Gooseplay

The illustrations for Gooseplay are now finished and the book will be self-published in the coming months. Here’s the final cover image and a few more colour illustrations. Learn and see more on my website.

Freedom Flight

Here’s another image from Gooseplay, the book I’m illustrating for my uncle (described in this earlier post). I thought I’d put it up today in honour of the real golden eagle I just saw while walking my brother’s dog in Vancouver*. It was huge, and hung out in a tree for a bit before the crows bothered it away. I believe that’s the first golden eagle I’ve ever seen in real life. So here’s a scene from the book where one is freed from captivity and goes for a fly to celebrate.*

First flight

Here’s another image from Gooseplay, the children’s book I’m illustrating for my uncle Ben about a boy’s adventure with a migrating flock of geese in British Colombia.

It’s rare to be able to post process work when you’re doing a book, so I’m glad to have the chance to do so here because I learn a lot from putting images online. It allows me to see them in a new light, which is difficult when you’ve been looking at the same thing all day and you’re acting as your own art director.

This image of the boy’s first flight is what I suspect will be used for the cover. It doesn’t feel done but that’s enough for today. Below this is my original “sketch” as explained in the last Gooseplay post, from when we first started this project seven years ago (before I was an illustrator).   Click images to enlarge

Crane Dance

So about 30 years ago my uncle Ben, a wildlife biologist in British Colombia for many years, started writing a book called Gooseplay. Adapted from a Swedish children’s story from the early 1900s, it’s an adventure about a boy who shrinks to the size of an elf and—riding on the back of a farm goose—follows a flock of wild Canada geese on their migratory path through B.C.

Years ago Ben asked if I’d be interested in illustrating Gooseplay. I was still in school at the time (studying anthropology and journalism). Between finishing classes and working several jobs, I spent my nights researching images (at the library!) and drawing quietly in our tiny apartment. This process was part of what led me to take up illustration as a career.

That was seven years ago, and needless to say my style and techniques didn’t really exist yet. I’m now in the process of re-illustrating Gooseplay, and thought it would be fun to post some of the images as I complete them, along with the originals when there’s one that corresponds. Here’s the first colour illustration draft, “Crane Dance” and original illustration it will replace (from a different part of the book) “Night Heron.”