A Penguin Named Patience - Final Sketches and Final Art

Moving on to more finished work...

After all of the rough thumbnail sketches have been approved, I tighten and revise and do final sketches of the entire book.

 And finally, after the Art Director has approved this round of sketches, I begin painting.

 

 

 And just for fun... 

And because you've been so patient, here's another...

Thanks for following along! Stay tuned for more regular updates and art.

A Penguin Named Patience - Thumbnails and Scribbly Penguins

Continuing where we left off...

Once I had my penguin drawings down, I began doodling in the margins of the manuscript of spots and images I thought I might want to feature in the story. Those doodles turned into pages and pages of really rough, scribbly sketches.

Scribbly dancing penguins...

Scribbly marching penguins...

All kinds of scribbly penguins...

I took all of those scribbly penguins and began laying them out until I had a sketchy idea for every page in the book.

Throughout this process, there's a lot of back-and-forth with the Art Director, determining what scenes best illustrate the text and tell the story. The rough sketches shift and change until we have a full set of  sketches for the entire book.

Stay tuned... next up on the blog: final sketches and final art.

For more info about the book, check out some of these reviews. We've been really lucky to have the book featured on a number of different blogs and websites, including Kirkus, Miss Marple's Musings, The Simple Moms, The Bookworm's local paper reviews, the National Book Examiner. My personal favorite is this synopsis by a 5 yr old in the San Francisco Book Review.

And don't forget! I'll be speaking about A Penguin Named Patience on Saturday, May 16th at Books of Wonder.

A Penguin Named Patience

Hi all,

It's been a busy 2015, and I took a brief hiatus from blogging. But I'm back and with process posts and art and an event coming up mid-May!

First, and most importantly, mark your calendars! A Penguin Named Patience is out in and about in the world, and on Saturday, May 16th, I'm going to be at Books of Wonder in NY doing a panel with Bob Shea and Greg Pizzoli!

I'm definitely geeking out and doing a bunch of ridiculous penguin-dancing. My first book panel is with two crazy talented illustrators! (More exclamation points needed!!!!)

In honor of the upcoming panel, I thought I'd share a little of my process work for the book over the next week in a series of posts.

After Sleeping Bear sent the manuscript, the first thing I did was grab a pencil. Those three little penguins are some of the very first sketches I ever did of Patience. They weren't the only ones, though. For a few days, all I did was draw penguins...

Paint penguins...

Look at pictures of penguins...

And watch videos of penguins.  The aquarium in New Orleans where the story takes place actually has a series of videos of the penguins featured in the book.

Stay tuned... next up on the blog: thumbnails and scribbly penguins.

For more info about me and Suzanne Lewis and of course the book, check out these two interviews that Suzanne and I did for the KidLit 411 blog. Links to the interviews can be found here (KidLit411-Lisa) and here (KidLit411-Suzanne).

And for more sketches, process work, and cat photos, you can also find me on:
Instagram: @Lisa.Anchin

Twitter: @LisaAnchin

Facebook: Lisa Anchin Illustration

Good News

Hey there blog readers,

Like most folks, I have doubts now and then. It's all too easy succumb to the worry and anxiety, but every once in a while, someone or something reminds me that it's all going to work out fine.

And today, dear blog readers, today I have some brand-spanking-new, career-affirming news.

 I just signed on to my VERY FIRST official FOR-REAL-DEAL picture book project!! (Weeeee!!! Jumping up and down in the studio!) I'm illustrating a manuscript for Sleeping Bear Press. While I can't say much more about the project yet, I wanted to share the news with a handful of sketches. Because you may be seeing many more like these...