The art for PATCH shipped today.  Here’s a small sample of what’s in the box -

This is the project I wrote about earlier this week– the one I started over after painting the whole book last week.   Boy, am I glad I repainted it.  Much better.

Now it’s heading to New York-

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PATCH by David Slonim                                                                                                                     To be published by Roaring Brook Press (MacMillan), 2013.

Just in time for Christmas and Hanukkah…I have a limited supply of my books available here at the studio.  If you’d like to order, please send me a note using the contact page.

(Sales tax will be added for Indiana residents). 

He Came With the Couch  $15.99  |  $17.11 with sales tax

Oh Ducky!  A Chocolate Calamity  (paperback only)  $6.95  |  $7.44  with sales tax

Moishe’s Miracle (paperback only)  $6.95  |  $7.44 with 7% IN sales tax

You Think It’s Easy Being The Tooth Fairy? (hardcover) $15.99  |  $17.11 with 7% IN sales tax

(paperback)  $6.95  |  $7.44 with 7% IN sales tax

Ten Turkeys in the Road  $16.99  |  $18.18 with 7% IN sales tax

Bed Hog  $12.99  |  $13.90 with 7% IN sales tax

Silly Tilly, by Eileen Spinelli

Here’s the pencil rough for this illustration:

I know — how can one image so profoundly capture the human condition on so many levels? Isn’t it true that most of us feel like a chef sprinting through an alley, swinging an iron pan at a bad dog?  I know I do.

I found this today as I was cleaning my studio closet.    Created back around 1998 for Pocketbooks, I think,  it still makes me smile.

Here’s a preview of artwork for TEN TURKEYS IN THE ROAD by Brenda Reeves Sturgis (coming out Fall 2011).  I just received these from the publisher and wanted to share them because they make me smile.   I had a great time painting this book.  All images are acrylic on illustration board.   Click on an image to see it larger.

Acrylic and charcoal on board

Here’s the finished cover art for A DOG’S LIFE, shipped yesterday to Roaring Brook Press / Macmillan in NY.   The editor and art director chose this from about six or seven sketches.  Here are a few -

charcoal on copy paper

charcoal on copy paper

Sharpie pen and pencil

pencil on copy paper

Whenever I speak to kids I always stress that a professional artist doesn’t sit down and bang out a nice image in one shot.    Time and effort are  invested in trying several ideas, then choosing the best.    The teachers always nod vigorously.     Most kids would rather be a snowman in a sauna than revise.

Real writers revise.  Real artists erase.    Professional artists and writers spend most of their time on stuff nobody will ever see.  “So kids”, I tell them, “don’t be discouraged if you don’t get it right on your first try.   Neither do I.”

charcoal on copy paper

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If you’d like to schedule a talk at your school, please contact me at david@davidslonim.com.