Variation on a sketch

Just a variation on yesterday's sketch - the little guy's looking more skyward now, into the future (which is full of possibilities!).

Another sketch...

Here's another sketch for the Illustrators Workshop - I've combined aspects from a couple of earlier sketches...

Southern Breeze Illustrators Workshop sketches

These are some of the concept sketches I've created for the Southern Breeze Illustrators Workshop based on the theme "It's All About YOU!" My concept is a kind of metaphorical self-portrait idea: I've really been feeling lately that my experience of pursuing a career as an illustrator is like an epic quest. I'm on this journey, and I'm carrying with me the "tools of the trade" and the artistic and literary influences that have made such an impact on me.

Busy, busy, busy...

Good grief! There's so much going on right now, and I haven't had a solid block of time to comment on any of it lately here on the ol' blog. So here's quick look at the latest:

• I've been painting steadily on my Jeremy Thatcher mock book cover. There's a lot going on in the composition, and it'll take some time to finish. Plus, I'm really attached to the piece, so I want to do the best I can!
• I've started working on my ideas for the Southern Breeze Illustrators Workshop piece based on the workshop theme, "It's All About YOU!". The experience so far has been great - challenging, but great. The first 25 of us to sign up for the workshop were given the opportunity to have one-on-one consultation with illustrator Mark Braught throughout the process of creating the illustration. Read more about the workshop here.
• And finally, last weekend was the Decatur Book Festival - holy cow, what an event!!! Lots more to report about that when I've got more time.

Hope this is just enough to keep ya satisfied till I can give more details!

Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher

My absolute favorite kids' book of all time is Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by the incredibly talented Bruce Coville. If you've never read it before, I highly recommend that you take some time and read this great story. I love it for several reasons: the creative storyline and general concept, of course; the fantasy element; the illustrations; and the personal connection I have with the main character (a boy named Jeremy who loves to draw).

There have been several cover designs created for the book since its first publication in 1991 (I was 10 years old then!). This is the original I remember buying at a Scholastic book fair...


Then there's Tony Diterlizzi's interpretation (and a very good one, I have to say)...


So when I was trying to decide on my next illustration project, I figured what better to do than to create my own jacket cover design. I can definitely say I've been really happy working on ideas for this one. This book has a special place in my life, and I really wanna do it justice! Here's the basic inked design...

Jeremy's there in the middle holding the dragon egg. Hyacinth Priest is shelving books on the left, and on the right, Mr. Elives is looking down from behind the counter in his magic shop. Tiamat soars overhead by moonlight. Stay tuned for the final painting in color!

So what is the little guy anyway?

I've finished a new piece featuring the little critter from my PJ series! So what is he exactly? I'm not sure yet what to call him, or what his "species" is either, but here's a view of him finally from the front! Inspiration came from several places - squirrels, kangaroo rats, cats, and my dog Basil.

PJ and the little critter find the cave...

I've finally finished the second painting in my "PJ" series!!!

In the end, I reworked PJ's posture and clothes a bit, as well as some of the cave's positioning in the foreground, but I really like where the piece has come since its early sketch stages.

As I was thinking about the idea for this piece, I kept coming back to a concept that there's a constant going into or coming out of a tunnel/passage leading from one world to another - basically the gateway to and from the supernatural. In the first painting, the little critter (I'll eventually give him a name and figure out just what he is exactly) is venturing out of his realm through the log into PJ's world. Now we've got the reverse - the little critter has convinced PJ to come into the supernatural world through this mysterious cave.


I'm definitely not finished with the story I'm developing with PJ. I've already got ideas of what it might possibly look like when we finally get to the other side of the tunnel and see the little critter's world. I'm thinking of creating a third piece for the ol' portfolio, but I'm hooked on where this story is going, so I'd love to crank out several more paintings... maybe even write out the entire epic saga!

PJ's story continues...

So I'm working on filling out my portfolio, trying to fill in some gaps and get things ready to show to publishers, and particularly to show at the SCBWI Southern Breeze Illustrators Workshop coming up in October.

I really liked how my Illustration Contest entry came out (check it out in an earlier blog post), so I decided to continue building on the concept with another piece. In this scene, we'll see that PJ and the little furry critter have made friends, and the little guy has convinced PJ to help him on an adventure. Their quest is going to lead them first to a mysterious cave, and then into the cave and beyond.

Here's the initial sketch:


This is the final drawing on acrylic paper and the background inspiration image from an old copy of America - Land of Beauty and Splendor (Reader's Digest):


Stay tuned to see the final painting!

Torch

Way back when I was about 12 or 13 years old, I sat down with paper and pencil and created a little green dragon I named Torch. In the original drawing, I used a set of really cool markers I got as a gift to add color. I've kept the sketch all these years (it's now 15 years old - if you look in the lower right corner, you'll see my initials and the date). Torch quickly became my favorite character, sort of like Mickey was to Walt Disney. I drew him over and over, putting him in all kinds of situations. I also ended up putting a lot of myself into his personality.

Then I went several years without drawing him, and I have to admit, I truly missed the little guy. So I decided to break out my brushes and acrylics this week and spend some time bringing Torch to life again. I really enjoyed working on this project; it was like getting to hang out with a good friend you haven't seen in a long time.

plan on doing a series of illustrations with Torch, so check back for more of this little guy!

New Deviant Art Webpage

So my bud Trey finally got me hooked up with a new webpage through a site called Deviant Art. It's another great tool to promote your art on the web. Trey's had a page there for years and has been encouraging me to get on board. Now that I am, I'll be posting my illustration work there along with some of my other artwork outside of illustration. Take a minute and check out both our pages!

http://jeremydevans81.deviantart.com/ Jeremy's page

http://corumdeo3.deviantart.com/ Trey's page

Thanks Trey!!!