My First Picture Book Dummy Part 4 - Character Design

Part 1 - Concept And Inspiration
Part 2 - Writing
Part 3 - Thumbnails
Part 4 - Character Design 
Part 5 - Roughs 
Part 6 - Finals

In preparation for this post I came to the realization that I did a terrible job at designing the characters for my picture book dummy, in the sense that I didn't.
I went back into my folders looking for my rough designs that I assumed that I had done while writing and thumbnailing and came up empty except for this:

My only character design sketches

That's it.

One pass of just the main character.

Impressive isn't it?

My First Picture Book Dummy Part 3 - Thumbnails

Part 1 - Concept And Inspiration
Part 2 - Writing
Part 3 - Thumbnails
Part 4 - Character Design 
Part 5 - Roughs 
Part 6 - Finals

In parts 1 and 2 of this series I wrote about my inspiration, concept, and writing process for my first picture book dummy that I'm putting together about a little girl with a pet tiger.

Using a spreadsheet for my writing was quite useful when I reached the thumbnailing stage. I already had it all laid out and separated according to each spread. Of course thumbnailing is it's own process and tweaks were made along the way.

Very rough thumbnails

The above thumbs are incredibly rough and likely readable only to me. They were done really quick to get down the compositions that I had in mind for each spread. Things were moved around several times at this point to get the visual pacing right. I did all these digitally within photoshop, which is how I typically sketch. I never nail things on the first pass and so I love the flexibility of working digitally.

Cricket Lullaby for Turtle Magazine

Pick up the current issue of Turtle Magazine and you'll see this piece I did on the back cover. It accompanies the poem Cricket Lullaby by Jacqueline Schiff.

The first sketch I did (see below) had the cricket in a suit and fedora a la Sinatra but that idea was nixed. I was sad to loose that touch, but I think it helped the image in the end because the suit would have diminished the effect the green has against the monochrome background.

In related news I'll be working on the puzzle pages for Jack & Jill (which is Turtle's sister magazine) for September through to the end of 2012. Be sure to check out the first installment which is a Halloween themed spread.

The Old Ball Game

Since I'm a big baseball geek I was thrilled when I landed this assignment from Humpty Dumpty Magazine. I was also thrilled when they didn't seem to mind me referencing my team the Toronto Blue Jays, and about to strike out the Red Sox no less! I also decided to make the second baseman a boy version of new Hall-of-Famer Roberto Alomar.

This piece is featured on the back cover and accompanies the poem The Old Ball Game by Lorna Johnson. It's on shelves now so get yours today!

Masthead Spread for Turtle Magazine

Hey, if you check out the March/April issue of Turtle Magazine then you can see the above illustration featured on the masthead spread. It accompanies a poem by Suzanne Wenk.

On Shelves Now!

Wow, exciting week! In one day I received copies of both Turtle Magazine and The Writer Magazine which both feature my work. The piece for Turtle was created to accompany the poem City Street by Betty L. Hass. Many thanks to Bart Rivers for the super fun assignment!

The piece for The Writer was for an article by Lynn Capehart titled The Importance of Inclusionary Writing. It's a very interesting article about how many white writers will only describe a character in terms of race if they're non-white. It's a more heady topic than I'm used to, but I think it turned out great, thanks in large part to Ron Kovatch the magazine's Senior Editor.

There Was an Old Lady...

If you seek out the latest issue of Humpty Dumpty Magazine you'll find the above illustration by yours truly on the back cover. It accompanies the poem New High Rise by Vera Koppler.

Stay tuned as I was asked back by U.S. Kids Magazines to create an illustrated spread for Turtle Magazine which will be out this September!

Singing Science - Owl Magazine

I love it when work leads to more work! After creating the lizard puzzle spread illustration for the fabulous Canadian children's magazine chickaDEE, their sister magazine Owl contacted me for the the above spot illustrations.

Owl is for a slightly older crowd and the illustrations were for a feature on the science of music and singing. It was a big challenge making all that anatomical stuff!