Cover Sketches

Here are a couple of early cover sketches for The Higher Power of Lucky.

Woohoo!

Susan Patron has won the Newbery Medal for The Higher Power of Lucky!!!! You can see more info and a couple of my finished illustrations for this wonderful book here. Or, check out the official press release here.

And now...back to the champagne.

A startling connection

I've recently uncovered the fiendish role that raccoons have played in the history of Freemasonry...

Superman (by way of Fleischer)

You can't beat the design of the 1940's Fleisher Superman cartoons. They tend to influence my Superman doodles heavily. For more of my superhero sketches, click the nifty new blogger tag below...

Pug! On a ball!

Snow day

The Batman

Flying Ace

Babypack

Just an average carrot

Pug!

The Thing That Should Have a Better Name

Here's another entry for my very slowly evolving superhero series. I'm not a big Fantastic Four fan, but for pure doodling fun, it's hard to beat The Thing. But that name lacks the usual Marvel directness. It's as if Stan Lee was late for an appointment that day. "Let's see...Human Torch, check...Invisible Girl, check...and....uh...whatever...The Thing. Oh, and stretchy guy...beats me...how about Mr. Fantastic?" It's not that I think he should be called Rock Man or something, but The Thing just seems too vague and insulting. Mr. Pebbles? The Human Quarry?

The nudge

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.

Breakfast sketch

Happy New Year

Post #100!

Well, this wraps up my first year of blogging on a nice round number (is it round? is it an integer?). I did manage my goal of doing something new for each of the 52 weeks of Illustration Friday. (Whew)

Next year I plan to change the blog a bit. There'll be fewer IF drawings but more sketches from my upcoming book projects, such as these three drawings. These were part of a four page mini-comic "trailer" that I created in order to present my graphic novel idea to interested publishers. More on the graphic novel and other books in the coming year.

Thanks to everyone who stopped to have a look at the site...especially the folks who left such nice comments.

Illustration Friday: Phoenix

Phoenix from the match...

Red

Merry Christmas!

Illustration Friday: Peace

Illustration Friday: Help

I read a story in the news a couple of years ago about a young African girl who was chased and cornered by a gang of men. She was saved by some lions who came out of the jungle, surrounded her, and scared off the men. The girl was not harmed.

Ike

Illustration Friday: Mask

Three Strangers

Illustration Friday: Might

Kid

Illustration Friday: Invention

Pastel and color pencil added and then desaturated and cropped in Photoshop (to see the early stages of this illustration, go to the main page of my blog).

Process of Invention Pt. 4

The details are sketched in with color pencils and liquid acrylic is added to the background and lab coat.

Process of Invention Pt. 3

The final composition is sketched onto grey Rives BFK paper.

Process of Invention Pt. 2

Getting some character details...

Process of Invention Pt. 1

Step one: Thinking with the pencil.

Untrustees

Illustration Friday: Thanksgiving

Ah, the kids' table...

Fox in Sweater

Happy Children's Book Week!

I want to thank everyone who came out to Children's Book World on Friday night for their 15th Annual Author and Illustrator Night. It was packed with book lovers and book luminaries such as David Wiesner, Charles Santore, Nick Bruel, Judy Schachner, Roger Roth, Berit Haahr, Gene Baretta, and many others (like me). If you're looking to celebrate this week by picking up some great books, you can't go wrong with the good folks at Children's Book World (there may even be some autographed books still on the shelves).

Thanks to Pam McLean-Parker for taking my first "here-I-am-signing-a-book" photo.

Illustration Friday: Clear

Pip

Grouch

Feral Cheryl

Illustration Friday: Smoke

Everybody Hula Hoop

Washington Square Park, NYC

Skating

Pastel Mel