The Wrong Color, dummy process

I'm discovering that making a book dummy is mostly about understanding flow. It's a messy process in which clarifying is preferable to rendering. Highs and lows, highs and lows.


page 11 sketch


page 35 sketch

The Wrong Color, dummy inspiration part 2

These images I can credit. The top two are taken from animator Paul Julian's illustrations for Piccolo, a book you will never see face-to-face. Thanks to Lou Romano for posting so many pages on his blog.
At bottom left is Chris Appelhans' "Fantastic Mr. Fox" concept art for the movie adaptation. More of that here.
The bottom right image, titled "Waterfall," is from a portfolio site I obsessively scrutinize, that of Jon Klassen. Don't miss "Adventures of Ship."

The Wrong Color, dummy inspiration

These are images I mostly found by trolling through other people's blogs in preparation for getting into the "book dummy" head space. Animation and storyboarding styles of the 1960s have quickly become favorites for studying issues of dirty vs. clean texture within single images. I pull jpegs so automatically while browsing that I'm afraid I can't credit these.

The Wrong Color, page example

The first developed image for The Wrong Color, a full-color, 40-page picture book I co-wrote with my friend Ronald Donn.



The paranoia of the main character, Warden, is where I get to play, visually building the emotion. I'm using a wide range of media to create the atmosphere: ink, paint, markers, watercolor and digital manipulation. The teal color becomes another character in the book, slowly taking over during the rising action, casting a pallor over house and inhabitants.

Alfred Hitchcock's use of perspective and cropping are a major inspiration for building internal suspense without relying on a literal darkness.

See more ...

illustrations for children here, on flickr, where I'll continue to post new images until the very exciting day when I bother to master html to the level of a 10-year-old.

There's No Picnic without a Pickle – real size 14.25" x 9.5"

It was the perfect day for a picnic.

Molly even planned her own menu: cheese sandwich, boiled egg, chocolate milk, pickle ...

Molly pulled and twisted, but the pickle stayed locked in the jar.

Molly thought about her problem. She knew there was no picnic without a pickle. "Maybe I need
someone better suited to the task," she said.

But more arms wasn't the answer.

"Maybe there's a trick to it," a dizzy Molly said. "I'll look for someone clever to help."

But when she found them, they couldn't agree on anything.

"Maybe I need someone powerful," Molly said.

But the loud roars just hurt her ears.

"Maybe I need someone with more experience, someone older," Molly said.

But it was the wrong kind of experience.

It seemed to Molly that everyone was enjoying picnics without any problems.

But she didn't see any pickles, and she felt sorry for them.

Her stomach rumbled now. But she had one more big idea.

"I'll try anything," she said.

But the pickles didn't respond to magic,

heights,

or music.

They wouldn't even come out for an audience.

Molly pouted.

The pickles floated in the jar.

Her stomach rumbled, longer than before.

"Maybe it's time to go home," she said.

Then she had a new idea, a small idea.

At home, she held the jar up to her mom.

And her mom opened it. Like magic, except magic hadn't worked.

And Molly and her mom

had the perfect picnic.

A closer look:

How This, Why Now

Here I've constructed a chronological chart of influences that perhaps fails to explain the hows and whys of anything.

Welcome to the land bridge.

This blog is intended to [1] serve as a transition between old and new work during the redesign of www.shortdivision.com [2] feature the entirety of "There's No Picnic without a Pickle," a personal book project from 2009.

Feel free to e-mail any interest and/or suggestions. I'm up for conversation.