Tuesday, February 21, 2012

thar she blows


I am feverishly fussing over the last touches on my illustrations for Here Come the Humpbacks by April Pulley Sayre. Above is a detail, since the art's all too large for my scanner. Here's a humpback spouting, just as I've been blowing blue dust all over my studio for weeks (cough, cough..)

Ahoy, thar be a whale in Casco Bay this morning?


Oh, what fun!


I just came across a very life-like toy by Schleich that I had to play with. If only I'd had this at the beginning of this project! 

Here's another detail in which I got to draw other sea creatures, a welcome diversion from the whale focus. I took out several books on jellyfish, and have fallen in love with drawing them. And turtles, too!


A loggerhead makes an appearance in this spread from my newest book,  A Warmer World by Caroline Arnold.

 
For that book, I drew lots of polar bears.


It was this time last year I was looking for reference on a trip to Boston, specifically at the aquarium, for this spread about penguins.


Yes, there's always blue dust in the air around here.

The distant factory in this image is from an old snapshot of the Boston Edison plant. It seemed to provide the right contrast for this page.


We'll head to Boston later this week, and I will deliver my final art to Charlesbridge. Hooray!

Just a little more fussing, and blowing of pastel first.

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