Niles and Pete

Another Ape

This time with a hard charcoal pencil on Arches cover stock.

From Washington to Wash

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.

Charcoal girl

Reckless Enthusiasm

Beastie of the Month

Names, anyone?

Big Brother

A big, tall, up-on-stilts thank you to everybody who stopped by the Main Line Art Center yesterday. I had a great time and I hope it becomes a yearly event. It was fantastic to not only meet so many readers and aspiring illustrators, but also to hang out with other usually hermit-like illustrators... and to ogle at so many original illustrations!

And for those of you who were interested in my paintings for sale, there are still three of 'em available that will be up on my soon-to-be-established Etsy site (I'll probably make prints of them, too).

The Main Line (you know, like in The Philadelphia Story)

Hullo, hullo, hullo! Long time no posting, what?

This Sunday (2/8) I'll be at the Main Line Art Center for a free day of fun called The Art of Illustration. I am only one of a truly impressive list of children's book illustrators, and we'll all be hanging around, talking about our work, signing books, offering tips to kids, and giving presentations (mine starts at noon).

I don't often sell my work, but I will have some illustrations for sale at the event (including The Adventurer, seen above... maybe...I kinda like how this turned out). What doesn't sell and/or prints of the stuff will eventually wind up on my soon-to-be-established Etsy site. It looks like Mr. Biggs will be offering some super cool work for sale as well.

If you're in the Philadelphia area, stop by and say hullo, hullo, hullo! (I've been reading a lot of Wodehouse lately).

Simulcast Sketching

Made while watching the ALA awards.

It IS Hot Chocolate Weather, After All

I've added a bunch o' mugs to my Zazzle shop, including four from my recent winter series of drawings. Click on "Mugs" under Product Type to see all of them. I have the Tutubeastie mug with the color handle and I must say it has a nice heft to it.

ALA Awards

Congratulations to all of the award winners! I'm particularly happy about The Graveyard Book of course. Well deserved indeed. And it's wonderful to see honors going to the great Marla Frazee and Melissa Sweet, not to mention Uri Shulevitz who literally wrote the book about illustrating picture books.

Scarlet and Black

Beastie of the Month

A new year, a new monthly feature. If you can think of one, give this fella a name in the comments section.

Ape Escape!

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.

A Fresh New Year

A Happy New Year to all! I'm looking forward to a new batch of blog sketches (including some new monthly features), adding some more designs to my Zazzle shop, and starting an Etsy space for prints of my work.

Things are pretty exciting on the book front for 09. Illustration-wise, there's a return to Hard Pan with Susan Patron's Lucky Breaks. Later in the year, I'll be moving into author/illustrator territory with the release of two stories in the Medium of Sequential Art (a.k.a. comics, graphic novels, illustrated stories, and an assortment of other labels that no one seems to be able to agree upon).

First is a short story for the new anthology, Sideshow: Ten Original Tales of Freaks, Illusionists, and Other Matters Odd and Magical. This is my first foray into the world of YA so expect something a bit darker than Very Hairy Bear. I couldn't be more excited to be part of a collection that includes new work by some of my favorite writers. Click on the link for the lineup. Sideshow is edited by the incomparable Deborah Noyes... if you haven't read her extraordinary new novel The Ghosts of Kerfol, then you oughta.

And this fall my first graphic novel, The Storm in the Barn will be published. This book has been in the works for about five years and the drawing and painting of it took up most of my time in 2008 (hence the paltry blogging). Needless to say, if I could push a Fast Forward button and zip to the fall I would, however, I'll have to bide my time. Look for more blog posts, a new website, and a book trailer for Storm in the months leading up to its release.

Ok, everybody. Onwards and Upwards.

Adios, 2008

Well, I wanted to have one more post for the year to reach the annual goal of 100. Unfortunately, I'm clean out of doodles. Yep. I looked everywhere. Zip.

So I thought I'd point you to somebody else's work. I've lately been really digging the work of John S. Goodall. Great, great stuff. Sequential storytelling in a truly innovative fashion.

Annnnnnd... a Penguin

A Fox (in a sweater)

A Giraffe

And now... a Duck

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).

Preliminaries: Always 4

We tried the idea of having small framed vignettes for Always, but having it full bleed seemed more appropriate... it gave the little guy room to run around and cause trouble. I still like this little sketch, though.

Preliminaries: Always 3

The sketch phase is definitely my favorite part of the process. This is the time for brainstorming and tossing out any ideas you have, just to see what works. At the beginning, I tried having the boy wear this little animal hat for all of the times he is acting less than good. I guess it was a nod to the Lost Boys and Max. Ultimately it seemed to be too much. Less is more. Simplify, simplify.

Preliminaries: Always 2

One of the early ideas for Always was to have a series of spot illustrations for the title, copyright, and dedication pages that showed the boy getting ready for bed. When the book "started", he would be in bed asking his mother if she loved him. What followed would then be a sort of flashback of his day, ending where we began. This seemed unnecessary and possibly confusing, so it was jettisoned in favor of following the boy from when he wakes up until his bedtime.

Preliminaries: Always

These are some of my first thumbnail sketches for Always by Ann Stott. This initial phase is not shown to the art director or editor. After I "think small" with these scribbles, I'll do a second version in small size, and then usually a cleaned-up version for the dummy which I show to the folks at the publishing house.

Preliminaries: Box Full of Kittens 3

This was my first idea for the cover of Box Full of Kittens. It was deemed too quiet, I think (as are many of my cover suggestions). To see the final cover, click on the title above.

Preliminaries: Box Full of Kittens 2

After the loose thumbnail version of the book is finished, I start working on individual illustrations. Again, I keep the sketches loose but with some essential details. Often I'll jot down notes to myself about each drawing.

Preliminaries: Box Full of Kittens

Every picture book starts with little thumbnail sketches of each spread. These extremely loose drawings are put down quickly but not haphazardly... often they contain the essence of the finished painting. Here's a typical first pass from my sketchbook for A Box Full of Kittens by Sonia Manzano.

Pigeon of the Month #12

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!

Monkeys of the World, part 12

Kaffeklubben Island, North Pole

New Zazzle Shop!

Just in time for belated gift giving! Mostly t-shirts for old and young, plus a mug... and I think you can make other stuff too. Click on the big ol' ad to the right or just click here.

Possibilities

Sneak

Le Pipe

Adventurer

Ski

Skate

Inspired by the photographs of Lartigue.

Punk-in-the-Box

Ready

Lotus Blossom

Miss Lotus "Lottie" Blossom... motion picture star, notorious redhead, alligator enthusiast, and lipstick vandal. From The Luck of the Bodkins by the incomparable P.G. Wodehouse.

Here's Bully's review.

Facial Hair Can Make a Difference

Adam Rex is growing a mustache to raise money for underfunded schools. I've seen the mustache and it is indeed real... although he prefers that you don't a) tug on it or b) call him Ol' Caterpillar Lip Rex.

Every bit helps. Read about the cool funding projects and donate here.

Little Elf

Polar