Cactus Drawings

I am working on another easy reader book about animal life in the Sonoran desert. I just finished up the drawings so I thought I would show a few.

The book switches from one animal to the next and includes sound words on the right side page to introduce the next animal before you turn the page. The text blocks will go in the large open sky areas on the left hand page.

I enjoy doing these sort of nature themed projects and this one should be a lot of fun to finish up. Now I wait for approvals, hopefully with no revisions. Fingers crossed.

Wolf Den Cutaway

Just a little sketch for a textbook project I am working on. This is the preliminary drawing that will be painted digitally next. I'm not sure how I became the "cutaway" specialist for this particular client (this is the third or fourth such project this year) but I am OK with that. It's a fun challenge to show what goes on inside the different animal's dens without making it look weird or cheesy. See the previous cutaway I posted earlier of the beaver lodge here.

Butterfly Drawings

Here are the first drawings from a new book project I am beginning. Much like the Egg Book that I did last summer, this book is an easy reader and there are only eight interior illustrations total. The book gently describes a butterfly caught in a rainstorm and how it must wait out the downpour and dry it's wings in order to once again take flight. By spending a little more time on the drawing, I hope to speed the process and cut the actual Photoshop painting time down to about a day apiece. So far so good. I started the first piece late yesterday morning and will finish it up this morning, so I am right on target. I will post the color versions as I go along.

Egg Book finished pieces start here (scroll forward to see them all)
See my Photoshop painting process here

Battle of Bosworth - Sketch

Battle of Bosworth- 11" x 17" graphite  drawing by Greg Newbold

Here is the working drawing for a magazine article  am illustrating that recounts the Battle of Bosworth, in which Richard III of England was defeated by Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond. The popular account of this battle suggests that a poor blacksmithing job resulting from a lack if time and nails led to Richard's horse throwing a shoe in combat. Richard's horse stumbled and fell after throwing a shoe he was forced to engage the battle on foot. He rose from the ground as his horse galloped away shouting "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!"  Henry's army ultimately killed Richard and Henry assumed the throne. The Battle of Bosworth Field is deemed the decisive battle that ended the War of the Roses and brought to an end the reign of the Plantagenet dynasty in England. I admittedly am not an English history buff, so it was fun to dig a little into the details to arrive at what I hope is a pretty accurate depiction of the scene. I am limited as for time and space (note the large area to the left of the spread where type will fall), so I had to creatively suggest the raging battle. I also needed to focus on details like  the heraldry in the flag and the styles of armor and weapons of the period. If I did not achieve total accuracy in historical detail, I think that I was able to capture the spirit of the action. For me, that is half the battle, so to speak. This will be a fun one to paint. I am doing this one in oil and hope to get going on the paint phase it today assuming
I get approval from the client.

Tripped

Final drawing submitted for approval.

I'm working on another fiction feature for Boys' Life magazine. The story follows a young man working for a trail clearing operation in the Alaskan wilderness around 1900. The protagonist is nicknamed No-See-Um because of his slight build.

My initial thumbnail which was submitted for concept approval

I am creating three images for the story. This one shows a moment in the story when an older boy sets up a trip line to sabotage our hero while returning from the river with clean dishes. I'll post progress of this project as I go along.