Last week he was hired as the "web guy" for the NBA New Orleans Hornets. When you go to their site and look for stats after a game, Eric is the guy that does the posting, plus the Flash animation effects. He loves the job. What's interesting about this great first job of his career is that he hasn't even graduated from college yet! He posted his resume' on Monster.com on a lark, and the worse that could happen did...he got hired. They wanted him bad enough that they hired him even though he's still in college, and they're allowing him to finish college by going two mornings per week. He was going to graduate this spring. Because of his Hornets job, he will graduate next spring. Congratulations, Eric!

I just finished a fun illustration job. A wild and crazy, full color cartoon menu for Coburg Pizza in Coburg, Oregon. There are very few pizza parlors that would go so far as to have a custom illustrated full color menu. But Coburg Pizza is not your everyday pizza parlor. If YOU own a pizza parlor, or know someone who does, check out the pizza illustrations in the "Portfolio" section. They're not posted yet, but they will be real soon.

Trowbridge Chronicles just passed a milestone. As of this past New Years Day, Mrs. Trowbridge and her Trowbridge Chronicles celebrated its ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY. It's been an amazing and challenging year. I've immensely enjoyed getting acquainted with Mrs. T...that's what her fans call her. Her hand-scribed journal and lovely watercolors have inspired me and many others.

Many new projects on the horizon: A cartoon map of the USA for a summer camp program (this summer) in Virginia; a cartoon map of Gallup, New Mexico; a new series of cartoon maps in eastern Canada, a series of RV maps throughout Florida, cartoon T shirts in Florida, the Caribbean, and Ireland; a new series of cartoon maps in Ohio...to name a few.

FYI: The posting of all of my maps is now complete. Almost every map that I've ever drawn is here now on this site. Click on "Fun Maps". You'll also find the complete list of my maps at www.cartoonmaps.com.

That's it for now. Stay tuned for more fun stuff from the outer edge of my ever-expanding Cartooniverse.