Unwelcome Guest

Sketched this idea while waiting for an appointment.

Down at the Pond

Pig in the Garden

Illustration Friday 2: Idle

Detective Rhino Continued

I love you Photoshop...

Detective Rhino and his Partner Featherbrain

Illustration Friday: Idle

He won't be idle for long! This is one of those pictures where I just started drawing on a piece of watercolor paper and adding things as I went along. I don't know the story behind this, why the cat is there, or where this mouse lives, it's just an image I had in my mind. It was fun to draw that way, very unrestrictive.

In Color

Illustration Friday: Tango

If you can't make it out in the scan, there's a couple dancing the tango in the house window.

Antonio Revamped

This is Antonio in my watercolor/colored pencil style - a bit more rotund, more depth and shading.

Raj's Softer Side

I'm considering going back to my softer style for Raj as opposed to the pen and ink pieces earlier. I'll see what the Charlebridge folks think. One of the curses of having multiple styles I'm afraid..that constant worry of: did I choose the right one for the story?

Come to think of it, I might resketch some of my Antonio images in this style as well, just to make sure I'm going in the right direction for my dummy book.

And We're Off

First spread of the book...actually totally redone after spending three hours on another version and completely scrapping it after looking at it in the mirror. Those mirrors are the worst critics aren't they? They show you every mistake within seconds.

The lines are basically marks of where the text will be. I'll be adding the text later via Photoshop.

Dav Pilkey Book Dummies!

If you need some inspiration while you're working hard on your own book dummies, check out Dav Pilkey's site. He has posted the full mock-ups of some of his books along with stories about how he got them published! Great stuff from a great author/illustrator. Enjoy!

Dav Pilkey

My favorite posting is "Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving" because he struggled so hard to get that one published and finally found a publisher (the 26th one I think?) who had some sense! Look out how detailed it is - he almost didn't need to paint it in the end, it would have been great in black and white as well.

Who knows how long these treasures will stay online, but I intend to download each book onto my hard drive :-D

***Edit: another link added by the very talented Woody Miller. Thanks Woody!

Click Here

Antonio

This is my little side project: a character study for another story I've written. I've decided never to submit a manuscript without a full dummy/mock-up ever again. I dare say I think I lost out on getting one published because of not doing so. I should always present my work under the best light possible, don't you agree? Ah well, lesson learned.

It's 1am.... time to get some book dummy work done :-)

I'm not giving up!

Raj the Bookstore Tiger

I'm sorry I've been away for so long, I've had some "life" things come up that have been time consuming--some difficult and some (such as my recent book projects) very wonderful and enjoyable. Raj (star of the book: Raj the Bookstore Tiger, written by Kathleen T Pelley) has been keeping me company. Always purring and jumping in my lap, wanting attention. He's such a charming kitty I can't wait for everyone else to meet him. I'm now getting to my favorite part of the book-making process...the painting!!! It's where the magic really starts to happen. I created my wall of art, where I hang wires across the walls and hang the book art in order to see how it's all coming together. I then put up the two color pieces shown in the photo below, and while I was talking on the phone the wire came undone. Argh! Down came the two spot pieces! It was not far off the ground, but still, it startled me lol. I'll be using nails for the wire this time instead of tape! I'll also post photos of the wall as I progress through the book.

The bw ink drawing is unfinished - still need to add more books, and of course the watercolors after that!