How To Become An Illustrator, Canto II

Step Two. Organize your business. The very idea of organizing a business bores the pants off us creatives. But, illustration is a business.  We create something people want to buy, and sell it at a profit.  That seems fairly straightforward,…

How To Become An Illustrator, Canto I

I received an e-mail from Jim, who recently graduated with  a bachelor of visual arts from Boise State University in Boise, Idaho.  He asks: how does one go about becoming a professional illustrator? That’s an excellent question.  I’ve…

John & Elinor Billington

Here are some more character designs from Two Bad Pilgrims.  John & Elinor Billington were Francis & Johnny's mom and dad.  The passengers on the Mayflower comprised 2 groups: the Saints and the Strangers.  The Saints were the Puritans…

Underpainting

When I paint, my favorite medium is gouache (rhymes with squash).  It's opaque watercolor and versatile: I can water the colors down to transparency or paint them on thick and opaque.  If I need to make a change after the paint's dry, I can…

More Pilgrims

Here's the character design for Miles Standish.  I do these sketches for the major characters in a book so that they look the same all the way through the story.  Proportions are difficult to keep consistent unless you take the time to do…

Two Bad Pilgrims

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I've got another book coming out in August, Two Bad Pilgrims. It's the true story of the Billington brothers, who came to the New World on the Mayflower.  They were a couple of brats who nearly blew up the ship while fooling around with a…

This one is near, that one is far

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When I talk about perspective, I'm talking about how an artist creates the illusion of distance in a flat drawing or painting.  Two ways to do that are 1) make the nearer object big and the farther object small, and 2) make the nearer object…

Henry & the Crazed Chicken Pirates

The long-awaited sequel to Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies will hit bookstores in August.  Carolyn outdid herself with a manuscript that's just as fun as Henry's first adventure. Naturally, since I'm a pirate nut, I created some character…

La Serenissima

Today I'm working on a night-tme scene: a lady holding a cat in 1890s Venice.  Here are the thumbnail sketch and the comprehensive sketch. I'll start by blocking in the dark areas in Burnt Sienna.