The Pen is Mightier?

I’m still extremely swamped with several jobs, but I thought I’d share something about a new project I’m getting involved with. It’s something very different and I’m looking forward to seeing where it all goes.

Some may recall I did the illustration above some months ago as a favor to the incomparable audiobook vocal artist David Ian Davies, which he used as an “album cover” of sorts for a new audiobook collection of the complete Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes canon. The collection, One Voice Chronological: The Consummate Holmes Canon, features all 56 Doyle short stories unabridged and compiled in chronological order.

David’s son Dana is in the pen manufacturing business. More specifically, his company designs and manufactures novelty pens made of resin and markets them all over the world. They also manufacture statuettes, water globes, ornaments and other sculptured and cast items. Very cool stuff. Dana created a prototype of a Sherlock Holmes pen based on my drawing and contacted me seeking permission to produce it. I was delighted, especially considering how good the initial unpainted prototype turned out:

The final, color version should be out any time now. We have also discussed my participating in designing an entire series of pens based on my artwork, which I will be doing in the coming months. A fun and very interesting project.