To keep with the sketching theme, I am going to put up some sketches for my new book "Christian the Hugging Lion" written by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell and which comes out this month.

In the 1950's there was a "Famous Artist's School" which was a correspondence school put together by Norman Rockwell, Albert Dorne, Robert Fawcett and few other fantastic illustrators from back in the day. These books are the best books on illustration out there, bar none, thats it, the end. Period.
There is a section in these books about Animal Drawing which basically compares the anatomy of humans to animals- the point being that basically the bone and muscle structure is very similar between most animals and humans. So I could go on and on about this. My point is sometimes I am asked how my animals look so "human" well the answer is that they basically are.
So, for example drawing the lion Christian pretty much ended up being my own children posing for the lion. Particularly since I don't have any Lions hanging around posing for me (Insert cheeky comment, Alex). From toddler to kid to adult it is pretty much my own family wrestling and roaring and acting like wild animals- just like any day of the week I guess.

sketching

I LOVE TO DRAW. Here are a couple of drawings of my kids. I have been wanting to draw Juniper on her bike for while just because she kills me. I have to say I got it. The way she rides with a mixture of being so proud of herself and completely in her own world.
The other two are of Sean. He rides his little car with SO much energy. I am here to tell you that he can ride that thing at least two miles. Of course playing with his trains.
I've done a couple of school presentations lately and we have been talking about body language. Kids are so amazing because they have learned body language and it speaks in volumes. But kids haven't learned how to hide their emotions so every movement they makes speaks about how they are feeling.
With these drawings I included a couple of gestures. I always do a very quick little sketch that helps me map out the structure of the body and how I want the whole drawing to go.