MARILYN'S MONSTER is here!

Today's the publication date for MARILYN'S MONSTER, my new picture book written by the amazing MICHELLE KNUDSEN!

I met Michelle many years ago at an independent booksellers' conference. I was a big fan of LIBRARY LION so I let her know that I'd (obviously) very much like to work with her someday. Okay, I may have pestered her a little. Well, the pestering eventually paid off because here is the book! And here's what people are saying:

"Rich with feeling, it’s a warm, gently funny reminder to chase down one’s dreams, rather than waiting for them to appear on the doorstep." Publishers Weekly (STAR)

"Tender and witty..." Wall Street Journal

"A surprising spin on monsters with nicely effective artwork—and heart." Kirkus Reviews

The official Book Release Party is SATURDAY, MARCH 14th at CHILDREN'S BOOK WORLD in Haverford, PA! Michelle and I will both be there so here's your chance to get the rare and oh-so-nifty double signed copy!

To celebrate today's release, here are some sketches...

cover sketch

Unused title page

Early development sketch

dummy sketch

Monster character design sketch

And here's a final painting from the book:

Look for more process posts soon. To keep up on all of my book stuff (including upcoming events), check out my Facebook Author Page!

Snow White Begins

I'm off and running on the final art for my next graphic novel, SNOW WHITE. I'll try to share sketches and art whenever I come up for air.

Here's a test drawing to show you the mood and style:

(note: I thought I had posted this in December, but something is apparently went wrong.)

Monster Week: MARILYN'S MONSTER SNEAK PEEK!

And to conclude Monster Week '14, here's some preliminary art from my upcoming picture book, MARILYN'S MONSTER by the great Michelle Knudsen and published by the extraordinary Candlewick Press. Coming to a bookstore near you in MARCH 2015!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Monster of the Week: Thursday!

Monster Week Wednesday!

Monster Week Tues!

Monster Week!

Two years ago, I kept a sketchbook devoted entirely to monsters. It was a fun preliminary step to illustrating the picture book Marilyn's Monster by my good friend Michelle Knudsen (Candlewick Press, March 2015). 

It seems to fitting to post a beastie a day this week. Check back!

More Sketch/Experiments

Elephants at Night

Experimenting

All of this Random Penguin House news inspired me to try my own merger.

This started as a pencil sketch in my sketchbook:

I placed the sketch on my lightbox, and very loosely marked the landmarks of the sketch (eyes, pose, etc). Then I turned off the lightbox and drew a new drawing with ink on Arches watercolor paper:

I then put a new piece of Arches paper over the original sketch on the lightbox, marked the same general details, and did a fast watercolor wash:

The last step was to merge the ink and watercolor in Photoshop. I didn't worry about it lining up exactly to keep some energy for the final.

This process opens up the possibility of trying various color schemes without losing the original pen drawing. The idea is based on the color separation technique that used to be standard for picture books. 

It's always difficult to keep the energy of your sketch through to final, and I'm thinking this might be a possible answer to that problem. What do you think?

Don't Forget to Draw

It's been awhile, post-wise. Here are some things I drew the other day. They were mostly for fun/loosening up, but might also be sneak peeks into upcoming projects. Or upcoming coffee mugs and t-shirts.

Dead Lion for Breakfast*

It's Deadline Time here in the studio. I'm in the  final stretch for my graphic novel and my days (and nights) are filled with paints and layouts and sharpened pencils. I'd call it Crunch Time, but that seems to apply to most of this past year... Anyway, the end is nigh and I am that usual mix of exhilaration and exhaustion.

I will however take a day off this Wednesday to attend the Annual Silent Auction for independent bookstores at BEA. I promise to work extra hard on Thursday to make up for it. Here's my donation, one of the many preliminary drawings that I've made for my other current project, Xander's Panda Party, a picture book by the great Linda Sue Park.

And here's a Flickr of all of the amazing donations.

And now, back to work.


Dead Lion for Breakfast was Ernie Kovacs' nickname for his early Philadelphia TV show Deadline for Dinner. If you don't know who Kovacs is, set aside a good portion of your day and head to google and youtube. A unique comic genius.

Happy Mother's Day

Some preliminary drawings for I'll Be There by Ann Stott. It's a book that would make a pretty good Mother's Day Gift, you know.

Just in case you need a gift idea...

Painting Begins

This week, I began painting my next graphic novel. Like my previous books, I'm painting this one with watercolor. Watercolor is a "traditional" medium, but not at all traditional for comics. There are others who use real paint for their books, but most comics are colored digitally. However, there is no Rule about this. Since I'm more comfortable with watercolor and prefer the results, that's what I choose to use.

New paint. New brushes.

The illusion of order that, as the weeks and months roll on, will most likely devolve into messy chaos.

There was also pie.

Bojangles

One of the vaudeville cameos in my new graphic novel is the great tap dancer Bill Bojangles Robinson. Lots of great clips on you tube.

More Sketchbook Stuff

Main Characters

Sketches for the graphic novel I'm working on now...

On My Drawing Board

Still working through the thumbnail sketches for my next graphic novel. The script, which I always write first, is above the sketch pad. Although at times this stage of the process seems endless (211 pages total), it is really my favorite part. These little doodles are where most of the big drawing decisions are made.

My goal is to have them all finished before I leave for Book Expo next week...

Around the World via My Studio

This summer, I'm hard at work on the art for my next graphic novel, Around the World (due out in 2011). The first of the three stories in the book that I'm drawing involves the unstoppable Nellie Bly. Above is a picture of the 6x4' bulletin board in my studio (I love that thing).

Heather, the book's amazing designer (she also designed Storm) made this incredibly useful mini-version of the rough sketches for the story with temporary placement of the dialogue. This way we could all get a sense of how the story was working. As I drew each page, I started marking them with scraps of post-it notes.

Here it is about a week and a half ago... which means that now I've finished drawing the whole Nellie Bly segment. So now I'm painting and finishing all of the pages. When that's done, I'll start on the second of the three stories. Then repeat.

OK, break over...

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.