Friday, July 15, 2011

Pages 7 and 8


Well here's the latest spread. I made some adjustments to page 7 after figuring out what I wanted to do on page 8. I don't know if everyone works in spreads, but I can't imagine working differently. Adjusting the color would be impossible any other way for me. I have to see it all before I can decide.

Well this is going to be my last full-color post for a while. I'm going to shift gears and start sketching out the rest of the book. So stay tuned for a lot of b/w sketches over the next few weeks. Then it's off the the SCBWI conference in L.A. to see if anyone wants to publish this thing...

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Page 8


Another week and another page. Hopefully two before the weeks over. This is page 8. Page 9 looks like it's going to be a series of spot illustrations, kind of like page 4 but different. I'm just trying to break up the spreads and the perspectives to add a little interest to the book.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Pages 9-10


This is yet another spread I did. This was actually the first one I started with. It's pages 9-10. I know it may be odd to start a book somewhere in the middle, but I like to think of myself as somewhat odd anyway. The fact is I really wanted to draw an excavator that day, so I did.

I've made a couple of changes to the original this morning to bring it a little more in line with the other pages. As I go through this book, everything I draw gets edited over and over again as I discover new ways to draw things and adjust my style. This is a fairly new style for me. I typically have black outlines on everything I draw, but I'm getting tired of that look, so I decided to try something different with this book. I think it lightens up the images and makes them more friendly and approachable to younger kids. It's a little less hard-edged and graphic.

I'm working on Pages 7-8 today... I have no idea what they will look like yet. Guess I'll find out later.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

First 2 page spread


Edit: The colors on this page were not working.I liked them, but they didn't flow with the rest of the pages and I never liked the dogs in the hammock. So no the "Sun is actually up".

Ok I did this one last week, but wasn't really happy with it. And...
I'll probably change it before long. I've adjusted the colors on this one a dozen times and I'm still struggling. I don't like the dog on the fireman's pole and the 2 guys in the hammock are just space filler -- never a good thing. I'm thinking of deleting all 3 and putting in a window with the sun coming up, after all, that's what the text says. Hmm, maybe I should read my own story. Stay tuned for the update.

More from the book



Edit: I was looking at this spread and came up with some more text. I just felt this page needed a little more story attached to it. Plus it gives the gas station attendant a reason for being there.

Well here's another page. Still tweaking the little stuff, especially the colors. This page took quite a long time to come together. I wanted a completely different perspective so you could see all the trucks heading down the road. And of course they all need drivers... I still might add some more to this page, but for now, I'm going to set it aside and start a new one.

My 3 year-old editor, Levon, is quite the task master. He comes in about every other hour to check on my progress and let me know if I have enough dogs and whether he likes them or not. I just can't seem to draw fast enough for him. He tells me I'll get better if I keep at it, so I have that going for me.