Growing up isn’t easy. Especially when you’ve just moved to a new school and you have no friends! Nerdy Birdy follows the adventures of CJ, an introverted eleven year old, as she attempts to find her way in the uncertain world of middle school. The following 13 page preview contains a few short stories meant […]
I had the pleasure of illustrating the covers and interiors for Capstone’s new Jim Nasium book series. Published in their Stone Arch Books imprint, there are four titles in the series. Check them out here! Despite his name, ten-year-old Jim Nasium is no all-star athlete. But he’s determined to find the right sport for him […]
Double page puzzle illustration I did for the September back to school issue of ChickaDEE Magazine. Photo of how it appeared in print:
Illustration I did for the Rebus story in the July issue of Clubhouse Jr. Magazine. Can you find the strawberry thief hidden in the scene? Photo of how it appeared in print: Here is one of my working sketches. I tested out a few locations for the hidden thief. You’ll note he is better concealed […]
I had the fun task of illustrating this spot the differences puzzle for the back cover of the June issue of Clubhouse Jr. Big thanks to Lexie Rhodes for yet another super fun assignment!
I had the pleasure of working on another double page spread for the July issue of Highlights. In the story “Harold’s Hat”, Harold constructs the best 4th of July hat ever! Huge thank you to Patrick Greenish for the opportunity, and the super fun subject matter! Here’s how it appears in the issue: Some of […]
Illustrations for the June issue of Highlights.
Illustration for the June issue of Highlights High Five.
These illustrations were done for a recent SCBWI conference exercise. We were assigned the task of creating an illustration based on the script for “Caterina and the Perfect Party”, published by Dial Books. Here are some of my exploration sketches:
Here is an illustration I did for the May issue of Highlights High Five.
Here’s a recent illustration I did for the joke page in the April issue of Clubhouse Jr. Magazine. Sketch:
This image is from last year, but I like how it turned out so I thought I’d share it. At the SCBWI Canada East Conference back in October 2014 the illustrators in attendance had a pre-conference assignment. Our task was to interpret the characters and produce a page from the Bear and Lolly manuscript (published […]
This is a double page pull out game board I illustrated for the April issue of Click Magazine.
Here’s a 2 page spread I did for Clubhouse Jr. Magazine back in October:
Here’s a few spot illustrations I did for the Clubhouse Jr. Magazine joke page back in February: What do you call a ship that gets covered in jam? The Jelly Roger. What do you call a kiss from a cow? A moo-ch. What form of martial arts do loaves of bread practice? Tae kwon […]
(Click image for larger version) Here’s a fun puzzle illustration I did for the back cover of the March 2015 issue of Clubhouse Jr. Magazine. There are 24 items hidden in the scene that begin with the letter “L”. Can you find them all? If you are stuck, the initial sketch is below with a […]
(Click image for larger version) Here’s another fun puzzle illustration I did for the March 2015 issue of ChickaDEE Magazine. Below you can see one of my initial sketches – Note how the pool area was repositioned.
I’m very excited to announce the new Scientifically Correct kids book I made with Zach Weinersmith (SMBC) and Henry Reich (Minutephysics). Astronomically Correct Twinkle Twinkle is an illustrated astronomy lesson written in verse. Learn about black holes, why stars actually twinkle, and more in this fun, educational retelling of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The book […]
One of my illustrations for the Spot the Differences Puzzle page in the December issue of ChickaDEE Magazine. This was the first image, and the second image had 10 differences Here’s how it appeared in the issue:
These are some illustrations I completed earlier this year for Scholastic Canada’s Literary Place “Explore!” magazine. These illustrations are for a story about the greenhouse effect entitled: “The Case of the Gooey Chocolate”.
This is an illustration I completed earlier this year for Scholastic Canada’s Literary Place book “A Curious Case of Poetry”. The title of this poem was “Bandit”. It’s about a family dog who sneaks around stealing his owners possessions! Here are some of the preliminary sketches:
My new all-ages graphic novel launches on October 6, 2014 at www.zoesparks.ca To give a little bit of insight into my process, I thought I would share some of my sketches and show the stages I go through in creating the artwork. 1. Writing/thumbnailing I start with a story goal in mind, a short written […]
Here is my cover illustration for the September 2014 issue of Clubhouse Jr. I also illustrated the interior Rebus story for this issue: Here are some of my working sketches for the cover and interior:
If you’ve missed any of my posts over at the SCBWI Canada East Illustrator’s Blog, here is a round up of some of my posts that you may find of interest: Streamline Your Workflow With Manga Studio Story Editor How Manga Studio Convinced me to Draw Digitally Illustrating Characters: Personality Goes a Long Way Adventures […]
New illustration that I’m using on my next promotional postcard: My working sketch: Initial thumbnail sketch:
Earlier this year I had the pleasure of producing an illustration for Gabriel Wyner’s Foreign Language Pronunciation app – Fluent Forever. The images used in the app help the user associate groups of words together to help them better remember them. Here is my interpretation of “Cheap – Hotel – 7 – Day – Plastic […]
Here are some recent spot illustrations I did for the joke page in Clubhouse Jr. Magazine. Which birds really stick together? Vel-crows. Some concept sketches for the vel-crows: What kind of fish likes to listen to music? A tune-a fish. Who gives cows money when they lose teeth? The Moo-th fairy.
Here are a couple of sketches I found while looking through my hard drive:
I recently completed this little self portrait that I’m planning to use it on my new business cards.
I recently collected some of my kids character designs onto a poster. I’m planning to send this along with some other samples to various potential clients. I also have it available for purchase here.
I recently had another super fun assignment for Clubhouse Jr. Magazine – creating the illustration for the “Just Kidding” feature in the May 2014 issue. The Clubhouse magazines are always full of wonderful illustrations so I get excited every chance I get to contribute. I had a lot of fun adding the little details in […]
The May 2014 issue of ChickaDEE Magazine is now available, and I had the pleasure of illustrating the puzzle spread for this issue. This puzzle features a bike trail maze, which was a really fun challenge to create. I used to draw mazes in my school notebooks all the time, so this one brought back […]
I’m excited to announce the launch of Twins in Time, a children’s eBook written by Zach Weinersmith with illustrations by yours truly. The book is now available – Get it here! Here’s a short book description: Twins in Time is a visual adventure written in verse. It is written with children in mind, but particularly […]
I recently had the pleasure of working with the wonderful team at Clubhouse Jr. as I illustrated the cover and some interior illustrations for the March 2014 issue. When I’m working on a cover, I’ll usually work up a couple more concept sketches than I normally would – just to be sure we have the […]
I recently completed this personal piece and I thought I’d share some of my process. 1. I start off with a series of small thumbnail sketches to explore composition 2. Using my thumbnail sketch as a guide I produce a larger more refined sketch. At this stage I also do a quick value study to […]
Here’s a quick Superman illustration. I’ve been experimenting with a bit of a new colouring method lately – doing the flats colour blocks in Manga Studio and only adding a few necessary lines. I’m working on a few larger pieces like this trying to come up with a better, faster way to work. Trial and […]
Read my mini review of the Story Editor in Manga Studio over at Once Upon A Sketch – “Streamline your Workflow with Manga Studio Story Editor”
We wrapped up our final strip on Snowflakes last year, and are now in the process of trying to find a publisher. Below is the cover promo art that is part of the proposal package. If you are a publisher and are interested in a copy of the pitch proposal, please contact me.
Recently I’ve been using Manga Studio more and more for my sketches and line work. I did a quick overview of the pen and some of the other related tools over at Over at Once Upon a Sketch.
To start off the new year the Once Upon A Sketch blog is newly relaunched! I will be a contributing regularly to the blog, along with my fellow contributors: Donald Wu Mary Reaves Uhles Norm Grock Jennifer Zivoin Jannie Ho. Here is our first collaborative post, What We Wish We Knew.
Each year I like to come up with a unique holiday piece to send to my clients. Rather than a traditional card, last year I made a small 11×17″ winter themed poster entitled “Sled Slang”. This year I was feeling a little extra inspired so I’ve actually produced two posters! The first one is called […]
This November I challenged myself with a daily #movember moustache drawing. Each day during the month I posted my daily drawings on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. For this series I tried out a tool I hadn’t used before – the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. What a great little brush pen this is – the line […]
The November issue of ChickaDEE Magazine is all about China. I had the super fun job of illustrating the full spread puzzle page for this issue. Below is the final version – click to view larger (For demonstration purposes I modified it a bit from the version that appears in the magazine – removing some […]
Here’s a quick illustration I call “Love Note”.
Happy Halloween everyone! Here is an illustration I recently completed for my latest postcard mailer: Here’s a photo of the postcard (front and back): I had these printed by Overnight Prints, as 5×7″ glossy with rounded corners. Ever since I first started printing them with the rounded corners I’ve not been able to go back […]
Here’s another illustration in my Alphabet Dragon series. Working sketch:
Here are some cute little monster illustrations I recently completed for an educational French language poster. I don’t have an image of the final poster yet, but I will post it here when it is published.
I was recently interviewed by Krishna Sadasivam on Draw Me A Robot! The concept of the site is to talk with different illustrators and cartoonists about what their studio and hardware set up looks like and then have them draw a robot. There are a lot of great interviews with a lot of talented artists. […]
At the SCBWI Canada East conference I attended earlier this month, all of the illustrators had a pre-conference assignment. We were given the manuscript for “Wake Up, Rupert!” (by Mike Twohy) by Simon & Schuster’s Art Director, Laurent Linn. We worked on our sketches leading up to the conference and gave each other feedback. We […]
I’ve just returned from the SCBWI Canada East conference in Montreal. I had a fantastic time! It was great to meet some new people, and reconnect with friends. A huge thank you to Peggy Collins, Alma Fullerton, Lizann Flatt and Rachel Eugster for all of the hard work organizing such a great event. The weekend […]
My experiments with the various pens and brushes in Manga Studio continues. Left boy with pencil, right boy with G pen and dark brush pen for hair.
