School Hallway

One of the automatic frog illustrations I created a couple of weeks ago went from character illustration to a full scene from the story using textures and overlays.

Cave Monster

Cute little cave monster from my sketchbook.

Automatic Frog

Character illustrations for a chapter book I'm starting on where one of the main characters is an automatic frog who loves v-neck sweaters. The illustrations in the book will likely be in black & white but I couldn't resist doing some promo images.

I've been working on bringing textures into my illustrations and this time I'm keeping them solely to the background.

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I’ve been doing a lot of character development lately and from time to time I show off new characters on my blog. Sometimes they’re black and white and sketchy and other times full color and finished. If you want to see more from this series, just click this “characters” tag. You can also see a collection of characters in my Behance portfolio or on my website.

Pink Monster

Another monster character illustration. Go ahead- I know you want to give him a hug...

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I’ve been doing a lot of character development lately and from time to time I show off new characters on my blog. Sometimes they’re black and white and sketchy and other times full color and finished. If you want to see more from this series, just click this “characters” tag. You can also see a collection of characters in my Behance portfolio or on my website.

Survival Guide eBook Design

Today I'm finishing the design of an ebook for Lindsey at HomemadeMommy.net. It's a great site about eating and cooking real food with loads of recipes that make me want to stop working and eat. I had the chance to try the homemade chocolate that my mother-in-law made from the recipe and it was killer. It really didn't last very long.

The book is called The Real Food Survival Guide for Busy Moms and it covers the basics of how to get started with real food for newbies with quite a lot of recipes.

I started by designing the "Survival Guide" logo for the cover. When you image search "Survival Guides" you end up with (mostly) stark and/or bland images. Typically, book covers end up with distressed or army lettering and either clip art or something symbolic to the topic. Since this book is aimed at moms, I wanted to offer something design-y, graphic and appealing to the sophisticated eye of the intended audience without resorting to pinks and pastels.

Well, the color part was dictated more by the colors of Lindsey's blog and the header there (which I also designed):

My first pass at a cover logo (before we made color decisions and before a slight name change) was not quite what Lindsey wanted and frankly was a little off concept-wise. But I'm proud of the execution. Here's the first version which was never quite finished:

So I went to the drawing board and quickly made the following sketch for myself:

Which led me to:

And Lindsey loved it!

Then came the design and pagination of the ebook which is 75 pages. 

The Real Food Survival Guide for Busy Moms comes out in a few weeks, at which point I'll post some images from inside to show how the front cover design was reflected within.

If you want to order this ebook, go to HomemadeMommy.net.

I need to go find some chocolate now.

Anthropomorphised Characters

What I love about advertising is that it often features anthropomorphised products that appear to be absolutely thrilled despite knowing that they will soon be used up and thrown away, or dropped, poked and prodded for their (usually short) lives.

...but it gives illustrators like me something cute and fun to draw!

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I’ve been doing a lot of character development lately and from time to time I show off new characters on my blog. Sometimes they’re black and white and sketchy and other times full color and finished. If you want to see more from this series, just click this “characters” tag. You can also see a collection of characters in my Behance portfolio or on my website.

Bug Juice

It's summer, the kids are in camp and bug juice is in abundance. But who really drinks the stuff?

Water Bottle Guy

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I’ve been doing a lot of character development lately and from time to time I show off new characters on my blog. Sometimes they’re black and white and sketchy and other times full color and finished. If you want to see more from this series, just click this “characters” tag. You can also see a collection of characters in my Behance portfolio or on my website.

Monster Face

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I’ve been doing a lot of character development lately and from time to time I show off new characters on my blog. Sometimes they’re black and white and sketchy and other times full color and finished. If you want to see more from this series, just click this “characters” tag. You can also see a collection of characters in my Behance portfolio or on my website.

My New Book: Hamstigator

Update: The book is out! Check out Hamstigator!

The new Petimals book will be coming out in a few weeks and I thought I would show a few images I created for the book. This one is about a pet who is one part Hamster and one part hungry Alligator. Naturally, mayhem ensues when Hamstigator finds out that there are pet turtles in the house.

I worked with author Michael Andrew Fox on book 2 in the Petimals series and already Hamstigator (and the first book, Dogopotamus, which I also illustrated) have received some media attention. Check out Mike’s interview and the story of how the concept was born from a conversation with his son.

More illustrations to come!

Garage Sale Signs

Instead of, I mean, ALONG WITH helping my wife clean out the house, I worked on creating signage for our upcoming Garage Sale.

Because we're currently having a tropical storm (Andrea) and our sale date may be quite wet, I created a 1-color version to half-heartedly try to tape up on poles in the neighborhood and another few to show online.

Click to enlarge.

These designs gave me a chance to poke a little fun at my wife while enjoying a little bit of self-therapy. After all, I'll really miss my beloved Foosball table.

 Why should yard sale/garage sale signs be boring anyway?

Many thanks go out to the wonderful online creative community for offering backgrounds and textures for other creatives to play around with. Lost&Taken. Fudgegraphics. ThinkDesignBlog. Creative Market. Just to name a few.

Show a Teacher Some Love

Writing

A recent editorial illustration about the hardships of writing. 

Below is an alternate version for a more vertical space.

Tintin Boat Chase Book Cover/Poster

A client asked me to do a new commission for him to give to his wife for her birthday. Last year I created a Tintin cover for him to give her for Christmas (she was his fiancée then) which took place on Safari in Africa.

This year it was a boat chase off the coast of Italy. They provided me with a few photos from their recent trip and I took it from there. Here's the final art:

It was interesting to me to try to emulate someone as talented as Hergé (Tintin's creator). His draftsmanship is incredible and the amount of detail in every panel is astonishing. What I found surprising was the lack of color shadows. Buildings, for example, seem to be the same color from all sides and yet, through skillful drawing, Hergé was able to make them seem dimensional. Certainly a challenge for an illustrator who adores shades and shadows!

The final art was printed poster-sized and framed for the wall of their home. I also gave him a small image saved for the web so he could share the art with his friends on Facebook.

I tracked my progression from sketch to final and uploaded the work in progress to Behance. Have a look and leave a comment please.

A few images from along the way to pique your interest:

And here's the poster I created for this client last year.

Creative Quarterback

I created this editorial illustration to go with an article by Innovation Consultant, Bruce Miller. The article talks about the benefits of bringing in a creative person- either freelance or on-staff- to help companies with their internal innovation projects. The article can be found on the Creative Relay website.

To see the steps I took to create this illustration (such as the one below), please see my post on Behance.

Spanish Text Book Illustrations

or How I Spent my December and January

I recently illustrated the revised edition of a college level Spanish language textbook for Yale University Press. The number of illustrations was approximately 147, ranging from 1/4 pagers to full scenes and even a campus view, and the deadline was EXTREMELY short! While it was taxing rendering such a large number of images in so short a time (can you say tennis elbow?), I'm very proud of every one of them.

Here are a few of my faves from the book:

The authors of the book were hoping that I could update the look of the book and bring consistency as the previous edition had a few different artists, one of whom they were extremely unhappy with. Some comments I received:

"I write to thank you and tell you how pleased I am with the work that you have done on our book. The final colorized art is really great....the content is complete and supports our exercises and other pedagogical needs, and in addition is so very appealing.  Excellent job!!!"

"It has been a real pleasure working with you." 

It's always so nice to know that my efforts are appreciated!

More illustrations to come...

Howdy Crocodile

Here's a personal project I completed today. My goal with this illustration was to create an interesting portrait of an interesting character.

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I’ve been doing a lot of character development lately and from time to time I show off new characters on my blog. Sometimes they’re black and white and sketchy and other times full color and finished. If you want to see more from this series, just click this “characters” tag. You can also see a collection of characters in my Behance portfolio or on my website.

Valentine's Day

An illustration I created in 2012 for a customer's blog.

Groundhog Day 2013

Welcome to Groundhog's Day! Again. Feels like it was only yesterday that the groundhog last checked the weather for us. This year Phil has a positive outlook, regardless of what he does or doesn't see when he climbs out of his hole. And what he saw was: No Shadow! That means it'll be an early spring!

For 2013, I decided to create 2 illustrations so I'd be ready for whatever the outcome. The alternate version is below.

You can check out a bunch more Groundhog Day illustrations on this blog by clicking HERE.

Oh- and go watch the movie!

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I’ve been doing a lot of character development lately and from time to time I’ll be displaying on my blog new designs. Sometimes they’ll be black and white and sketchy and other times full color and finished. If you want to see more from this series, just click the “characters”, tag at the bottom of this post. You can also see a collection of characters in my Behance portfolio or on my website.

My New Book- Dogopotamus

Resting after chasing a squirrel around the neighborhood.

I'm going to be visiting a local elementary school soon to talk about my new book Dogopotamus: The Most Awesomest Pet Ever. Maybe. and I thought I'd post a few more images from the book.

Petimals is a series of books written by Michael Andrew Fox wherein the main character is on a quest to find the perfect unique pet. In Dogopotamus, as you must have guessed by now, he chooses to meld a dog with a hippopotamus and, naturally, all heck breaks loose. Of course a lot of fun ensues as well, but suffice to say the neighborhood squirrels will not be climbing any trees anywhere near Coby's yard for years to come.

Below are some images from the book.

I also posted more works in progress at Behance where you can watch as the illustrations go from thumbnail sketch to slightly more refined sketch all the way through to the finished piece. 

You can see those works in progress here.

The book is available on Amazon here. It's a really fun read!

Coby tells his mom what kind of pet he wants and his brother's turtles quickly retreat into their shells.

Dogopotamuses should not be taking the stairs.

Coby draws his vision for the perfect pet.

Thanks for looking!

What It's Like To Be An Illustrator

Just in case you were wondering.

Riding Dogopotamus

I'm illustrating a book called Dogopotamus about a boy who dreams of what he imagines to be (and later realizes is NOT) the perfect non-traditional pet.

The image above occurs just before Dogo spots a squirrel and mayhem ensues.

I've been posting this as a work in progress on Behance where you can follow along to see the steps I go through to get from sketch to finish.

Click the above image to see my work in progress and please leave a comment!

To learn more about this book which is part of a series called Petimals, you can go to the Petimals website.

Update: The book is now available at Amazon.com. It's a fun read!

The Art Director/Illustrator Relationship

Illustrations ©edfredned; design ©Justin Perricone

(This article was originally written for the blog at Creative Relay)

What makes a great collaboration between an Art Director and an Illustrator?

That’s the question Justin Perricone and I wanted to explore on behalf of art directors and illustrators when we began putting together a panel discussion for June 27, 2012. The event, titled The Art Director/Illustrator Relationship was co-sponsored by AIGA Boston, MassArt Office of Alumni Affairs and Rhode Island School of Design’s Alumni Relations.

A successful collaboration can make all the difference for the final product. It can win acclaim or, better still, create a final product that is relatable, balanced and beautiful to those who behold it.

But, much like a marriage, there’s a give and take involved where each creative must understand how the other functions best and allow them the space and feedback to create.

With the help of freelance designer and art director Jillfrances Gray, we created a laundry list of topics and questions to get the conversation going about the give and take in the relationship.

Scott Magoon: Illustrator & Art Director
First, we started with a wonderful children’s book illustrator, Scott Magoon, who also just so happens to be an art director at a large publishing house, Houghton Mifflin. Scott is the illustrator and writer/illustrator of a growing number of kid’s books and his style is both playful and engaging. Scott agreed to join our panel to represent both sides of the coin.

Ann Stott: Art Director
Ann joined us next. She is an art director at Candlewick Press and has collaborated on a number of award-winning kid’s books including the Caldecott Honor book, Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein and The New York Times Best Seller, I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen, as well as the Judy Moody series by Megan McDonald.

George Restrepo: Art Director

George is a freelance graphic designer and art director and in this capacity has worked with a number of clients for whom he has collaborated with an even greater number of illustrators. He previously was an art director for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and the Improper Bostonian before moving on to a full-time freelance career.

Rob Dubé: Art Director
Rob is a senior art director at Hasbro, where he leads a team of art directors, graphic designers and freelance designers tasked with developing visual brand executions for Hasbro Games. He has led teams working on such brands as G.I. Joe, Star Wars, Nerf, Mighty Muggs, and Beyblade.

Ed Shems: Illustrator & Moderator
I’ve been a freelance illustrator for 21 years, having worked with art directors in a large variety of industries from books to magazines, comic books to board games and small restaurants to major brands. But even after all that, I still have questions about how it should all work.

• What are an art director’s expectations of an illustrator and vice versa?
• How do Art Directors and Illustrators find each other?
• How should they communicate and exchange necessary information?
• What if an illustrator does not meet his/her deadline? What contingencies are put in place?
• Without naming names, what disastrous collaborations can you recount and what made them so bad?
• What do aspiring art directors need to know?

To start off the night, introductions were made and then the questions began- first from me, then from the audience and a couple from the panelists themselves. You’re probably reading this article because you’re interested in the conversation that unfolded and the answers provided by the panelists, so without any further ado, this is some of what was talked about:

• Some art directors find illustrators through self-promo mailers and some online. Some check out agent websites. Some companies have art resource coordinators (or a similar title) to whom an illustrator should send samples.
• 
• Ann said something interesting that stuck: ADs will come across you on Facebook and they’ll know pretty quickly if you’re not a nice person based on what you say online. So beware! (And be nice!)
• If you’re even thinking about kinda-sorta-maybe working freelance for Hasbro, you should first register as a vendor here: http://vendors.hasbro.com/. Hasbro art directors cannot use a vendor who has not been registered. Anyone can register and you only need to do it once. However, you can update your “listing’s” three portfolio pieces whenever you want.
• Deadlines: Often an AD will buffer the deadlines in case the illustrator is late. On occasion (and this is a rarity among ADs), Rob will commission the same work to two illustrators if he’s working with a newbie. This is just to insure that the work will be done on time.
• How hands-on an art director will be depends on a few factors but ultimately; If there is a previous relationship (proven trust) between the AD and the illustrator.
• At this point, with the web connecting us all, it doesn’t matter where the illustrator is located. It may work to your advantage (or disadvantage) to work with someone in a different time zone. If you’re ahead of them, it buys you an extra couple of hours. If you’re on the west coast with a New York deadline today, you’ve got 3 fewer hours…
• Best way to build your relationship with an art director is to hit your deadlines.
• How should aspiring art directors rack up some experience? Spend some time working for an AD and take on as much responsibilities as you can. Get used to dealing constructively with problems. Work as a designer and get used to the give and take when collaborating. Learn and grow from the experience.
• How does a freelance AD get new work? Network on social media (Facebook and Linked-In are George’s top recommendations). Makes it easier to contact people.
• Get a membership in a design organization (and attend events) to surround yourself with other like-minded creative people. Look for mentors/mentoring opportunities.
• How do you get work through Facebook? George uses his photo buckets as a portfolio. He uses his personal FB page (which is turning into more of a business page) and his work sparks conversations.
• Do you need to get permission from clients to post/promote the work you do? Yes. Call the art director and ask. You have to be especially cognizant when it’s a job that doesn’t see print/web for 6 months (or more!). You cannot show that work until it’s out in public in most cases.
• Art Directors appreciate it when someone is easy to work with and that is one thing that makes them return with new projects. Getting your files right is also helpful as well as keeping to a deadline. Stay in constant contact- even if you fall behind in the work- remember that you’re collaborating.
• Illustrators: “Be a delight to work with!” (Jokingly stated by Scott Magoon- but a very true statement.) Be open to AD’s suggestions- try what they suggest (unless you detest it! Or perhaps, even still). Maybe it’ll work out great, but if nothing else the AD appreciates that you tried. You’ll be building good will while building a good relationship.
• Rob says it’s ok to be a “pain in the ass” as long as there’s a ‘but’. “He’s a pain in the ass BUT he always hits his dates.” This is not true for many (most?) ADs.
• Leave your ego at the door.
• George said it’s important to be a fearless problem-solver.
• ADs don’t mind working with a rep although they recognize it ends up costing more. But often it’s good to have someone else on your side trying to get the artist to hit his deadlines.
• Scott shared a story: An artist representative pointed out to a rep-less Scott that book publishers have a whole crew behind them while illustrators often have only themselves. So a rep is a good person to help you watch your back and look over your contracts. That person became Scott’s rep.
• Generally, Art Directors don’t want you to call them to follow up from a promotion. If the piece is right, then you’ll get a call. Of course, it’s all about timing and a piece might be passed over one day and “just what we’re looking for!” the next because it happens to show up when a job requiring that style is at the top of the queue.
• SCBWI is a great place to network and meet/talk with Art Directors. Ditto Comic Cons.

The panel discussion was tremendously helpful to all those who attended and we are thankful to Scott, Ann, George and Rob who so graciously agreed to relate their experiences and offer advice.

Please leave a comment or question.

You can see photos from this event on Flickr