An Ant-Learn to Read - The Art Process Part 1

The children's book I helped ink is now available for purchase on Amazon.  It's called An Ant - Learn to Read (Book 1 of 3).  That can be found here.  It was very neat to see the culmination of everything come together for the first time.  In a book.  Published on Amazon.  Holding it my hands for the first time was a bit of a surreal moment.  I haven't had a large number of things published and on the market, so seeing this was a big deal.  Like, huge.    

I have gotten asked a lot about this, so I thought I'd try and make things easier for people to understand.  Keep in mind, this is just the art process.  The writing portion/publishing is a completely different animal.  Let's go behind the scenes on the art.  

As you can see in the layout below, there's 3 images.  The sketches (top) in blue pencil;  The inks, (middle);  And then the color (bottom).

Example Illustration 1

I'm basically bringing the sketch artist's vision into black and white, and giving the colorist a map to follow.

Example Illustration 2

Now, you're automatically thinking, oh ok, he just grabbed an ink pen and went over it.  Nope.  The inking and colors were both done, never having touched a real pen or marker.  How?  This is where the plot thickens...

I'll show you for the first time how this is done;  Where it's taken me as artist;  What processes I'm currently using;  And what the future holds for me and Illustration.  I'll give you a hint...it doesn't involve real pens and pencils.  But it does involve iPads and iPhones and two Adobe products.  Stay tuned for Part II.                

The Scott Kelby Story

Earlier this month, a friend of mine and I attended a 400+ people photography seminar in Indianapolis, hosted by worldly known photographer Scott Kelby.  The seminar was wonderfully done, easy to understand and exciting to attend.  Before returning from our lunch break, I ran into the restroom.  As I rounded the corner, I noticed Scott was washing his hands alone at the sink.  I said the only words that came to mind.  Thank you for doing this Scott;  This is so great.  He turns to me, with a big smile and says, Are you kidding?  Thank you for coming!  Are you having a good time?  I explained to him that I was there with a friend/fellow photographer, and that we were having a great time, and that him and his team had made this a fun, exciting day.  He asked me if there was anything I would've changed about the seminar.  Not a thing.  He even asked me what my name was.  As we re-entered the lobby area, I shook his hand and we went our separate ways.  Scott was incredibly humble and easy to talk to.  Him taking the time out of his insanely busy schedule to just talk to me for 5 minutes, completely made my day.  Or, my month for that matter.  I sat back down in the seminar room next to Kiely and said, dude, you'll never believe who I just ran into in the bathroom...