It's a Puppy Parade!

Last year I illustrated a book called "Ready or Not, Here Comes Scout!" Written by Jill Abramson & Jane O'Connor, the picture book, published by Viking,  is based on Jill's real-life pup, Scout. I posted some images from the book last fall, which you can see here.

Well, Scout is back in a really cute Penguin Young Reader, called "Puppy Parade." It was so fun to get another turn to develop Scout's character.

 I worked with a fabulous Art Director, Giuseppe Castellano, and if you are a kidlit illustrator, you should definitely be following him on his Twitter feed! @pinocastellano.

The process I used to create the art was the same as the picture book. I painted Scout and the puppies traditionally, but created the backgrounds in photoshop. This gave me more options to move things around, but still keep a loose feel on the art and stay compatible with the first book.

In some respects, the book was easier to work on. The format was smaller and images were bigger and simpler. However, there were a few spreads showing the town, the crowd and all the puppies that were a bit more labor intensive. A bit of controlled chaos....!

A second Penguin Reader is in the works with artwork beginning later this year.