Washington's Birthday

Just a quick pencil and wash sketch of His Excellency on his birthday. A new and very nice review of Anne Rockwell's Big George can be found at the All-en-A-Day's Work Blog.

NCTE/ALAN: The Convention Within Walking Distance

Hey teachers! Going to the NCTE and/or ALAN convention in Philadelphia this weekend? Me too. Here's my schedule:

Friday, 2-3 pm: signing Storm in the Barn at the Candlewick booth (#112).

Friday, 5-6 pm: signing Storm at the Anderson booth (#544).

Saturday, 10:30-11:30: signing Big George and Very Hairy Bear at the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt table.

Saturday, 3:10-3:40 pm: Author Roundtable!

Tuesday, 11:40: speaking on the Appeal of Graphic Novels panel for the ALAN workshop (signing Storm as well, I think).

I will also be giving free tips on cool places to check out in the City of Brotherly Love. You can't spend all of your time at the convention center.

Shifty Peacocks

These peacocks would like to remind you that I'll be signing Big George and other books tomorrow (aka Saturday) at 2pm at the lovely Head House Books. Hope to see you there. However, if you're closer to Old Greenwich, CT, stop by Just Books on Saturday morn to meet Big George author, Anne Rockwell.

Big George Booksigning!

On Saturday February 28th at 2 pm, I'll be at Head House Books in Philadelphia talking about and signing copies of Big George. It's my first event at this great little indie store. If you're in the area, stop by and say howdy.

Above is the sketch of Washington's crossing of the Delaware from the book dummy. My wise editor and art director at Harcourt pointed out that it would be better for the final illustration to have the action going from left to right instead, leading the eye to the page turn. A simple change, but very important.

For a detailed look at the long and twisty road to publication for Big George, check out author Anne Rockwell's blog.

Pub Weekly, Research, and Gen. Washington

Big George paintings in progress as I start to lose the elusive winter sun (December 2007).

There's a nice review of George in the new edition of Publishers Weekly. Anne Rockwell's evocative text inspired me to read more about the life of Washington in preparation for that book. The two books that helped me get a sense of the man most were His Excellency by Joseph L. Ellis and 1776 by David McCullough. I highly recommend both. I also listened to the audio version of 1776 while painting Big George. There's just something about the sound of David McCullough's voice. He could make the phone book captivating.

Preliminaries: Big George 5

...and the final cover. This book was released a week or so ago and should be making its way into bookstores soon. You can read bits of early reviews here. What with Washington and my story about Hoover for Our White House, 2008 was a pretty presidential year for me. 2009 will have more history, but no president books.

Preliminaries: Big George 4

These are the first sketches for my one and only cover idea. It's a fairly rare case of the final cover being pretty close to my initial intention.

Preliminaries: Big George 3

Here's the finished illustration (polychromos pencils and gouache on 300 lb Arches hot press paper).

Preliminaries: Big George 2

This is a small color study (the thumbnail sketch is at the bottom left of the previous post).

Preliminaries: Big George

Here are some sketches for the dummy of Big George: How a Shy Boy Became President Washington by Anne Rockwell (just released).

Washington Sketch

Sorry for the paltry blogging of late. I am nearly finished work on my graphic novel and by nearly I mean I still have about 40 pages to go. But since Children's Book Week is next week, I thought I'd show you a sketch from Big George by Anne Rockwell, coming to a bookstore near you this fall. This is Washington at Carpenter's Hall, volunteering to lead the army. Clearly, my uniform research came after the sketching phase.

Think Small

A color study for the country dance in Big George.

What? 2008? Really?

I'm just wrapping up work on Big George which has occupied most of my waking moments for the past month or so. As I shake off the 18th century (and prepare to enter the early 20th century, where I'll be for the first half of this year), I thought I'd try to get some regular posting in.

To make up for my lack of posting recently, I'm planning on adding new monthly features to the blog beginning...soon.

The Convenience of "Living History"

If you're working on a book about George Washington, residing in Philadelphia can be pretty handy. Just stroll down to the area around Independence Hall on a Saturday and presto: More costumed models than you can shake a souvenir Liberty Bell at. They do a good job staying in character, too.

Study (with sword)

The Revolutionary

From the Washington Sketchbook

More preliminary sketches for "Big George" by Anne Rockwell.

Washington

One of the picture books I'm working on this year is "Big George" by Anne Rockwell (Harcourt). Anne has done an amazing job of portraying Washington as an actual human being (from childhood to death) without any of the mythic elements one might expect (no false teeth, no cherry tree). Right now I'm in the research and sketching phase, which is one of my favorite stages in illustration. I'll post more about this one later.