Work in Progress: the Evil Queen

This one ties together the other two work-in-progress sketches. You guessed it, Snow White. Although anyone who's gone through this blog knows I don't need much incentive to do fairy tale art, the TV show Once Upon A Time inspired this one. Her outfit is an homage to the one on the show.

If you're into the fairy tale thing, I recommend the show. Highly. Really a lot of fun.

It appears to be Snow White's time to shine - there are two movies based on her coming out in the not-too-distant future. Mirror, Mirror looks pretty fluffy, but Snow White and the Huntsman is one I'll be at opening night given the chance. Now there's a villain who deserves the evil in her title. In the trailer, the Evil Queen is not just bad, she's Sauron! Gotta see that one.

Making Glad the Heart of a Small Child

This is for my 4-year-old daughter, whose favorite book is Trina Schart Hyman's Saint George and the Dragon. And those who know me know I couldn't be happier about it – get the young dragonslayer started early. Besides, it's a great book with great art.

Anyway, the only downside is the book is a little long for a single night's reading (unless she starts going to bed waaaay early. Hold on a second, that doesn't sound so bad! Let me enjoy that thought for a moment... wait, where was I?). So she asked me to make her a knight bookmark. This is my rough sketch, but a tight one, so I printed these out for her so she could color it herself. And also for her brother and sister, because I know if I come home with one thing for one kid... well, those of you with children know where that one's going.

Finally, More Frog Prince

Been away from this one too long, but that's what major home renovation will do to you.

Page 15 was a collaborative effort with my wife. She liked the drawing, but the expression on the princess' face just didn't say "Ew, yucky" to her. I thought about changing the expression by adding eyebrows, but it just didn't work. Then we came up with just changing the shape of the whites of her eyes, which is such a fun solution I may revisit some of the older ones to see if it would apply to any of them.

Hansel and Gretel - in process

I needed to get a new post put up – while I like my Santa image, in our house the Christmas decorations come down the day after the holiday, so it is way past time to put up something else.

While I don't have anything finished yet, I have been toying with illustrating Hansel and Gretel for a while. Not for any particular reason, it's just that the story conjures up a lot of imagery for me. And while randomly doodling (you can see it's on notebook paper) I came up with this drawing – Hansel and Gretel coming across the very stuffed and happy bird that ate up all their bread crumbs. The finished piece will be titled "Sorry, Were Those Yours?"

More on this to come, as I take it to a tight sketch and then a finished painting.

Interlude: Barbarian Squirrels Astride Battle Penguins

Last night my wife had a nightmare about penguins, yes, penguins getting into the trash cans. They were aided and abetted by squirrels, and before long the whole mob had gotten into the house.

Being the loving husband that I am, I naturally visualized it for her. I will no doubt receive vast praise for bringing nightmares to life.

As soon as I'm finished with the alphabet book, you'll be seeing this one in color.

Arianna's Alphabet Book: rough sketches

Here are a few examples of the sketches I have so far for the next alphabet book. Most are pretty simple, since I have so many to do. Here's the one for G: "Got it!" she called gleefully.
Although on occasion I got totally carried away, as in S: Soon they came to a stairway.