Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Pencil studies


These are warm-up sketches for a picture book I'm working on now. I'm trying to capture a certain boy-ness.

6 comments:

Ron Sitka said...

I think you have captured the playfulness and innocence of the young boy in your sketches. Hope the new book works out. I have a new grandson and I am amazed at all the things I notice about his smile, his demeanor, his moods etc. that I did not notice with my own son. I was too busy back then to notice all these things. If you have a grandson you can draw images for your drawings and for your book.

Alicia PadrĂ³n said...

Ok, I could stare at these all day long...

They are brilliant. :)

Gretel said...

Nice! You are definitely capturing a certain boy-ness. Reminds me of one of my favourite 1930's illustrators, J.H Dowd, if you google image him you should come up with lots as he's a favourite with old print sellers. Genius with a pencil.

Anonymous said...

You certainly did it.

I think you are one of the most gifted artist, who absolutely captures childhood in itself.

As an anecdote, which illustrates just the opposite, I once read an author complaining how bad some so-called children-book illustrators were, and he ended saying: "A child is not a shortened adult with a huge head".

Thank you for sharing your great job :)

Matt Phelan said...

Thank you so much, everyone!

Gretel, I'd never heard of Dowd but I just googled him and wow! Great stuff. I think I'll be picking up a print or two myself. Thanks for the tip!

Casey G. said...

so, I am just getting back into reading blogs so I am playing catch-up. Wow! These caught my eye, well everything did, but these made me stop the longest. They are breath taking. Delicate and wonderful, while still capturing the essence of boy.

Your ability to let go and be brief with your drawings is incredible.