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The Do-It-Yourself bug starts early in some children. Certain projects have enduring appeal, like the old paint-your-own-room-with-markers job, or the build-an-igloo-out-of-wet-toilet-paper activity. But, maybe, just maybe, you as a guardian might prefer to channel the creative activity of your youngsters--and give them a little learning in the process to boot. So, if you have a crafty child in your home, classroom, or library, then I highly recommend Nomad Press's Build It Yourself Series.

I read Great Ancient Egypt Projects You can Build Yourself, by Carmella Van Vleet, and Great Colonial America Projects You Can Build Yourself, by Kris Bordessa. Both books follow a similar structure: They are organized around historical themes (Egypt--"Foundations of "Ancient Egypt," "Boats," "Hieroglyphs"; Colonial America--"The First Americans," "Life in a Colonial Home," "Colonial Farms and Gardens") and each chapter contains historical information and a few projects of varying complexity. Take, for example, Bordessa's chapter on "Life in a Colonial Home." In this chapter, projects include building your own model Wattle-and-Daub house, creating your own bricks, making straw ticking for a bed, making candles and candle holders, creating your own silhouette and braided rug, and making your own broom. There's something for everyone!

The Build It Yourself books also feature a number of games and toys a child can build, as well as information on the history of the toys and games and how to play them. The volumes also include brief asides on important historical figures, manners of the age, and on language. The Build It Yourself books are best suited for children ages 8 to 12 (third through sixth grades).

Now, get busy!
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Personal note: PJ Hoover! There's a make-your-own papyrus section in Great Ancient Egypt Projects.
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Anastasia Suen hosts the Non Fiction Monday roundups at Picture Book of the Day.

This one's pretty old - in fact it's the first image of my own that I coloured in Photoshop. I dug it up since I though it might fit this week's ghoulish Halloween theme. Happy Haunting everyone!

Yep, long past time actually! Glad to be back fellow SFG'ers.
I couple of months ago I posted a cropped preview of this building inspection postcard I did for a local government body, so I thought I better post the whole thing. Below you'll find a variation on the same theme for a second mailer. I tried to keep to a limited, primary colour palette for these. Enjoy!

This one's an oldie ( I'll leave it up to you whether it's a goodie ) from back in ought four. Two page "Creepy Crawly Bingo" game spread for chickaDEE magazine. Sans copy it don't make a whole heckuva lotta sense but the general gist ( I think he was a camp counselor of mine once! ) was that the kids roll a die and cover the creature ( not all bugs, but close enough to count ) with the corresponding number of dots. First to get all six on their card wins!

Work crazy... too many deadlines... so tired... must post to SFG before losing consciousness.....

Here are enlarged details of four of the twelve ancient Greek goddesses and gods from a couple of spreads I just did for the Oct. issue of chickaDEE magazine. The colouring on these ( Photoshop, pencil and gouache, the first time I tried it like this ) was a real rush job, so it's not as bad as I expected.

And now to bed........ Read the rest of this post

Hey cats and kittens! Here's a small detail ( with rough text ) from my latest Know Fun puzzles and fun spread for Know Mag, on the stands in September. Swellerific kid's illustrator Jerry Smath's influence is in definite evidence throughout this spread. For a couple more examples stop by my Flickr site... no secret knock required!

If by "Old" you mean the 1950's and if by "West" you mean western Canada then here you go! I did this two-page spread for Yes Mag a couple of years ago for their "Horse Science" issue. All the extra space on the sides was for the copious text labeling and describing the parts of the horse.
I think I went a little too realistic with the horse, or too cartoony with the girl, oh well.
Pencil with colours in Photoshop.

With deadlines and family commitments it's been a few weeks since my last post, so how better to start in again than with only 1/3 third of an unfinished illustration! This is a portion of one of a couple of postcards I'm working on for a local area government to send out to remind folks when building inspections are needed as part of construction or renovations. Not the most exciting subject matter in the world, and they didn't want to go too wild with it. So I went with gentle humour and a real retro look.
Hope you like it ( at least 33.3%, that is ).

Here's one of the four puzzles from Know Fun, my regular puzzles and fun spread in the new issue of Know Magazine ( The Science Magazine for Curious Kids ) that hits the stands this week. I try to vary the style from issue to issue and this month I loaded on the texture. Dig in!

I forgot all about this last week, but it would have fit right in to the Summer Vacation challenge. A few years ago an illustrator pal asked if I wouldn't mind contributing a sketch to another illustrator's ( or animator's - I forget ) sketchbook that was being passed around. I said yes, but was on a deadline so I adapted a recent illo I had done for a kid's mag and came up with this scene featuring some of Hanna Barbara's 60's and 70's stars taking a summer hiatus package tour plane trip. I added the very quick tones at some point later.
Not sure why Jeannie doesn't just blink that package of peanuts open!

Another great interview with one of my new favorite illustrators, Glen Mullaly. Be sure to click over and check it out, believe me you'll be glad you did. Good stuff! Be sure to leave a comment while you're there.

-Jeff
http://www.diinterviews.com

Hi folks! Glen Mullaly here again, this time celebrating the summer vacation roadtrip with this text-free, slightly cropped alternate version of the cover for the July issue of Kayak, a kid's history mag that I do the covers for.
I ended up spending waaaay more time on this than the small budget called for and produced three versions - the aged 2-colour version you see above, a clean, un-aged 2-colour and eventually a full colour at the request of the client. The A.D. didn't know I was doing a 2-colour so I totally understood his concerns. This aged version didn't really suit the tone of the feature anyway... but as a stand-alone I really dig it, so I'm foisting it on you. Grab a road map and pile on board!

Hey everybody, Glen Mullaly here to say hi-ho and how-do-you-do! Happy to have been invited to SFG and so I thought I'd start off with a few words of introduction ( and exploitation ) by steering you to my wacky website - glenmullaly.com as well as my furshlugginer Flickr site - which contains not only my own work but selected choice cuts of vintage Grade A illustration from my favourite kid's books, magazines and records from the past. Stop by and say hi!



For my first post I thought I'd share some ( mechanical ) pencil roughs for a website illo I did a couple of months ago. We start ( above ) with a small thumbnail rough ( a little over 3" high ). Next up ( below ) the almost finished pencil, about 7".



Up last, the finished illustration as a stand-alone. To see Frozen Pea Girl earning her keep click here.