Back to the Little Black Ant book...

Yesterday I showed you a preview of the yoga book I am illustrating in my whimsical style (see the post directly under this one). Tonite I am up late because now I have to switch gears and work on all 14 of the interior pencil studies for "Little Black Ant at Park Street" in what I call my 'soft realistic' style. They are all double page spreads. This is to meet a deadlne a couple of weeks away. Such a challenge it is to work on 2 books at once, especially such different subject matter. I am not complaining, though. Everyone I am working with has been so supportive and encouraging. And I am so happy and honored to have these books assigned to me!

Anyhoo - I wanted to share with you the pencil study I did for the cover illustration a couple of months back....I know I am always interested to see how other illustrators work. So here it is. Doing this helps to establish the values and overall balance of the painting for me, and helps to communicate to the publisher what to expect in the final painting.


And here is a photo of the finished painting before I sent it off to the publisher, Soundprints. I actually had to photograph it in 2 sections and Photoshop them together because the painting was over 2 feet long. But I thought you would want to see it.


And, finally, here is the finished cover after Soundprints scanned it and plopped in all of the good stuff. Ta-da! Cool, huh? It is such an amazing process....hours and hours of plotting and planning and sweating and bleeding. And in the end, you have the finished product. And hopefully - what we illustrators all wish for - it will become a child's favorite book!