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.
Above is a test of line work in Manga Studio vs. Hand drawn (with China Marker). I’ve been experimenting lately with Manga Studio for my line work. My usual process involves drawing and inking traditionally, but so far I’m really impressed with the line quality I can get with Manga Studio. I may have to […]
Here’s a quick colour sketch experimenting with line quality and thickness. China marker on tracing paper, coloured in Photoshop.
I recently had the super fun job of illustrating the cover for the back to school issue of ChickaDEE Magazine! It’s on sale now, so make sure to pick up a copy. While working on the sketches, I worked up a few alternate poses for the brain character that weren’t used in the final: I […]
Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics, Adventure Time, and many more awesome things) recently published a Choose Your Own Adventure style Hamlet book, ” To Be, Or Not To Be”. It was first available on his wildly successful Kickstarter campaign, and is now available for purchase from Breadpig, and on Amazon. The book is full of great […]
Having a bit of fun with this recent self portrait.
Here are a couple of recent quick colour doodles. I’m testing out some new colouring and texture techniques here. For each one, I spent about 10-15 minutes doodling until I came up with a little drawing I liked, and then spent about an hour colouring each one. Always fun!
In the recent June issue of ChickaDEE Magazine I had the fun task of illustrating some kitchen items for a puzzle page feature. Here are a few below – can you guess what they are? During this project I sketched out quite a few alternate ideas that were perhaps a bit too easy to figure […]
I recently had the pleasure of illustrating the cover for the June Food Issue of ChickaDEE magazine. Big thanks to Susan and her team at Owl Kids for the opportunity to work on this fun cover! While working out ideas, I sketched out a few alternate fruit characters that didn’t make the final cut. Here […]
The Next Big Thing is a global blog tour to showcase authors and illustrators and their current work. I was tagged by the wonderful and talented Peggy Collins. I have a book I’m working on that involves a boy and a dragon, but it’s still in the very early brainstorming stage, so I’ll be talking […]
I recently had the pleasure of illustrating “The Mean, Multiple-Meaning Troll”, an educational children’s book published by Benchmark Education. Illustrating this was a lot of fun – How can you pass up the opportunity to illustrate a troll? And a mean troll at that – even better! Here are a few sample spreads and spot […]
I recently completed a guest comic for Rondal Scott’s Strange Kids Club comic – Strange Kid Shorties. Rondal ran it on the site in 3 parts, but here’s the full version. Thanks again Rondal for letting me have fun with your character, I had a ton of fun making this! Click here or on the […]
Early Influence I grew up reading comics. Every Saturday my buddies and I would ride our bikes to the local comic shop and pick up the new issues. It was a ritual. I remember the small sweaty store loaded with awesome artwork— posters, figurines, graphic novels, and the colourful display of comics with the wonderful […]
Late last year I was hit with a white hot bolt of inspiration! Well, actually a thought more along the lines of: “Hey, this would make a really fun picture book!”, after Patricia Storms commented on this photo of my daughter on Facebook: Above: Zoe, 2012 – Little Miss Crazy Hair As an Illustrator, I […]
My entry for this week’s Illustration Friday topic, “Zoom”. This image is part of a larger series of images from my recent Sled Slang poster.
