★ A Kirkus Starred Review for UNIVERSE!

I’m over the moon! Yes, it’s still about three months until THE DAY THE UNIVERSE EXPLODED MY HEAD blasts off into bookstores, but author Allan Wolf and I got some great news this week—Kirkus gave it a starred review! You can read the full piece here, but this quote sums it up:

“A giddy ride through our stellar neighborhood and beyond.”

This book is a boisterous collection of hilarious yet factual poems by Allan, complete with notes, a glossary, and resources for further study in the back—perfect for any future astronauts you may know. THE DAY THE UNIVERSE EXPLODED MY HEAD releases on March 5, 2019, but if you’d like to pre-order a copy, click here.

All 56 pages were a pleasure to illustrate, and I thank my lucky stars that the people at Candlewick sent it my way. Art Director Lisa Rudden and Editor Katie Cunningham did a stellar job. But before I scare you away with further space analogies, I thought I’d share a bit about my process creating the cover art.

This may be my favorite jacket that I’ve illustrated so far, perhaps because it required so much of both my design and illustration backgrounds. When discussing possible cover options, Lisa and I immediately realized how the length of the title might create problems. There was really no way to design a successful jacket without making the title the main component. So I started with a bunch of thumbnail sketches, to see how I could logically break up the title, combining lettering with illustrated elements that doubled as letterforms. Here are a few behind the scenes shots…

And here is the final jacket art, front and back…

And it’s always a pleasure to get the chance to create a separate image for the case cover under the jacket. Drumroll, please…

I think a lot of illustrators and artists would agree that it’s not often that the vision you have in your head becomes a reality on paper. This might be the first time that from beginning to end, a book turned out as I’d hoped. For a little more on my process for THE DAY THE UNIVERSE EXPLODED MY HEAD, click here. And for a few sneak peeks at some interior art, click here.

Thanks for reading! For more news and other stuff, watch this space! 🚀

Behind the Scenes: Time-Lapsed Process

For the past several months, I've been experimenting on the iPad with the Apple Pencil. While it has sped up my sketch process considerably, I'm still trying to figure out how and if I'll use it for final art. That decision is far down the road, but in the meantime, I'm having a great time exploring applications like Adobe Photoshop Sketch and Procreate as I consider ways to recreate the look of my analog illustration digitally. One of the really fun features I recently discovered was the Timelapse function. The iPad actually "records" your entire drawing session of a document.

This is most entertaining to me—seeing my illustration choices sped up in video form. For instance, in the image called, Flying Machines, you'll see my first thought was to draw an ice cream cone on wheels. I guess I didn't like that, so I switched to helicopter-like contraptions, flown by animals.

Flying Machines Timelapse Drawing

Here's one called Roller Skates where I was trying to make choices about the background. Yes? No? I settle for mostly no.

Roller Skates Timelapse Drawing

I'm also wondering about the story-telling possibilities with Timelapse. While it would be complicated to incorporate, I think with a little planning, there are possibilities. As quick examples, here's a drawing I made called Cat in the Woods. It takes on a short narrative as you see the footprints appear and the cat's eye direction change at the very end. (I know, you have to squint to see it.)

Cat in the Woods Timelapse Drawing

With my Teacher Appreciation Day illustration, I must've I wanted to draw a dog exercising at first, but quickly changed my mind to an image related to the final piece. But because I'm using the same dog character, it seems at the beginning like we've gotten a peek into her personal life—first with an exercise coach, maybe before she goes to her job at school where she is then greeted by the cat student with the fork. It sure did take me a few tries to get that fork right!

Teacher Appreciation Day Timelapse Drawing

At any rate, it's interesting to see the decisions I was making in process: things I test out, then  eliminate, and also elements that I obviously have to draw over and over, until I get the look I want. So there you have it—the ugly underbelly of my current iPad drawing process.

A few of these images are available for purchase as prints in my shop. Just click here to see the whole assortment, and a slew of other products featuring my art. Thanks for reading!