Very sad news

My beautiful, beautiful little Emma died on June 14, 2010. She had kidney failure and was on IV fluids at home for the last month. Emma was the model for Arnie in Mister Got to Go and Arnie. She was 13 years old.

She was an elegant, polite, and loving dog. Always gentle. When she could still hear, she was an excellent guard dog. She liked to chase squirrels and play with her toys. I took her to work every day for the 8 years I worked at the Botanical Gardens.

I am heartbroken to lose my loving companion.

Moon cover

Just checked out the catalogue on the Simply Read website and was delighted to see the cover Elisa Gutierrez has designed using my art. I was very inspired by early thirties Buck Rogers comics and toys and I am really pleased to see she picked up on that with the font she chose and kapow-shaped decal. The catalogue says the book is due out in October.

Somebody Cared for a Flower

Just finished illustrating a 12-page early reader for Scholastic Education called Somebody Cared for a Flower by Laura Peetoom. It is a really well-crafted story told in very simple words about the gradual transformation of a drab vacant lot to a beautiful community garden.

Fortunately I'd been a volunteer in the Blooming Boulevards community garden project in the Dickens Community and had also worked for eight years at the UBC Botanical Gardens so knew a little bit about that process and the kinds of plants you might see in a community plot.

This was a work-for-hire project which means you are paid a flat fee instead receiving an advance against sales followed by royalties if you earn out your advance. It's a good way of earning a fast chunk of money if you can work within the the tight schedule. It's the 2nd reader I've done for Scholastic.

I haven't heard yet when they expect the book to come out but it will only be offered to schools in packs of six for the classroom.

I want to go to the Moon!

I Want to Go to the Moon is a picture book based on a delightful song by singer/songwriter Tom Saunders. I met Tom at the Vancouver Ukulele Circle and instantly became a big fan of his performances. Later, I discovered that he cowrote all the theme music for the television series, Robson Arms. When Tom gave me a CD of children's music that he recorded I couldn't believe my ears. This was tiptop Canadian children's music. I asked him if I could do some sketches and pitch one of the songs as the basis for a picture book. Simply Read agreed to publish it. The art has just been completed and sent off to be scanned and designed by genius designer and illustrator Elisa Gutierrez. It's due out September 11, 2010. The cover on Amazon was the first one I did before I'd done the illustrations. The art above is a 2nd cover Elisa asked me to do to be more consistent with the finished interior art.

Honey Cake video

Honey Cake has been shortlisted for the Red Cedar award, so I made a video about how I did the illustrations.

Turning pencil drawings to "ink" in photoshop

Ink line with watercolour wash is a common medium in illustration. In the case of a picture book it can be a little daunting to ink 30 pages of illustrations, especially if you're intimidated by India ink's permanence and potential for accidents. One way to overcome this is to scan your final pencil drawing, open it in photoshop and use the levels function to darken your line. You can print the darkened and cleaned-up drawing directly onto 90 lb watercolour paper. Some printers, particularly HP, allow you to choose the paper you're printing onto. 140 lb paper is too heavy, but for 90 lb watercolour paper, choose control/command P > print > layout > paper type/quality > plain paper > greeting card > HP textured greeting card paper. If your paper has a fine deckle edge, position the paper to feed deckle first. You can then paint directly onto this "ink" illustration. You will get some bleed of the black line, but I've found it isn't too bad and a small price to pay when I have 30 pages to ink. the following is a pictorial demo of how to clean up and darken a pencil line so that it looks like an inked line. The demo concludes with the final watercolour for the cover of I Want to Go to the Moon by Tom Saunders (Simply Read, 2010) . The black line was printed on 90 lb cold press Winsor Newton paper using my HP 1220 injet printer. (And don't forget, if you're looking for a classic sepia ink look, it is easy to adjust the colour of the line using Command/control B for colour balance and Control/command U for saturation and light/dark adjustment before printing.) The drawing used for the final art is a more developed version than the one I used for the first part of the demo. I used the blueline technique to arrive at the final drawing. Click on the link for the blueline tutorial.

Fred and Pete on the North Shore

The Children's Writers and Illustrators of BC are having a party to showcase its members' new books and you're invited! It's called the Fall Book Harvest. I'll be there with Fred and Pete at the Beach. Click on the image for details.