Being a children's book, you usually need a kid in the story (that's how it goes). She is a girl (8 or 9) living in the 17th century. She's fairly affluent and is getting to the age where she is forced into being "accomplished" (painting, calligraphy, piano, etc...). I imagine she doesn't like taking piano lessons and is terrified of her teacher. That's not to say she isn't fond of music, she just doesn't like the anxiety associated with playing perfectly. I picture her as clumsy and kind of a tomboy, which is at odds with her environment.

Here's the son of the creature in the previous post. This is for a children's book, so I upped the cuteness factor, I think. I looked at a lot of reference material of pianists and composers since this little guy is a proficient virginal player (a precursor to the modern piano). This design was fun because he's basically a smaller, rounder, and softer version of his daddy.

Hey gang! I have been working on new work during the past few weeks but have been lazy about getting things posted (thanks Jen for bugging me about it!). So my project right now is a children's book that I either hope to self-publish or get picked up by a publisher. In any event I'll have some more pieces to add to my portfolio. This guy is a creature that lives in a bog or the moors if you like. He's a run-down father of many little monsters. I'll elaborate more on him when I've added color. The rest of the characters are coming during the week.

This is my first outing in the world of self-promotion. I found it really hard to create a corporate identity for my art. What I ended up doing is making as list of my favorite artistic subjects and combined them to make a logo. I'm really fond of the detail in the original drawing, but at the same time it seems really complex for a logo. And so I simplified it to a (almost) silhouette. Anyway, I expect to do other things besides monsters in the next couple of weeks so....watch out!

I thought this was insanely clever when I first conceived it. A kid is afraid of a monster under his bed so he gets a bunk bed for Mr. Scary to sleep on. The idea is that the monster you don't see is more frightening than the one you do see. Of course, a T-Rex seen is as terrifying as one not seen. Ultimately this image will be in my senior show and will represent my style and subject matter to potential clients on my promo card.

P.S.- this image might take a while to load.

I whipped this up this morning for my portfolio to be sent to Pixar. That makes me sound like a braggart. Actually this marmoset (or monkey) was created a year ago for a book I was working on about a naturalist who crashes on this Alice in Wonderland type island and documents what he finds. I guess that would make this guy Mr. Caterpillar. I wasn't happy with that design so I took some elements and completely redesigned him. This version drinks the other one's milkshake.

So here's the story with this kid. He thinks he is Napoleon Bonaparte or something resembling him. I'm sure his parents have "encouraged" him to the point where conquest of Europe seems within his chubby grasp. I also thought it would be funny that the figurehead of the Napoleonic Wars (demonstration of Europe's naval power) would be wearing water wings. And a beach towel. Anyway, I might do a few versions of the neutral pose in color and maybe an illustration involving him and a so far unnamed adversary.