Entries by johnmanders

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Funeral for el Señor

A sketch of the funeral procession from Señor Don Gato.  I drew this in 2002, and it was the first time my illustrations looked painterly rather than cartoony.  I consciously mimicked Diego Velasquez for this project.  You’ll notice that in the sketch I amateurishly put interesting details in the gutter—the vertical strip in the center […]

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The Wreck of the Salty Carrot

These images from Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies are up on my website, but they’re kind of small.  I thought you might like to see them here, so you can embiggen simply by clicking on them. For the shipwreck scene, I wanted to mimic antique oil paintings of storms at sea.  The first three images […]

Art school question

Ashley is a high school grad in Texas who wants to be a kids’ book illustrator, and is looking for a good art school.  Here’s my response to her e-mail. I’m afraid I haven’t kept up on art schools.  I went to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh long ago. They offered a 2-year Visual Communications […]

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Hot & bored

Four bored kids on a hot summer day—the opener from Peter Spit A Seed At Sue.  Thumbnail and tight sketch. This is the wraparound porch on my old house in Pittsburgh.  And that’s my dog, India snoozing on the left.

An editorial assignment

Occasionally—very occasionally—I get an assignment to create an image for grownups.   These two were for a business magazine; the article was about decision-making.  One was to be of a couple of football players and an umpire flipping a coin, the other would be two lawyers playing rock-paper-scissors.  The client provided a rough layout— Here’s […]

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Peter Spit… cover ideas

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 a comp with sketch and type. Let’s get the other 2 […]