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!

This Candidate is Such a Loser!

What??!! OH NO!!!

      It's true, this story tells of a disastrous campaign. But despite the all-too popular notion, winning isn't everything. (It's NOT?)
   I was pleasantly surprised to get this boxful of books from Penguin Random House a few days ago. It was just released and available for purchase here.

 

   I had previously illustrated two others books for this publisher, featuring the same characters, for their Step into Reading imprint. 

This book, How NOT to Run for Class President, is for kids who are old enough to vote in their  school elections, and can read paragraphs and simple sentences.  Sentences like: "Don't forget to promise pizza and a movie every  Thursday, " Steve whispered.

   A brief synopsis: 

  Will is reluctantly running for class president against his more qualified classmate Chelsea.  He is unexpectedly embarrassed by the enthusiastic but unsolicited campaign advice of  Steve, his younger brother, who enlists the grass-roots support of his kindergarten friends.  Hijinks and mayhem ensue, pets invade, and ultimately Chelsea wins. Will learns some lessons in the process yet Steve remains irrepressible.

 

  Here are some of my favorites from the 29 illustrations.

cover

 "Why don't you run, Will?"

Chelsea is  running on a platform of reading to the kindergarteners.

Will thinks that's a bad idea.

Professional campaign posters, courtesy of Steve.

  Steve promises: " If you vote for Will, you can bring your pets to school!"

"Stampede!"

Principal Smiley fails at crowd control. Amazingly, nobody gets injured.

  One of Chelsea's most passionate supporters.

Behind the scenes.

Table for Two

Fancy clothes and high class establishments with cheese tables. That's what mice deserve. 

A recently completed spot for a cracker recipe page in High Five magazine. 

 Watercolor, pastel, colored pencil and photoshop. Kelley Cunningham, art director.

Wing It

There are only 18 days until spring, although here in Ohio we don't believe it. There may be some hope after all, as the sun is shining today, and the cats are jockeying for position to claim the one and only sunspot. I really want to believe spring will come, I really do. The baby birds must be chirping somewhere.

  It's always a pleasure to work with Hal Leonard. This art will be used on a cover of a musical for kids. I liked creating the title lettering as well. I find it really satisfying to be able to work on the integration of the type and illustration.  

  I felt like using traditional media: pastels on sanded pastel paper. Photoshop was employed for some touch-up and the placing and dropshadow of the title. 

Aspen Groves

 This last assignment for Ranger Rick was a challenge I heartily accepted and I knew I had to find the time to talk about it, even though blogging seems to have taken a back seat to actually doing the work. A way back seat, like in the old station wagons.  I've been too busy driving and not looking back at where I've been. 
  Aspen groves are a unique ecosystem.  Because of climate change,they are dying from drought, disease and insect attacks in some areas. Read about it here . They are found widely all over the country.  The leaves flutter or "tremble" in the breeze because of their unique structure. (The stems are flat instead of round.) They are a special place where many different kinds of animals  can find food. Hence the writer Ellen Horowitz metaphorically named this 4 page story "Aspen Grove Grocery".
 My first surprise was that I would be merging my art with a photo on the first spread.   I've not attempted that technique with this level of complexity before.  The photo and my sketch:

  My second surprise was that I would be depicting some predators. Maybe it was to much reality for me, so I tried to interject some humor by giving shopping bags to some of the  prey (eco-chic of course). Hey, if they have to run they might as well look good doing it. The signs would accommodate more copy and interesting facts, like "Fresh Veggies": after a wildfire, new shoots and stems quickly sprout and become food for deer, elk, moose and rabbits.

  My first step after sketch approval was to draw each animal that would be tucked into the photo of the grove. Pencils and pastels on mi tientes paper. Later I decided to leave out the mouse in the green tote as I felt there was too much activity on that side of the spread.

 I scanned the art, removed the paper background tone and began the merging in photoshop.

  

  I reduced the bobcat's head from my original drawing and elongated the wolf vertically.   I added graphics on the totes. I added cast shadows.  Before I added the glowing aura around them they were not defined enough from their surroundings, so that turned out to be a good device.

The completed art for the left page.

                                    

  The right page was a continuous piece of traditional media art with a bit of digital modification that enabled me to match the colors in the photo .

The completed spread.

      

                                       

  My sketch for the second spread had to accommodate so much text! I did two rounds of this one. I continued the theme of signage and even came up with some words for the little signs like "Sweet Sap","Juicy Roots" and "Good Wood".

The completed second spread.

 This  one needed to have a much lighter and brighter palette because it was so text heavy.  And it needed to reflect the four seasons.  An interesting fact is that each new tree in a grove grows from the roots of the other aspens, making each young tree an identical twin of the original tree. Another thing I had never heard about is the music. If you put your ear right up to an aspen tree on a windy day you will hear tinkling sounds. It's the fluttering of the leaves traveling all the way down through the tree. 

I wonder if the rabbit hears it too.

                                         

Nutcase

 Illustrations for the May issue of Highlights last year. They've been squirreled away until now for some odd reason. Sometimes  I'm too busy, other times it's just that thing that artists go through.  Letting time pass before looking at the work again.

 The story is about a squirrel who does not like nuts and is quite embarrassed by the fact that he is different.  He attempts to have a big party so that he can give away his huge stash of nuts without revealing his secret. But he is exposed. All ends well when his girlfriend helps him realize that it's ok to like seeds. The art won an "Illustrator of the Month" award.

Baby Ellie

  I had almost forgotten this piece I created for Ranger Rick a few months ago; then the magazine came  and reminded me. Of course, elephants never forget. Or as Dorothy Parker once said, "Women and elephants never forget."
  Baby elephants suck the ends of their trunks in lieu of thumbs.  I wonder what Dorothy would say about that?

Fish at Work

  An eel that lets a cleaner wrasse clean its teeth, a blind pIstol shrimp that teams up with a goby for its "seeing-eye dog" ... I  never realized that fish had these symbiotic interrelationships.   It was great fun creating these characters for Ranger Rick magazine.

These two are an example of Mutualism, when both species involved benefit from the relationship.The wrasse gets its food from the eel's teeth, the goby gets a burrow that the shrimp digs out.

Oh... and see that shrimp's claw? It can paralyze its prey with a supersonic bubble blast that reaches the temperature of the sun. "Really?" you say....Check out this video.

And the dentists of the deep will also gladly service your mouth if you've forgotten to brush and floss before your dive.

A decorator crab uses bits and pieces of shells, plants and debris to disguise itself as a defense against predators. 

             A tilefish builds walls out of staghorn coral.

  A damselfish tends its favorite crop of algae while weeding out the less tasty variety 

and giving the stink eye to a parrotfish. 

 These guys make me feel lazy. Back to work now! 
And good luck to everyone who is bracing against Hurricane Sandy!

Chillin' Moves

  Just completed this illustration for High Five magazine. This was a great visualization to beat the heat. Kelley Cunningham, AD extraordinaire. There are 9 hidden F's in the scene. If you can find them, you win a popsicle and a free dance lesson at Thaw Paw Studios.