King George III for Scholastic

King George III for Scholastic By Greg Newbold

Earlier this year I did a cover and interior spot for one of Scholastic's news publication. If you remember from elementary school, they are the little folded educational paper flyers that came about every two months or so with all sorts of interesting classroom articles and games. I have done a few things for them in the past including one on Ben Franklin and they are always fun projects.

Cover Rough #1

This one featured the Declaration of Independence and they wanted a portrait of King George III reacting to news that the colonies had broken free. One of the biggest problems with historical recreations is that there aren't any photos. I had to rely on old paintings to come up with somewhat of a likeness.

Cover Rough #2

When my first two takes on what the cover would look didn't quite fit the editors' vision, it was finally decided that they really wanted me to riff a political cartoon from the era.

Period Political Cartoon of George III

I was asked to pretty much mimic the expression and exaggeration from the original cartoon, but obviously handle it in my own style and this is what we ended up with. Digital technology made it possible for me to take a photo of one of the original prints of the Declaration and warp it to fit my illustration. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out and so was the client. Thanks to Sandy Mayer at Scholastic for running interference when needed and giving encouragement at that moment of hair pulling. Always nice to work with a great art director.

There was also an interior spot of colonists celebrating the news which actually took more time and work than the cover, but oh well. that's how assignments go sometimes and often you don't realize what you have bitten off until you start chewing. All in all, I am happy how it turned out as well.

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.

Beaver Lodge Cutaway Finished

I just finished up this one for an educational publisher. It's fun to dig into details on something like this and create a feeling of reality even though this view is impossible to see in nature. I enjoyed the challenge of making the submerged portion of the beaver abode look like it was underwater which I achieved by shifting colors and values to reflect the effects of the water. Once again this is rendered in Photoshop over a graphite drawing. Size is 16" x 11" at 400 dpi. This one will print in the student edition as well as an oversize teacher edition to be used in group reading. 

Beaver Lodge Cutaway Sketch

Certain things pose particular challenges when trying to illustrate a concept, such as how to show an entire environment, including both the inside and outside, in a single image.  I say illustrate, because whenever this type of problem is posed, it usually is not something to be solved using photography. This conundrum is often best solved by doing a cutaway illustration. I am working on just such an illustration right now for an educational publisher.  As I gathered information to design my own version of the cutaway beaver dam, I was surprised how poorly rendered most of such existing illustrations were. I ended up relying on photography to inform me on what the beavers and their houses looked like  and then created my own version. I referred to elements from dozens of sources to come up with my drawing, which I hope not only solves the problem, but does so in an aesthetically pleasing way. I am pretty happy with how it is coming together. I will post the fully rendered color version when it is complete.

Butterfly Book - 2

Continuing on with the finished pieces of the butterfly book. Here, the butterfly begins to look for shelter as the rain falls I did an alternate version of this one without the branch and bird. A cropped version of it will be used as the cover.

Working digitally makes what used to be nightmare changes in the old days very simple. I just created the different elements on separate layers and turned off the bird layer for the cover. The rainstorm in the background was also created on a different layer which made it very easy to "paint behind" all the other elements without disturbing anything and without having to paint around all the details.

See Butterfly Book paintings 1 and 2 here

Bird of the Day- Chicks

Baby Chicks - 6" x 8" - Digital over Graphite, by Greg Newbold

The ending page for the Egg book shows the freshly hatched chicks. This one was the only one in the series that I had to revise at all. In the original sketch, I had some eggshells as well as a couple of unhatched eggs. The client asked that I have all the shells hatched so that there would be no confusion as to the number of eggs which needed to match the text. I was happy to oblige. Overall, this project went as smoothly as any I have ever done, including speedy payment. Thanks Dinardo Design! The shadows were created the same way as I did on the Hen piece I posted yesterday. The drawing is posted here.

Bird of the Day - Hen

Hen- 6" x 8" Digital over graphite, by Greg Newbold

This is the second to last in the Egg book series. This one shows a laying hen on her eggs. I really enjoyed creating the shadows on this one and the effect is better than I hoped. I basically just used a warm gray gradient fill over the top half of the finished piece on a multiply layer and then erased out anything that wasn't my intended shadow. Once again, I am a believer in experimentation and learning on the job. I had about two weeks to complete all of these images from sketch to finish. I figured out a streamlined process that allowed me to paint all of them in a quick and efficient manner. I also learned how to create some pretty cool shadow patterns. Here is how the drawing looked.

Bird of the Day- Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker- 6" x 8" -Digital over graphite by Greg Newbold

Another in the Egg book series. This one of the Pileated Woodpecker was a fun challenge. I was asked to make it look like the bird was attending to it's egg rather than pecking away at the tree. I decided the best way to do this was to have the woodpecker's head be silhouetted against the dark opening of the nest hole. It served the secondary purpose of creating a nice value contrast to lead the eye to the bird's head. I also had some fun with a little sunset lighting in the background. All of these were meant to be simple backgrounds in order to keep focus on the bird and the egg. The texture of the tree was fun to paint. Have a look at the drawing here.

Bird of the Day - Tern

Tern - 6" x 8"- Digital over graphite by Greg Newbold

Another in the Egg book series. Terns lay their eggs in plain view right on the sand with little to camouflage them beyond their speckled pattern and coloration. The biggest challenge in this one was effectively mimicking the texture of the sand and the subtle changes in color. Here is the drawing.

Bird of the Day- Grebe

Grebe- 6" x 8"- Digital over graphite, by Greg Newbold

Another in the Egg book series. Grebes pull vegetation out of the marshy areas where they live to build a floating nest. I did not know this fact. Goes to prove that you can learn something every day. I posted the drawing here.

Bird of the Day- Robin

Robin- 6" x 8"- Digital over graphite, by Greg Newbold

This is the cover image for the Egg book I just finished. I thought I would post one finished painting a day for the next week or so until I run out of birds. This one of the Robin is the cover as well as one of the interior images for the book.  I love the color of Robin eggs. I posted the drawing here.

The Bluebird of Happiness

Bluebird- 8" x 6" - Digital over graphite, by Greg Newbold

OK, so I wasn't so happy with the drawing of this one. Of the eight pieces I did for the egg book I just finished, I liked this one the least. That is, until I put color to it.  In fact if you look back at the posts I did of the sketches here and here you'll notice this one is missing. I think it was because this one is different from all the rest and somehow didn't seem to fit into the group. This is the only one in which the bird is in flight and also the only one where the egg is not visible. The lack of value contrast in the sketch around the bird was also a factor.

 I was following the AD specifications for picture content, so, as often happens in the illustration world,  I did as requested. As soon as I got it done though, I decided it was not bad at all and the action of the bird swooping out of the nest box is interesting and fun. When I added the bright blue of the bird though, the focus became clearer also. The shadow falling away from the bird was also a nice element that I think worked out well. Inventing believable cast shadows is an issue for many artists. I am still glad that my basic drawing class in college covered this topic effectively.

Was It The Chicken Or The Egg?

Who knows? But for on my current project, I get to paint both. Here are a few more of the sketches for the project to go along with those I posted previously.

I now wait and hope that there are no changes. I can't really afford that on the budget they offered and I accepted. One thing I have learned through years of illustration, is that it never pays to cut corners.

Once I accept a project, I do my best regardless and I don't short change my client. I can't second guess or grumble about the pay, or the demands from the art director or client. I said yes. In these cases I try hard to be efficient, do good work and finish as quickly as possible. Sometimes that leads to a more well thought out and energetic effort and better results. We will see if this is the case here. I am still waiting for sketch approval.

Octopus Battle

Octopus Battle- acrylic/mixed media by Greg Newbold.

In this scene from Stormalong, our intrepid hero Stormy dukes it out with a giant octopus in a liquid battleground. The ship's anchor was being dragged deeper and the ship along with it. Of course Stormy dives deep, wins the the wrestling match by tying the octopus' legs in knots and makes it safely back to the surface. I posted a couple of other pieces from this series earlier and you can see them at the links below.

Baby Stormalong discovered on the beach
Stormalong's carved memorial 
Stormalong title page illustration

Baby Stormalong

This is part of the Stormalong series I did a couple of years back that I described in my last post. The future folk tale hero started life out large and only got bigger. This one depicts the moment when the villagers find baby Stormy on the beach. I am just not sure where you get diapers for a baby that big.

Stormalong background info on Wikipedia

Crowbar's Farewell

Crowbar's Farewell- Acrylic/mixed media; 12" x 18"- Greg Newbold

I did a series of paintings for a story written by Jean Craighead George called When Crowbar Came. Based on a true story of a crow who was befriended by the authors' family and the shenanigans that this very smart crow perpetrated during his time with them.  I painted seven scenes for an educational reading anthology series and this piece was the finale. In the end, the crow decided he belonged with those of his kind. When all the crows scattered like leaves in the wind one fall, Crowbar went with them.