This is part 5 of Creating Characters for a Children’s Book. My homework for today was to begin putting together thumbnails for my interiors.

My thumbnails are coming along nicely. Since this book is 24 pages it will take a little bit of time for me to get through them all. In the meantime I’ve taken another look at the logo and adding the donut. My first attempt looked good but I ran it by Bob the Art Director (super nice guy) and he thought that maybe it should be a little more animated. At first I thought he was crazy but now that I look at it I think he was right. It’s important to keep an open mind when working on a big project.

Even though this is my own project and Bob the Art Director is not a real guy these kind of comments are not uncommon. There are a lot of little tweaks and changes that go on throughout the course of illustrating a book or a series. Sometimes even when you think you’ve nailed it there are still ways to improve. Again, keep and open mind and never , never take it personally.

Attempts #1 and #2

Homework for next time: Continue working on thumbnails. Start thinking about cover ideas.

This is part four in the series Creating Characters for a Children’s Book. In case you missed the other three here’s a quick review. Characters are all approved. Color is complete on two and the third one is underway. Based on the story line I thought it would be cool to add a donut to the logo.

My Homework was to add the donut to the logo. I tried a few variations and I’m not really liking it. It seems to be drawing attention away from the monster a bit which is not cool. I really want the focus to be on Greg and the type, not the donut. I showed my roughs to Bob the Art Director (super nice guy) and he agreed.

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There are a couple of solutions that I think might work. The first one is to take the donut out of the logo and put it into the title of the book. The second, and the solution I like better, is to change the pose of the monster. The front of the book gets Greg in his normal pose and the title page get Greg with a new pose  for this book the donut). The reason I like this idea better is because it will allow me to customize the logo for each book. This will make the logo and Greg the monster more fun and interactive. It will also allow me to have more fun and that’s the best part of all. I’ll run the idea past Bob the Art Director and see what he thinks.

Since I’m almost through with the character creation part of this book I think for the next post we’ll switch over to the actual illustration for the book. Homework for next time. Begin thumbnails for the interiors and cover.

Chicken in color.

This is part three of Creating Characters for a Children’s Book. If you’ve missed parts one and two here’s a quick recap. I’ve been working on the characters for a new children’s book. One of the characters is done, another is in the color stage and one still needs a little bit of work.

Last night I finished up color on the chicken and completed the new model sheet sketches for Carl (the boy). As I was working on the story my alter ego Bob the Art Director (super nice guy) reminded me that Greg (the monster) loves donuts. It’s a pretty big part of the story. Taking another look at the logo I thought it might be a cool idea to get a donut in there somewhere.

So today’s post is going to be short and sweet. Homework for next time: Work a donut into the Greg the Monster logo.

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This is the logo Bob the Art Director (super nice guy) asked for.

Good news readers… my sketches were approved!

If you follow along with my blog you’ll remember in yesterday’s post I showed you the beginning stages of how I create the characters in the children’s books I work on. This is part two of Creating Characters

( In today’s episode I will be playing the parts of both myself and Bob the Art Director).

So I submitted my sketches to Bob the Art Director (super nice guy) and he was kind enough to get back to me right away with comments. Turns out everything looked good and is approved to go to color with the exception of the boy. I noticed the boy (Carl) strayed off model a little bit so I’ll need to rework that one. I was pretty happy with the other characters so I will proceed to color on those.

You’ll notice in Bob the Art Director’s notes (see sketches below for comments) he needed a logo right away. This kind of thing is fairly common. At the beginning and end stages of a picture book there can occasionally be a bit of scrambling around as publishers gather things to help promote the books. In this case it was a logo of the main character done extra quick.

The next step will be to update the model sheet for the Carl and submit the color versions of the other two characters. Once those are done I’ll begin working on a cover and interior sketches. See you then…

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Seth wearing a shirt featuring Junius art by Bob Ostrom Studio

I met Seth way back when he began his first podcast, Jack Wakes Up. Seth was one of the earliest writers to begin pod casting his work on iTunes and I’ve been a fan ever since. Some of you might remember our interview with Seth on Answers for Freelancers back in the early 1950′s. Seth has released a ton of stuff since then and on May 5th Seth will be releasing his latest novel Young Junius as a special edition.

That special edition will feature the art work of none other than Bob Ostrom Studio. What?! ….Yeah, that’s right I said it! Seth’s new book Young Junius will have a special edition release featuring a two sided cover with art by Jerry Scullion and Bob Ostrom Studio. I’m really looking forward to this one and if you’re a Harwood fan you will be too. Here’s what Seth has to say about it:

Cover design by Bob Ostorm Studio

What is it: Tyrus Books and I are printing a limited run of numbered, signed special edition copies of YOUNG JUNIUS for you, the die-hard Palms Family fans. This edition will have special art by my boys Jerry Scullion and Bob Ostrom, photos of some of the book’s locations, special embossed dust-jacket, cover art, all-cloth covers, and much more

If you want to find out more about Seth Harwood and the special edition release of Young Junius or you’d like to help get the word out for Cinco de Junius just follow this link over to Seth’s site and learn how.

Here I am with my canvass. Not quite finished yet but getting there. Rocking the glasses look for this demo.

Had a great time at Jerry’s yesterday. As usual I met a bunch of great folks and had a lot of fun painting. The theme for the day was Bats so I chose to paint one of my favorite super heroes.

I was using the Matisse Primary set of acrylic paints. I’d never used this brand before but they were great. I really enjoyed working with them and would definitely use them again.

I’ll be down at Jerry’s again for my cartooning class April 14th from 4 – 6pm. If you are interested please contact the Raleigh store for more info.

Tonight’s theme: Fish.

Enjoy…..

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One of the characters in the books, Zuhma Talmadge, is the editor of the local paper in Shady Pines. This is a fun little interview Mary Jane and I did with editor Zulah Talmadge…

Author, Mary Jane Mckittrick and illustrator, Bob Ostrom about the latest offering from the Boomer and Halley^© project. A series of Little Lessons. Big Results.™ stories for children 4-8 and the adults who love them.

Zulah: Mary Jane, how did you come up with the idea for the “Boomer and Halley – Election Day” book?

Author Creator Mary Jane McKittrick

Mary Jane: During a phone conversation with Bob.

Bob: Yeah. We were talking about the craziness in politics and I said, “We’ve got to have an election in Shady Pines.”

Mary Jane: The challenge was to include lasting values, like we do in all Boomer and Halley stories, and make that work in a book about politics.

Zulah: Especially politics in a small town.

Illustrator Bob Ostrom

Bob: This is why I really like this project. We take topics that people are talking about and make it possible for adults to talk to kids about them in a different way.

Zulah: So true. A book about an election that includes lessons about honesty and forgiveness is a neat trick.
Let’s take a short break. We’ll be back in a moment.

You can find the original post here: http://blog.boomerandhalley.com/

You may have heard me talk with Tara on the podcast  Creative Independence (episode 202). She is a wealth of knowledge and information. If you are not following her on twitter or her blog check her out. You’ll be happy you did. Here are just a couple of the many places you can find her:

@ArtistTaraReed
Art Licensing Blog

Her interview with Daniel Tardent is here on  Tara’s Website. To listen to the recorded interview make sure you sign up for the free audio replay.

If you are even the least bit confused about SEO this interview will help straighten things out for you. Daniel puts things in simple to understand terms that any artist can appreciate and learn from. Listening to Daniel speak about SEO really helped clear up a few things for me and I’ll bet it will do the same for you.