Revised Giraffes Walking to Acapulco

Last night, before I dozed off, I realized that I’d been drawing my giraffe characters without proper clothing. All of the characters in my children’s picture books are anthropomorphic abstractions who are wearing human clothing, so I had to redraw the giraffes and give them a style that suits them. They’re wearing dark clothes (not pure black) and Robert Smith t-shirts for their day trip to the circus in Acapulco.

Tomorrow I’ll be working on the zebra and the lion, and after that, I’ll tackle the elephants.

A Pirate Cat Character for My Third Children's Picture Book

I’ve added a pirate cat to the story. He’ll be one of the residents of Easter Island. Yes, my Easter Island has pirates and talking birds and living moai. That’s the beauty of imaginary worlds — you can think of it, you’ve got it.

My pirate kitty was inspired by Howard Pyle’s illustration of a pirate on standing on the rolling deck of a his pirate ship.

And now, for a different approach -- Photoshop!

My frustration has led me back to Photoshop. I originally stopped using PS when I decided to use only libre software such as Krita. This momentous decision was a side effect of spending painful months learning how to use InDesign and Photoshop together. It was a stressful, high pressure experience that left me looking for simpler solutions. It turns out that there aren’t simpler solutions. You still have to do the work, even if you’re using simpler, less robust tools. It’s not the tool; it’s the tool holding the brush in their hand that has to keep showing up everyday. Wherever you go, there you are, whether you using a 32-inch Cintiq or a pencil and paper.

The picture above is my rough concept of the kids flying over the border wall: Buddy is holding on to Betty’s arm and she’s holding on to Jimmy’s arm and they’re flying past the guard tower on their way to the Golden Mountains. Today was actually fun.

Tools: Photoshop and Kyle’s Gouache a Go Go brush.