Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Clean

clean
A spread from my one and only foray into children's book illustration; a sing-along version of Mary Had a Little Lamb. The original idea was for Mary to be a border collie and all the other characters to be animals as well, and since I love doing animals, I took the commission. After I was well into the sketches for the book, the publisher called and said that a focus group felt that a dog as the lead character might frighten the children who are the target audience for these books. Mary and all the other characters had to be human children (of specific ages and ethnicities). I was more than a little disappointed and lobbied for the border collie version, but in the end the brilliant focus group prevailed over the idiot artist. That's why I now stick to doing books for mature audiences; no focus group has ever overruled my artwork (yet!).

Click here for a larger version.
Airbrushed acrylics on illustration board.