LevinLand Studio
WELCOME
Your arrival is greatly appreciated and everything has been done to make your visit a memorable one.
The characters here and the environments they inhabit exist for the enjoyment of children and those who feel the child inside them.
Feel free to roam the grounds and and soak in the ambience Years went into the creation of this world and the works you see here have been instrumental in entertaining and educating the artists and his audience.
The proprietor and the population of Levinland thank you for your time and hope that we can one day
meet to discuss your needs and how we can serve them.
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All is right in Levinland. The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the surf is up.
Im busy as can be right now illustrating several projects. The most recent project Ive been spending my time on is a lift-flap book for HarperCollins entitled Splat the Cat: Wheres the Easter Bunny? The art director at HC is a very talented guy named Rick Farley whose superb direction has enhanced my art and staging many fold. Splat the Cat is the best-selling creation of Rob Scotton a fantastic writer/Illustrator of childrens book. His books are regularly on the New York Times best-sellers list. My illustration work will be featured on the inside of the book and Rob will do the cover.
I am also wrapping up the illustrations for Books ten , eleven and twelve in the Monster Boy series which is written by Carl Emerson and published by Magic Wagon, a division of Redline Publishing. The first six books I illustrated came out last year and did well enough to get the order to illustrate six more. Many thanks to Bob Temple and Emily Love for their help and support on this very fun project.
I cannot forget my big project of 2009, Treehouses which I wrote and took photographs for. With the help of so many contributors around the world, my treehouse builders Dan Wright and Gary Koontz and most importantly my editor Alan Jones we created a masterpiece. The book is being published by Globe Pequot Press and will be on the shelves within a month. Many thanks to Maureen Graney and Katie Benoit for their help and support.
Last but surely not least is my pet project Surfin, a book Ive written and illustrated which is being published by Falcon Press and will be out in 2011. This has been a labor of love and I hope Ive done justice to the sport I love so much. It is a How-to book that utilizes humor, personal antic dotes and facts to take the reader on a tube ride through the surfing world as told by a regular guy who loves to surf. Some of the artwork is posted on the site so take a look.
Check back soon as new project are on the way.
Simply Surfin Blog Part 1 from 8/08
Its been a while since I had anything to talk about but Im compelled to write again. Two weeks ago my oldest friend Alan called me from Japan,,,I know¦ Japan, Tokyo, Japan in fact. He told me he was going to Kauai and ask me if I wanted to meet him there to go surfing. He knew I had just been commissioned to write and illustrated a humorous guide book for Falcon Press so the timing was right. Ok so this deserves a little background.
Alan and I met in 4th grade. I can picture the first day I ever saw him. He was on the lower kids playground wearing a large winter coat flapping his arms to keep himself warm. But it was September in LA! and it was hot. So I thought What an odd kid. Then I walked over to him and introduced myself. We became fast friends and I soon learned he lived in the Hills above Sunset near where I lived so we could just walk to each others houses.
Ok so when we were 13 or so when we learned how surf down in San Diego. We got so hooked on surfing after that vacation, that we convinced an acquaintance of ours (who we really didnt like) to give us a shitty old board he had. He agreed but said we had to keep it at his Grandmothers apartment down at the beach. I have no idea why. Well, it sounded like a good plan but the board really needed repairs or it would never float us. So we took it home to my house. I dont know how we got it there, probably one of our mothers picked it up. Then we went to Plastic Mart to get fiberglass and resin and some foam. We were convinced we could do the repairs ourselves. You gotta give it to our moms. Either they had confidence in us and thought we could fix the board or they figured wed make mess get resin all over ourselves and stop surfing altogether. And so Lon & Als surf shop was born. We even created a decal logo that we put on the board
We somehow fixed all the dings in the board and even gave it a new nose which we shaped from the foam we bought. We ended up painting the board blue with spray paint since we had no idea how to make colored resin. Then off we went to the bench. In those days we either took the bus down to the beach with our boards or we had a mom drive us. Im not sure which happened but we took our newly fixed board out to the beach at Bay Street in Santa Monica. I dont think it took very long before the nose fell off and the board started to disintegrate. But it had only fueled our desire to surf and our mothers sprung to get us real boards. I got a nice 9 foot Dave Sweet board which was pea green with a balsa wood stringer and Alan got a Velzy that was yellow & black. We had officially become surfers!
Fast forward. Back to now. How could I convince my wife Joanne that this trip was important to me and something I should do. After all it was Alan and we had made a promise to each other to always surf together once a decade and this was our 4th decade and we had to keep the promise. Well I am married to the greatest woman alive, she wanted me to go.Youve worked so hard for the last 8 months A true statement. I illustrated 8 books over that period of time. I knowIm serious and they are all good! Watch for the Monster Boy series coming to a bookstore near you soon Im sorry but I dont have a publicist so someone has to promote me.
As luck would have it we had some free tickets from our United credit card, more than enough to get me to Kauai and back and I could stay at Alans condo for nothingnothing my friends! Ok, honey, Joanne said, I want you to go but try to keep it under $50 bucks a day. Eat a lot of Guava. Guava tastes like shit Joanne, but ok I can do the Mangoes or a Papaya thing and itll be fine
So I booked a ticket but I didnt close the deal because I was still unsure. I might embarrass myself and never catch a wave. It happened on my honeymoon I went surfing at Hanelei Bay and I caught NOTHING! Admittedly it was very small but still I couldve caught something for a second or two but nozip zilch I embarrassed myself and my legacy. If I went I had to surf and I had to stand up and ride. I had a day or so to think about it. There was a lot of I dont think its fair to you Joanne, and Maybe Im being foolish kind of talk but Joanne never wavered. No youre going.I dont want you to miss this opportunity. Youre writing and illustrating a book called Surfin you really need to surf or youre a fraud I thought about it. Youre right, maybe I shouldnt do the book. Lon, get on the plane and go and thats that OK I agreed, Im going. I confirmed my reservation and I was scheduled to go Friday after work for three days and I would fly back on Tuesday. So I called Alan and let him know the time Id be arriving so he could pick me up in Lihue. Im proud of you braah he said in a mock pigeon Hawaiian accent The waves will be perfect size 3-4 feet. You are about to recapture your youth from the dustbin of your mythology. he proclaimed Thats brilliant man, where do you come up with this stuff? Alan has a way with words crafting Surf Zen sayings out of nowhere. Its in the air out here, when you come over youll recognize it yourself and soon youll be eating right, exercising and the smog will disappear from your brain matter.Hey if I ride one wave Ill be satisfied Al, it will justify everything. Get ready my friend, he chirped you and I are going to travel back in time. I hung up the phone and wondered what the hell he meant. I was to find out soon enough.
FRIDAY
The day went by fairly slowly. I designed a few Ads, archived projects and thought about Surfing. There was a time that I was a good surfer. I surfed at Point Dume, Malibu, Topanga on a regular basis. Id get up before school and sit in my car in the dark waiting for the sun to rise. Then Id surf for an hour or so head off to school. I surfed Oahu, Maui and Kauai long before the crowds showed up. I actually rode the same waves as some of the greatest surfers in the world. I remember one day in 1970 riding a large wave around 10 feet right behind Gerry Lopez who was the best surfer in the world at the time. I followed his every move and I was in the sweet spot. It was the pinnacle for me. Within a few years of that I had stopped surfing altogether. My studies at Art Center took too much time and I couldnt get away to surf anymore. Alan had moved away and there was no one to surf with. I lost my desire.
But now they were about to be rekindled and I was psyched.
EVENTS - Past, Present & Future
On March 22, 2010 I will be appearing on TV with Lorien Eck on a show called HW Hotline The how is part of the effort of Lorien to support Worldwide Weavers Foundation which is dedicated to empowering and supporting visual and performing artists. Ill be posting more on that as the airdate gets closer.
On April 5, 2010 Ill be appearing at a conference for the Ridgecrest Desert Arts League. Ill be doing a presentation about how I put together the artwork for the book Theres A Kid Under My Bed written by Lisa Willever. The book was published by Franklin Mason Press in October of 2008 and won a Cerificate of Merit from the Hollywood Book Festival in 2009. One of the illustrations in the book won a n honorable mention for best Childrens Book Illustration in 2009s Showest for the Society of Illustrators, Los Angeles.
This summer I will be starting a series of webinars about working in the entertainment and publishing areas. Ill be offering free downloads of the programs so look for them!
Lon Levin - Proprietor
phone - 818.268.9953
e-mail - adlonlevin_yahoo.com
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Webinars and Classes
Trees and Tree houses
This webinar will cover the history of tree houses and trees up to date. It will also explain trees and their unique traits and which trees are best for building tree houses in. Time will be spent explaining tree house construction in one, two or multiple trees. Itll cover everything from a simple playhouse to an advanced treetop dwelling that has running water and electricity. Examples of some of the finest tree house ever built will be featured and discussed. The listener/reader will come away knowing enough about tree houses and trees to go out and build their own home in the trees.
Computer Illustration
This course will be a comprehensive webinar that will cover many types of computer artwork from masking for airbrush to digital painting and how to create your own brushes and techniques. Painting over sketches or painting directly on a digital pad will be discussed. Examples of artwork will be shown and discussed from sketch to finish. After taking the course the listener/reader will have many tools in their digital toolbox to expand on their own abilities.
Artwork for the Publishing and Entertainment Industries
This course will show the listener/reader how to create artwork for these two industries; the possibilities and areas work can be found and whats expected once you get the work. Preparing portfolios for each industry will be discussed. Areas like licensing, picture books, advertising and movie art will be discussed. At the end of the course an artist will be prepared with all the knowledge necessary to break into or expand their art into these very lucrative areas.
For Kids
Download a free coloring book!
Danger Ranger - Adventure Island
SPLAT THE CAT:
WHERE'S THE EASTER BUNNY
After a few months of testing for Harper Collins and Rob Scotton I was awarded the opportunity to illustrate Robs lift-flap book Splat: Where's the Easter Bunny? The plot finds Splat and his best friend Seymour the mouse looking for the Easter Bunny everywhere; the park, the barn, the city and the forest but the bunny is nowhere to be found! The two previous Splat the Cat books written and illustrated by Rob Scotton were New York Times Best Sellers and are loved by parents and children worldwide. The final art is scheduled to be finished in April.
*Rob Scotton writer and illustrator.
watch for the release
After illustrating eleven outdoor books for Falcon Publishing I was given the opportunity to write and illustrate a book about surfing. The book will cover a little historical fact finding about the origins of surfing and a lot about how to choose a board, wave formation and general facts about the sport itself all done in a humorous style. The book publishing date is Spring 2011.
After the successful release of the first six Monster Boy books in 2008, Magic Wagon Publishing a division of Abdo publishing assigned me six more books in the successful series written by Carl Emerson. In books seven through twelve Marty Onster and his nemesis Bart Ully are up to their old tricks as they go camping, play dodgeball, snow ski and create Valentines for their one true love, Sally Weet. Once again Marty must control his temper in order to avoid turning into a monster when Bart taunts him. The book series is schedule to come out in Summer 2010.
get your copy now
The treehouse book covers the origins of treehouses all the way up to the present day treehouses built all over the world. Some of the premier builders and designers of treehouses lent a hand in helping this book become a reality by contributing stories and photos of their magnificent work. The books text and photographs follows me and treehouse builder Dan Wright as we build a treehouse on the banks of the Delaware river. The resulting treehouse was a masterpiece built for two young children whose grandfather graciously allowed me to chronicle our journey. There are more than four hundred photos in the book, including more than three hundred photos that I shot as I followed Dan and his partner Gary Koontz building the treehouse that now rests in a small grove of Tulip Trees in Pennslyvania. The book is coming out this spring from Globe Pequot Press.
THERE'S A KID UNDER MY BED
This book features a new twist on an old theme. A little green monster named Marshall is terrified theres a boy under his bed and he cannot get to sleep. Despite all attempts by his parents he cannot rest until he finds out if there really is a human child under his bed. The book is written by well-known writer/publisher Lisa Willever and illustrated by me The publisher is Franklin Mason Press. One of the books illustration recently won an Award of Merit from the Society of Illustrators Showest 2009 and the book itself won an Honorable Mention as Best Childrens Book in the most recent Hollywood Book Festival. The book came out in October 2009.
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Original song written and produced by Ken Millen and Lon Levin
© 2010 Kris Fitz Creative
