Thanks Highlights!

Once again a mysterious parcel has arrived at my door, and once again I'm grateful for the gesture of Highlights to make note of my artwork. Believe me, this is as close as I'm gonna get to the Oscars - so I may as well put on a party tux and enjoy the moment!

Thanks Highlights!

Paint Your World

Banana Moon

This arrived in the mail from Highlights. I thought it'd be fun to dig out the original pencils and photograph them next to the finished printed art.

I have a scientific system of storing original pencils. When my pile of sketches gets too big, I toss the drawings into a big drawer. It has hundreds of drawings. Then when the drawer gets full, I pack the sketches into a cardboard box and tape it up and put it in the basement. Someday it might be a collector's item.

Out in the Wild Woods...

 It's the wild woods for me...  my 2 day getaway - a.k.a. vacation.  Ferryboats, foghorns, lighthouses, victorian houses, log cabins, lavender fields, sailboats and sunshine.  Perfect!

 Sea stacks and beach logs, the rain forest sculpted by the wind.  One of my favorite spots is camping in the woods.  It's not entirely rustic, since Olympic National Park comes with electric outlets and flush toilets.  But the old growth trees haven't changed much - and it's magic camping in them.

 

I think there's a rule that as soon as you decide to go away on a trip, that's when all the ADs decide to call.  Uncanny how that works.  Next time I'll bring along an iPad to check my mail and see what's up.  That way I won't have to worry.

 

I like how my clothes still smell like woodsmoke.  I like remembering the stones and the trees.

The evolution of a cover...

I found these old versions of my book 'Cromwell Dixon's Sky-Cycle' - so I thought it'd be fun to show the evolution of a cover.

The first version (top left) is the finish sample I sent in to Timothy Travaglini that sold the book originally out of the slush pile.  Next is the finished 2nd dummy version in halftones.

As I recall Timothy wanted a simpler version with more impact... so I did the finish painting which was much simpler.  Finally that version was recast by Cecilia Yung and Katrina Dahmkoeler into a brilliantly designed version.  I added a few tweaks... adding spot art into the top corners and the final cover was done!

Worm Diaries sprouting up in the garden!

I see that Worm Diaries are sprouting up all through the garden!  I finally received the copies to the book 'Teacher's Pet' - a Diary of a Worm book that I ghost illustrated for Tom Bliss.

I love doing landscapes and these books were fun.  I got to invent miniature contraptions that figure into the worm's eye view of the world.  For picture scrap I took my camera out and snapped photos of plants in my garden... with the camera on the ground looking up through the ferns.

I've done lots of ghost illustration.  I did dozens of books with Mercer Mayer for Little Critter.  And I did a number of books with Rosemary Wells and her Yoko school characters.  I even had Rosemary Wells come to my house for a 2 hour private art lesson in my studio!   That was exciting!

All in all it's been an invaluable apprentice experience to learn about book making.

miles of styles...

 I did this exercise to see how changing the line and style might work on a drawing. The blue toned drawing at the bottom is an older piece. The color version is new. An illustrator has to keep up with the times... yet both styles have their merit, I think.

Dropping out the line - Line vs. No Line

A little something new.  I'll be sending this to a list of selected editors and art directors as a postcard.  We'll see what they think.

It's fun to send things around and see what happens.  The forms for this illustration were inspired (and based in some instances) on art deco illustration from the 1930's.

Dropping out the line always seems to be popular... probabably because it simplifies things.

On the Street Where I Lived...

 It was a lot of fun to create this illustration of a street scene with brownstones.  I especially liked it because I once lived in a brownstone in NYC... on West 78th Street.  So the ideal source for my illustration research was Google street view.

I do most of my traveling on Google street view since it's so easy and interesting.  But it's always fun to go back to places you've lived to see how it looks now.  So this is where I started my career as a children's book illustrator.

That's my window circled.  I used to love watching people go past on summer mornings, with New York   starting a busy new day.  If I leaned out the window I could just see the Museum of Natural History down the street... where I spent many, many long happy hours.

The last part of making any book...

 

The last part of making any book for me is forgetting it. It might sound funny, but it's true and essential. After all the millions of changes and fussing over details there comes a time when you decide it's finished.

Without this distance I find it's hard to get any peace of mind. So it's nice to just set it aside and forget it.

The best thing to do next is start working on the next project - and get on with the endless art-making struggles that it will bring.

I also tried going to the Seattle Art Museum, which was okay but not spectacular. What else might I have done? Skiing? (too expensive), clicking wine glasses (don't drink - no one to click glasses with), photographed tulips? Possibly... but I already have 8,000 tulip photos I've taken.

What do you all do when that final bit of paint has hit the canvas?

I did my post doctorate work at Charm School

My qualifications as a freelance design professional? I matriculated in 'Tail Sciences' with a minor in 'Furr-ology'. This providential career vision has helped me reap many financial rewards and a deeper understanding of the furry world around us. I am adept at rendering tails of every sort... be they mousey, squirrley, doggy, rabbity feline, fowls or fins.

Oh... and I also did my post doctorate work at Charm School. I suspect that's where most of my street smarts came from.

My new 3 pound pen!

A large package arrived on my doorstep... it would have made a nice doorstop it was so heavy.  WHAT might that be? I wondered... I wasn't expecting anything.

Actually I was expecting a pen - but this couldn't be a pen - it weighed 3 pounds!

Opening the box I first discovered another big black box inside.  Mysterious I thought.  Then I opened that box and there was another black box... a lacquered shining black box with polished chrome hinges.  Finally opening the lid of that box I discovered the Confusicous Pen I had ordered!  (it only took 2 days to be delivered from Amazon - I thought it'd take 3 weeks).

Lifting the pen, I found the heaviest pen I've ever held. It feels like it's made out of iron.  But the reason I bought this pen is for the nib, which has a special flattened end for making wide calligraphic drawings.  It was recommended to me by Jackie Urbanovic, an artist friend of mine.

So I loaded it up and tried it out... works great!  It does provide amazing line variations and awesome mottled texture when applied on watercolor paper.  That's what I was after.  I'll be using this in combination with my Pentel brush-pen, which also makes delicious crumbly expressive lines.