The finished painting.  That's me, basically, as the Fedup delivery man in the foreground.

This is, once again, from my new book Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem, written by Mac Barnett, available next month.

If They'd Gotten Two Whales There Would've Been Free Shipping.

A sketch from Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem by Mac Barnett, available next month.

Nick Cave

Every now and then I try my hand at caricature, usually just while sketching in front of the television. I don't have any particular gift for it, and I really admire those who do it well.

Tonight I was watching some Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds videos with my wife, and suddenly got the urge:

These don't usually work out this well on the first try. Then again, Cave's face is a bit easier than most. I might as well be bragging at having drawn Groucho Marx.

Here's the finished painting of that sketch I showed last week from my next picture book, Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem, written by Mac Barnett.  You'll notice this image has a much wider composition–between the sketch dummy stage and the final painted stage the book got lengthened and rearranged somewhat, and this illustration needed to turn into a two-page spread.

For the illustrators out there, this was painted in Photoshop with a Wacom Intuos tablet.

Another Billy Twitters Preview

Preliminary sketch from Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem, by Mac Barnett, in stores this June.  I'll show the finished painting soon.

Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem

Previously, I've shared a little bit of my forthcoming picture book, Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem (written by Mac Barnett).  In the coming weeks I'm going to be showing a lot more, starting with this post.  First off, the cover again, this time with type in place:

Regular readers of this blog, and people who have seen me speak, already know that I like to use as much reference as possible for my illustrations, from photographs to...models:

Turns out it's really difficult to find good pictures of blue whales.  I guess they're to big to photograph.  There are a lot of good illustrations of them out there, and those were helpful, but what really helped me on this book was a nine-inch-long plastic blue whale toy.  I think you'll understand why when you see more illustrations from the book.

And, as I often do, I sculpted a little model of the titular character, Billy.  He's made out of Sculpey and painted with acrylics.

More soon.

SMEKDAY NOW IN PAPERBACK

The day you probably haven't been especially waiting for has now arrived: The True Meaning of Smekday is now available in paperback. 

AND!  

It contains a two-page, NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN story in the back.  Now it can be told.  The tale of how J.Lo revealed his alien identity to the world.

I don't want to say too much more about it at this point, except that it contains the following image:

That's all for now.