Entries by johnmanders

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 soak off most of the paint with a damp paper towel […]

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 these.  It does make drawing the comprehensive sketches easier, because I’ve made […]

Two Bad Pilgrims

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 fowling piece belowdecks. The art director and editor asked that […]

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 designs for the chicken pirate crew spoofing real pirates which Brethren o’ the Coast afficionadoes will recognize— […]

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.