DreamWorks and Dragons

Early in 2014, DreamWorks Animation approached me about illustrating some board books for their new publishing branch, DreamWorks Press. A few months after completing those, I was asked to work on a picture book adaptation of the original "How to Train Your Dragon" movie. It didn't take me long to say "Yes"! 

For those not familiar with the film, "How to Train Your Dragon" tells the story of a young Viking named Hiccup who befriends a rare and powerful dragon.

It was a pleasure to work with Art Director Mike Sund on this title, as well as co-illustrator Denise Shimabukuro. Denise provided the pencil drawings, and I created the final digital paintings. The direction was to create a hand-painted acrylic/gouache look, which I achieved with a variety of Photoshop brushes.

I'm very proud of the final product, a 32 page hardback book released in 2015. 

(Available on Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/q9zmt6r).

Painting a Monster

Americhip Books contacted me in 2008 to illustrate a story about a boy named Cameron who uses various night lights to keep the "monsters" away. It was a fun-sounding concept so of course I said yes!
   One of the challenges was laying out the artwork to accommodate a light bulb and "press" button for each spread. The other challenge was keeping the scenery interesting, since the entire story takes place in the same darkened room. A mixture of "camera" angles and closeups helped keep the readers engaged as Cameron tried scaring the monsters with a lamp, a flashlight, and a firefly, among other things.
   The final art incorporated rich, dark colors built up in Adobe Photoshop. Below are the layers from scene 3, depicting Cameron's firefly leaving the room.

Base layer

General shading, PJ details

Light source, shadows, wall details, final text