Ratty

  For an upcoming  feature on water voles for Ranger Rick magazine,  I was asked to portray "Ratty" or "Rat", one of the characters in The Wind in the Willows.
  I loved that book as a child, and hope to revisit it.
  I looked at many wonderful illustrations, including EH Shepard, Robert Ingpen,  and Inga Moore ( her version is my favorite, although I do not own it; must get).
  Then there is this comprehensive ''best-illustrated'' reference book.
  For those who have not read this classic,  Mole decides go out to the river, and meets Ratty (a water vole), who at this time of year spends all his days in, on and close by the river. Ratty takes Mole for a ride in his rowing boat. They get along well and spend many more days boating, with Ratty teaching Mole the ways of the river.
  Water voles used to be common over all of Great Britain, but  in the 90's began to disappear. People brought American minks to Great Britain to raise them for their fur. Many escaped and were so good at hunting voles for prey, the numbers of voles dropped fast.  More of their habitat was ruined when livestock trampled their banks and ate the plants that the voles needed. Conservation groups are working hard to reestablish their numbers, and hopefully they will not only live on  in the pages of a book!

Look out, Ratty! Rapids ahead!

 I love being able to merge illustration with an actual photo. Great fun!

 Hi; I'm  Ratty, your river guide.

Goodbye, little voles!

New year, new postcards

  It's been a while since I sent out any promo cards.  It's always so hard to decide which images to use. So this time I  guess I let the season and the weather decide. Brutal "polar plunge" temps here in Cleveland, and across much of the country. I wish safety, warmth and cozy dreams for you in the new year.  These brave souls on my cards will be celebrating outside only in the imagination, I'm afraid.
  Oh, except for the penguins. They will be happy.  This one is a work in progress so far... and taken from a riddles piece originally created for Ranger Rick magazine.  We had pancakes this morning, courtesy of Dave. He makes the best pancakes ever.  The key is fruit, walnuts, vanilla, almond extract, cinnamon and a good apron. Flip me one.

postcard in progress

original work

postcard

original version for Hal Leonard

postcard

original for Highlights

... and the winner is...The Girl Squirrel!

 

 Some selections from The Contest.

  I recently had the pleasure of completing illustrations for a 16 page book for Dinardo Design and Heinemann Publishing.  Naturally I was so pleased to have a hand in a book that shows a girl winning. The boys, Chip and Flip, learn in the end that they were outsmarted by a girl whom they had laughed at as not capable, and vow to let Tulip go first the next time they have a contest. I really had fun with the limited palette and expressions in this animal fantasy fiction. I'm hoping to illustrate more girl-centric stories in the future.
  Can you guess how she carried the most nuts?
 

Arf! Arf! Pupperoni and Muttzarella

 

Original art created with pastels, prismacolors and photoshop.

detail

   A piece for a riddles page in Ranger Rick magazine for their May issue.  I really got hungry doing this.  I think Pupperoni and Muttzarella are good names for them, actually. The background is loosely based on our Little Italy here in Cleveland.  Lettering by Jim Paillot.  I'm getting hungry again.  Ciao bella!

NO Peeking... well maybe just at the gift tags.

back

back

 I just finished these new gift tag designs for a holiday promo.  Everyone ends up regrettably using generic tags, or cutting up old ugly greeting cards after  those run out, so giving a gift of artists' gift tags seems like a pretty good idea.  I won't be able to use the back designs this time after all, because I didn't realize at the time the backs cannot be variable. But maybe they will make good fronts too.
 The kids are from a Ranger Rick assignment , and the moon and owl from The Sunrise Band.
 Small ( they will be printed much smaller than shown here), but as they say... good things come that way.
  I'm wishing Peace, a Happy Thanksgiving and a Happy Tofurkey Day to all.

Chaos Revisited

   It's like going back in time! I get to illustrate another reader for Random House featuring this kinder-terrorist and his mortified, long-suffering third grade brother. This was one of two that I illustrated around 8 years ago. They're picking up the crazy thread again. This time around it will be "How NOT to Run for Class President".  Elections are messy things by nature.
 I'm pleased to say the incumbent is a girl and (spoiler alert) wins the election. Of course.
 Here's a sampling of illustrations from the last book. It's available here.

IT'S AN APP!

Click icon on the right to order.

TIred of winter? Giddy at the very thought of spring creeping over your windowsill? Blissed out by the first sounds of birds chirping? Me too. I'm even more excited about celebrating  the arrival of spring with the launch of a new very cute app game, a result of a collaboration with one irrepressible force of nature, Laura Tallardy.

 A professional children's app developer, designer and illustrator, Laura was a pleasure to work with and did all the heavy lifting in getting this project created, tested, and out into the marketplace. I supplied the art for Laura to transform. Lots of photoshopping went into the making of 24 cute and crazy animal scenes. Kids of all ages will be challenged to use their observation skills in finding the differences. It's ideal for kids around 6-8 years.

The app is available for ios, Google, Amazon,Nook, and Nabi platforms and there is a free  ios version available for download here!

It was produced in several languages. Here's a promo for the Finnish version, which makes me smile every time I see the word Kuningaskunta.

A really fun game that also encourages an appreciation of wildlife!

Some more sneak previews of the art:  

                                         

 Art was originally created for Ranger Rick Magazine and is reprinted

with the permission of the National Wildlife Federation.
© dpalen 2014

Check out the video preview:

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Sleepy Bees

 I'm currently working on the cover art for a Highlights Hidden Pictures issue. 

This is the base layer, drawn in pencil. I've started adding color in photoshop.

 Five fish are hiding.

 Color blocked in roughly.

 The final piece. 
 This may be the best cover to date that I've produced for this publication.
 Thanks to the inherent charming nature of bees who do actually curl up to sleep in their flowers.

The Sunrise Band

 I recently had the pleasure of working on a reader for Red Chair Press. The art director and author, Jeff Dinardo, has extremely high standards and wanted a trade look for the books; so I was delighted to be included. The books, "Funny Bone Readers", all have life lessons and this one centered on how to get along despite being total opposites. And, of course, the power of music to connect.
 It's a 24 page book. I took a few other assignments during March and April but mostly worked on this. It will be released some time later this year; and since I have permission to post the illustrations; here is The Sunrise Band. Desert owls are called elf owls and make their homes in cacti. They have no ear tufts, just roundish heads, so she needed some owlish glasses. The lizard is loosely based on a collared lizard. It was fun immersing myself in the desert with these characters for a while. I'll keep you posted on the publication date.

cover