Figures, Expression and Body Language

Last rough for Duck Island, my new early reader in progress:

This is the climax of the story, and what I was trying to get a across was a kind of boundless joy. It seemed simple enough, but this was one of the hardest parts of the book to draw.

Expression and Body language in Kid's Books, or: Why am I so Damned Slow? 

So you've got 25 pages, and just a handful of words to tell  a story. The key is not to make it less of story than a story with more words or more pictures. So everything has to count. Which means every figure has to say something with few or no words to say it.

Recently I've been kicking myself for taking too long to draw figures. At times it's taken me two full work days to resolve one single figure. I can draw an entire landscape of animals, but figures are the killer.

Alex Raymond: Beautiful Figures and  Broad Strokes

As a fan of comic books as a kid (and I continue to be a fan), particularly superhero and adventure comics, I envied and marveled at how artists were able to draw sometimes hundreds of figures every month. Then it occurred to me more recently that most of these figures had a range of about three or four expressions. This is more than adequate for an adventure story based on action and movement--where the figure's dynamism is more important than emotion. Every once in a while  there would be a figure that would convey something subtle in their stance or expression, but largely it was about lyrical movement and action. Other times the figures were more iconic, like cyphers, as in the case of Tintin. Alex Raymond, who did Flash Gordon of the 30s, was and still is a favorite:

When I was first developing my kid's book portfolio, it was enough for me just to get kid anatomy right.  Now I'm thinking more and more about how to convey emotion, and more importantly, how kids convey emotion. Andwhen you take a closer look at some of the best of the children's illustrators, there's a little more going on in this department:

Maurice Sendak

Hilary Knight

Arnold Lobdell

But some of the best comics artists are also capable of a little subtlety when called for:

Dan Clowes

Jaime Hernandez

So without the tyranny of a comic book artist's deadline, I'm still feeling my way through this. And so it's taking some time.

Revisions, Revisions, Revisions

More Revisions on my soon to be submitted book dummy.

My writing buddy Shannon pointed out something I knew I needed to do but was too lazy to follow through with. the pumpkin needed to match the same level of render as the bugs on this one. I also beefed up the moon, adding a glow and some realistic moon texture:

I really think this improves the image dramatically and more accurately reflects the interior art, so yay, Shannon!

At the as usual right on target advice of my agent Abigail, I added more darks to this one, and used some more dry brush to make it look more rounded. I distorted the base of the candle to follow the contour of the inner wall of the pumpkin and added shadows to make it look more grounded. I also added a purple compliment into the bugs cast shadow. I like the new dry brush as well because it gives the candle more radiance.

I just finished all the rough art for my other dummy in progress,  Duck Island (you may have noticed that I've been posting that art periodically) and am in progress on a couple of finishes which I should be posting soon.

Once again, loving InDesign as a compositional tool. It's so easy to move pages and add pages and delete pages. It really gives you a sense of the ultimate layout of the book, makes it easier to break the text down into pages. It's also an instant digital dummy if you want to send it to a POD printer to get a hard copy. 

New Duck Island Rough

Mock-up Cover For Ladybug and Gentlemen Beetle.

I recently redid the original drawing that inspired my book in progress, Ladybug and Gentlemen Beetle as a cover for the Book Dummy. The dummy is a mock-up of the book to give the editors an idea of what the finished book will look like. It's composed of all the illustrations roughed out, with a few finishes. Here's the original:

The first thing I did was redraw the original images of Ladybug and Gentlemen Beetle to match my new character designs. The changes were minor, and so I was able to use some of the original coloring and modeling that still existed on a layer in the original Photoshop file.

I zoomed in, got rid of the branches to make room for the lettering. I also took out the light coming from the moon so the lettering would contrast more with the background. The lettering is hand drawn. To make the lettering look spontaneous, but still deliberate and clean, I draw each letterform numerous times until I get the lettering I want. I want the lettering to be distinct with its own identity, so it doesn't look like any other title lettering that I've done, but is still in my style. The lettering is done with cheap rough brush from Michael's to give it that hand-painted look.

And here's the finished cover:

Inevitably they're going to want to go with a different cover for the finished book, but this should do nicely for the dummy. Already I'm thinking that I want the pumpkin to be a bit more modeled in the finished book, with more natural texture, but at this point I think it does the job it needs to. 

New Ladybug and Gentleman Beetle Color Spread

So I'm working with my agent Abigail Samoun to get this Ladybug and Gentleman Beetle picture book dummy into shape before we sent it off. she suggested I render one more finish, the spread where Gentlemen Beetle shows Ladybug the interior of the pumpkin.

Here's the texture for the interior done up in dry brush. I ultimately did a lot of photoshop tweaks on this to get it the shape I needed. Abi and I discussed how the interior should have a pulpy feel.

And the inks for the candle:

inspirational Work by A. Paul Weber

Andreas Paul Weber (1893-1980) was born in Arnstadt Thuringia and worked principally in the Weimar period when all those great German Expressionists were doing their German Expressionist thing. He illustrated Baron of Münchhausen, among other books, and spent 3 years in jail for criticizing the Third Reich.

Good Stuff!

New Figure Drawing, and Sucking Less

After being ill for so long I've only recently gotten back into drawing the figure from life, and it's definitely true: if you don't use it, you lose it. It's taken me a few sessions to get back to something resembling my old groove. I'm pretty happy with this one, considering.

And a gesture: