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I love doing big, busy spreads with a lot of activity going on. This one was for Cricket magazine. See if you can find the sports-related “wrongs” in this illustration.

(c) Cricket Magazine/Carus

Below is a recent spread I did for the June 2012 issue of Clubhouse Jr. magazine. The colors came out so vibrant on the printed page! Everything is digital. I’m always amazed at how “real” it looks in the end.

Below: Some roughs for the layout. The woman went through a lot of tweaking to get her right. Some last minute things were to add squirrels hanging off the lettering. Gotta love that you can do that when you work digitally. : )

I love doing spreads like this for my clients! It’s like a puzzle within a puzzle for me, to work out the fun activities for the kiddos to interact with! I took a photo this time, but have the art specs from the AD, my rough, and some pull-outs from the final to show you. The designer made a good call to drop the color background on the pavement in the end. It really made the game pop out!

Below: specs from designer.

Below: my rough.

Below: my final.

Below: some pull-outs.

(c) Owlkids

Thank you, Chirp!

Taking a little break from the fun of cartooning, I wanted to post a sample of a magazine spread I did recently that arrived in the mail this week. Chirp magazine is put out by the Canada-based OwlKids. They are a great client to work for and I’ve enjoyed all the projects they’ve contracted me [...]

This is a recent spread I worked on for Clubhouse Jr. magazine’s May 2010 issue. The art director asked for me to do a number of simple spots as well as the title to add to a young girl’s “travel journal”. I was to simulate a style that she herself might do if she was [...]

Scientific tidbit:

When an elephant raises it's trunk it is threatening or intimidating a predator or intruder... as if to say.."You better get out of here."
When an elephant lowers it's trunk and runs at you.... "YOU'd REALLY Better Get Out of HERE!"

I am moving very slowly along the last few spreads of my dummy. The story is finished...somewhat. I have a habit of working inside out. That is, I write, then draw then maybe change a word, a line a paragraph, and that affects the drawing a bit.

This way works for me, although it may not seem even sane to others. Having the control over both the manuscript and the illustrations is a blessing and a curse. So far, as one of my artist friends pointed out, there can be multiple changes to a sketch or painting before we see it as done.

This particular sketch depicts two paragraphs from my story and it has changed several times since I first began to visualize the moments and movement. Now I think I am happy. The text changed along with the illustration... as often happens when one has Ultimate Control...but I am moving on to the last three spreads. Maybe by this fall I'll be able to say, Dummy done! Then what?