Playing with color on Sully P. Snooferpoot again.

This is my version of messing with color. This illo has already been axed from the second book, so I thought I would use it to experiment with color a little. I did the one on the left first, then the one on the right and lastly the one in the middle. I love the black and white look in general in my books. For whatever reason, I concentrate better on the art in books that are black and white. Maybe that is because so few are. However, after doing this today, I kind of like the idea of using color to accent a few minor spots on each black and white piece. Hmmm. 

One of My Fam's Favorite Illustrations from The Book.

This was one of my wife and kids' favorite designs from the picture book. What do you think. This is when Sully daydreams about being an elementary school star.

This Drawing of Sully's Mom Just Got Axed from Sully's Second Book

I thought this was an ok sketch of Sully's mom. My daughter especially liked her hair. Weird. But she got axed as a character because my wife said she really  complicated the story. After my wife's feedback, I am axing several minor characters in order to make sure the focus stays on the main 2 characters in the next book. At first my wife wanted me to completely rewrite the whole point of book two, but I couldn't do that. Thus after much discussion, we think we have a solution to keep my central plot line, and make that the focus (my wife wanted a completely different focus).  That is a hard one when your wife is your line editor and she tells you to completely change the point of the book. Luckily, she came around to understanding what I was trying to do, and we found a better way to show it in the book. Hard to know whether to trust yourself or your wife/editor!!!  

This was Beatrice's Shadow I Drew for Her

This was in the first Snooferpoot picture book when the first girl (with pencils in her nose got to choose her shadow). Again, simple, but fun to draw! 

The Ugly Kid My Kids Don't Want in Snooferpoot's Second Book!

Usually, I love my ugly people drawings. But, this one is so ugly, I can not. Of course he is supposed to be ugly. However, I worry he may even be too ugly. He might scare off picture book readers. He is one of the "scary" kids at Sully's school. This kid is one of the reasons Sully is anxious about going to school in book 2. 

My Drawing of a Crazy Girl from Snooferpoot's school

Her name is Beatrice Flemming. Her hobby is seeing how many pencils she can get up her nose. She was just crazy enough to be my 10 year old Daughter's favorite supporting character in Sully Snooferpoot's first book. Hope you like!

My Drawing of Bad Breath Ben's New Shadow

In my story, a new invention allows the kids to get new shadows. This is Bad breath Ben's. I had a great time drawing this one. I think I like this shadow the best. Though, this was the least favorite shadow according to my own 6 kids!  On a side note, this was a scanned copy of the drawing. It totally got rid of the details, but hid the mistakes. Hmmm. What is the lesser of two evils?  

What I Learned about My Art from the Bob Dylan Picture Book!

Sitting in the library today with two of my boys at Pokemon club (awesome!) and saw this one on the shelf. What a fun biographical picture book!  It is pretty much the Bob Dylan story as told through his lyrics. I learn so much every time I pic up someone's book!  It is funny.  I was raised in an environment where your art was perfect realism, or it wasn't "good" art. How sad!  Everytime I pic up a picture book I realize how wonderful non-realism is. In my own work, I constantly have to fight the "realism is the only good art" demon. I haven't done art my whole life because I thought it had to be a perfect representation of the real world. Then I discovered picture books. What a reawakening to the art world! Loved the art in this one. The colors are cool and really help you feel the time period. And, I loved that at the end of the book you get a hyper-focused explanation of each illustration which sheds so much light on the artistic decisions, and Dylan's life. Soooo cool!

This is my drawing of Bad Breath Ben from my first children's picture book!

It is always hard to say when doing an illustration if you are taking "crazy" too far.  I personally prefer a little darker look to my children's stories. As a kid I was always creeped out and in love with morbid things. I was no goth as a teenager, but I definitely could not wait to make my own Adam's family mansion to weird people out:) I still debate if color would take too much of the darkness out of my drawings. 

This was the first drawing I did on my first book that I actually liked!

When I started doing a picture book, I did not think that I had good enough art skills! ( I still question that in fact). But, then I did this illustration and something about it just made me smile. I thought my kids would think it was funny (I have 6:). And, they did. Then I began to think, I might could do this?  It was a fun experience to have imagined something from my own head and to have people like it. Up until then, I had only tried to replicate other people's art with below average results. 

Here is My Final Ink for My Attempt at a Girl With a BB Gun Illustration for My Next Book!

I find it fun that when I start to draw one thing, and it turns into something I like better!  This started out way to comic book-like, but ended up just geeky and strange enough for the Snooferpoot world:)

Here is What I Drew at the Dr.'s Office Today

I got no where today!  I totally thought I would be able to get some art done while I waited for the doc, but they were so on time!  Guess I'll have to get back in the saddle tomorrow!  Today is the last day with my parents in town. So, the grand kids will have one more fun day with the grandparents and dad!  Iron Man 3 (Redbox) here we come:)

A pic from the next book!

Here is half of a pic I have been working on for the next book. We will have to see if I move it into color or next. It is interesting how art is such an exploratory process. I set out to draw one character, and something else entirely forms. What fun!

How To Color Sully

My wife told me I simply must make Sully be in color. She thinks kids like color better. I have come to quite like the black and white of the first book. Anyway, above is the latest color tests as to which one we liked the best. Funny enough, everyone picked the exact same one. They all liked the little guy in the middle with bold black ink outlines. I am glad, as this is the easiest to color!

This Was The Original Cover Art for The First Snooferpoot Book!

Even though I thought this showed that it was no ordinary Shadow we were talking about, I thought it looked too much like Sully was terrified of his shadow. That was not at all the point, so ultimately, I threw it out. Not crazy about the current one either as found here on Amazon.

This Ended Up Being The Cover Art for The First Snooferpoot Picturebook.

Still not sure I love it. I think it does a nice job of showing that Sully is good and kind. And it is super simple which I actually love in picturebooks.  My idea was to show that side of Sully and not give away the plot of the book. However, in not giving away the plot, the book looked boring. Can you tell, I am still not sure it is the right cover?  Here is the book on Amazon as it now stands.