Archive for the ‘children’s book’ Category

Book cover character illustrations

I recently had a great opportunity to work with Scholastic on a really fun book cover job. It was for a sweet chapter book series, featuring a little girl with some big personality! So I was able to jump into some character development; Here’s some of the sketches and the color piece I submitted for final.

First character sketches

Rough sketches in layout

Revised character sketches with rough color

Final art

Unfortunately, they ultimately decided on a different look for the series, so my art was killed. But I really loved exploring this character, so I’m hoping to work on more projects like this! Thanks to the Art Director, Natalie, for thinking of me for this one!

Children’s book illustration samples

I often have aspiring children’s book authors ask me to do sample illustrations that they can submit with their manuscripts. I’ve learned, though, that in many cases first-time authors don’t really understand the process of getting a book published, and so I don’t typically jump at these opportunities.

 

I’ve learned through my years in a children’s publishing house that publishers prefer to pair the manuscripts they acquire with their own vision for art style so almost never will take in art submitted with a proposal. Therefore, unless it’s a well-known author or a big budget is offered—these kinds of projects can be a lot of work with no real benefit for an illustrator.

 

But, I recently had a woman approach me with a book idea so fun & unique & fantastic…it really spoke to me, and she had a good understanding of the process and realistic expectations for her budget—so I took it on and created a few tight sketches and one finished piece to accompany her proposals. I can’t divulge too many details, but I love her character and her story—I had a blast creating these and she didn’t mind if I share.

 

These are 2 of the sketches; I inked the one she liked best, and the other I would love to revisit for a personal piece at some point.

 

 

 

Here’s the piece I did as a final; the story lends itself to a limited palette-so this was kind of a fun and different way for me to work…has a bit of a looser, more washy-feel to it.

 

 

I don’t expect much more to happen with these-though she did say her literary agent recognized and really liked my work. So we’ll see! :)

All artwork copyrighted. Please do not use without permission