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Late last year I gave a copy of My Beastly Book of Twisted Tales to my talented 7 year old niece, Lauren. She always impresses me with her passion and creativity, so I knew she would enjoy it. I would have loved this as a child, and I really applaud OwlKids and Berengere Delaporte for making such a beautiful book. The quality, imagination, and variety is top-notch. Kathy Weller reviewed the book last year - you can read about it here.

I've included scans from a few of my favorite pages. Lauren used black pen throughout most of the book, and her style was so similar to the artist, that I colorized her work blue to distinguish it.

I think she's captured this brilliantly. I honestly do a double-take on this page every time.

Looks like a genie to me! And in proportion too - I would have drawn right off the top of the page at this age.
And last, but not least. I like how she made twins, rather than a mash-up of the two. Thank you for sharing your work with us, Lauren! We can't wait to feature your first book someday!

My Beastly Book of Hilarious Heroes: 150 ways to doodle, scribble, color and draw byVincent Boudgourd

Review by: Chris Singer

About the illustrator:

Vincent Boudgourd is the art director at a publicity agency. He enjoys posters and illustrations from the 1950’s through 70’s, traveling, waves, wide open spaces, and meat and potatoes. He currently lives in Rennes, France.

About the book:

Featuring tons of made-up heroes and heroines, My Beastly Book of Hilarious Heroes is filled with over 150 doodle and scribble activities to give budding young artists hours of fun. Like the other titles in the My Beastly Book series, My Beastly Book of Hilarious Heroes aims to push kids’ latent illustrative creativity into curious new directions by presenting them with silly scenarios and open-ended instructions.

Balance a mountain of cars on a strongman’s pinky finger, choose the real hero in a line-up of ordinary people, fill a grocery store shelf with food for a hero’s cart, design a hero’s mask and costume, and draw a portrait of an entire family of heroes in this incredible addition to the My Beastly Book series. Kids will have fun helping these heroes save the day — but might have even more fun putting kryptonite in their way.

The wide variety of activities — from drawing and coloring to cut-outs and more — will help kids build confidence in their artistic skills and inspire their minds. Instructions are clear and concise, but still give kids plenty of reason to make use of their active imaginations.

Screen shots from the book:

My take on the book: 

This book is so much fun and will provide lots of hours of fun for dads and their kids. I love how silly and open-ended each of the 150 doodle and scribble activities are.

Here’s a sample of some of the great activities from the book:

* This superhero class is taught by the giant Teacher-Creature! Draw it.

* Draw Super-Suave, the coolest superhero around.

* Color these superhero glasses. Cut them out and wear them.

* Cut out the page then fold it along the dotted lines. Have fun squishing and stretching Elasto-Boy.

* Imagine your superhero underwear. Color them, cut them out, then hide them in your mother’s purse.

Kids of all ages will appreciate the humor here, and parents will definitely want to join in the fun, though mom might not be crazy about finding superhero underwear in her purse.

Happy Tuesday, people. After an invigorating (albeit cold!) morning walk outdoors and a strong cup of coffee, I’m energized and ready to tackle the day. So I begin with posting a piece I worked on back in November  for the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of Chirp! magazine (Owlkids).  I worked these up on my laptop and [...]