Peter Spit… cover ideas

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A bunch of cover ideas for Peter Spit A Seed At Sue. These are all rough sketches, drawn about the size of a playing card.  One idea was selected, and I drew a tight sketch— Please add the watermelons! Art director Jim Hoover creates…

How books get bought

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Good article by a bookstore owner about the picturebook-buying process.

The king’s coach

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There's a little throwaway scene in  Joe Bright and the Seven Genre Dudes where Joe is invited to a royal story-telling competition.  For this image I needed to design the royal messenger and the king's coach. The story isn't set in any particular…

Happy Rabbie Burns Day!

From the Vance & Louise Torbert Collection.

Stella the storyteller

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Here's Stella, from Joe Bright and the Seven Genre Dudes. Thumbnail sketch for pp 6/7. Stella the storyteller sees her rival, Joe Bright, in the back of her magic story-telling chair. Tight sketch for page 6. A close-up of my color…

Joe Bright and the Seven Genre Dudes

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I just got my catalogue from Upstart Books, and Joe Bright and the Seven Genre Dudes is available!  This is my second title I've illustrated for author Jackie Mims Hopkins.  We previously worked on Goldie Socks and the Three Libearians. Upstart…

Oh boy, more pirates!

I just found these photos of the decorations we did for Vacation Bible School at Third Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh.  The theme was pirates, and since I'm your go-to guy when it comes to pirate stuff, Michelle (our associate pastor) asked…

Henry model sheet

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Here's the model sheet I came up with for Henry. This was a few years ago.  I was working along the lines of classic model sheets for say, a Disney character, with the proportion lines and head-height.  Nowadays my model sheets are a lot looser,…

The big picture

Over at How to be a children's book illustrator, they've got some video of Brian Selznick explaining his creative process. The key idea to take away is this: creating a successful picture book requires having a vision for the entire project. …

Renaissance & Baroque musical instruments

I had it in mind to create some note cards with these images.  Never got around to it.