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.

Silly Tilly, by Eileen Spinelli

Here’s the pencil rough for this illustration:

From You Think It’s Easy Being the Tooth Fairy? by Sheri Bell Rehwoldt, Chronicle Books, 2007.

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.

Art for “A DOG’S LIFE” is finished, shipping to Roaring Brook Press on Monday.

It’s a whimsical look at all things canine- behavior, breeds, hearing, smell, history…

Why dog’s roll in smelly stuff…

prehistoric ancestry of common breeds…

how humans and dogs relate to each other…

Final art is the end result of a long process of sketching, trying out ideas, choosing the best, refining them and finally painting them.

Now – on to the next project!