INITIAL CHARACTER SKETCHES:
Cleo
Isis
Tom
BOOK 1:
Isis and Tom wearing 'BIG BUM' advertising sashes (teehee)
Cleo being bad-ass
When I designed the first three covers originally, Isis was in it. However the publisher informed us after the first two had been coloured up that the marketing/sales department thought having a girl on the cover would put boys off. Removing her was a shame as, in my opinion, having Isis in it balanced the composition really well - plus she was an important part of the story! Still, I'm learning that what I think is best in terms of the artwork isn't always best in terms of 'the whole picture' ;)
This third cover was coloured up by my lovely studio colleague Ailin, and then finished up slightly by me. The deadlines for the covers, collector cards and insides were too tight for me to handle all of it myself. Therefore some of the covers for these books were done by me alone (books 1,2,5 and 11) although I was a helped out at colour stage. Similarly for pencils, I was helped out at the 'pencil rough' stage for a few of the books. It's just what happens when you're busy with lots of projects and trying to create a children's book series on a schedule - I'm lucky to be part of a studio at times like that. I really think all the combined effort had a massively successful result- an entertaining series of books that educate kids about important moments in history!
Thanks again to Dynamo for being an awesome studio!
BOOK 2:
Roughs by the lovely David Neal, neatened up by moi:
BOOK 3:
Roughs by super-sweet Steve Sims
my inks/finals:
And just a quick few pics from books 4:
5:
6:
