Sketchbook Stories :: Jim Benton

Jim is probably best know for his It’s Happy Bunny™ licensing property, or at least that's where I know him from. During his career Jim has designed clothing, written books, created a kids’ TV series, and won multiple LIMA Licensing Awards. His cynical dry sense of humor has a way of crossing over generations and is relatable to both tweens and adults (or adults that still want to be teens :-)

I ran across an interview Jim did a while back, and I wanted to share with you an excerpt where he talks about making a job out of drawing. I really related to it and I think you will too! :

"I knew I wanted to make a living out of what I loved to do when I realized that I could get regular work. In seventh grade I made a few bucks illustrating for a little newspaper, and that was regular enough for me to realize I could make a job out of drawing.

The rewards of owning your own company are that you make all the decisions. You live by your wits. There is an old chestnut: 'Nobody enjoys the hunt more than the fox.' I've always thought that was an appropriate way to think of self-employment."

Today Jim will be sharing the cover development from the latest book in his Dear Dumb Diary Series when we follow the main character Jamie Kelly as she chronicles her middle-school exploits through her private journal.

Here is Jim's Sketchbook Story ::

JB: By way of introduction, Dear Dumb Diary is published by Scholastic. It's' published in over 15 languages, and has sold over 6 million books. 3 are NY Times bestsellers, and it is currently in film development.

JB: I tinkered around trying to depict the damaged relationship between the three main characters in the book.

JB: I was pretty sure that the puppet angle would work, and you can see I even did a little color test on it.

JB: In the end, my editor correctly asserted that these covers were a little more complicated than the actual story I wrote, so I did one that more literally depicted the style-copying that Jamie sees going on around her in the book.  The final cover is also here.

JB: The book releases in June. Here's the preorder page on Amazon: http://amzn.to/kyCNvD

JB: I couldn't completely let go of my little puppet composition and you can see I did a painting of bears for a poster about politics.

Dear Dumb Diary Creator Jim Benton Draws‬

Here’s where you can find Jim ::

  website :: www.jimbenton.com
facebook :: facebook.com/jimbenton
   twitter :: twitter.com/#!/JimBenton



Sketchbook Stories :: Paige Pooler

I met Paige for the first time, over 5 years ago when we were both taking an art licensing workshop by Cheryl Phelps. I can remember being really impressed with Paige, and to be honest, I kind of wondered why she was taking the workshop. She obviously already knew what she was doing and her work is awesome. But I'm really glad she did, cause otherwise we never would of met.

 

Paige admits to being an incessant doodler and loves hanging out with her adorable Boston Terrier, Mitzi. Some of her favorite things (in no particular order) are:

 
museum jaunts

 chocolate

loitering in cafes

nature hikes

brownies (especially the corner pieces)

flea markets

a nice glass of wine

tacos

laughter

gardenias

peonies

lemons

Here is Paige's Sketchbook Story ::

PP: I doodle a lot. And it just so happens that I mostly doodle girl heads. It's just something I do when there's a piece of paper and a pencil nearby. No bill, post-it or note is safe from doodledum. It just happens. Even when I've tried drawing something gorey or realistic it still ends up with a pretty cute and sweet vibe. So, with that, I am so VERY fortunate (and happy) that most all my recent commissioned work has been to draw cute little girls.  Many of these clients include American Girl, Simon and Schuster, Scholastic, and Harper Collins.  My incessant girlhead doodling has begun to pay off!

  PP: Here's the story of how the cover art for the early chapter book, "Times Squared", published by Simon and Schuster, came together.  This cover is part of a series written by twin sisters, Julia DeVillers and Jennifer Roy that I've had the great pleasure of doing.  Since this is the third book cover in the series, the characters of the twin sisters had been previously established which made that part of the job a bit easier...

PP: For inspiration, I did a little web-search of the environment and of cute little Pomeranians and people walking dogs, I also visited some street fashion blogs for ideas of what the girls might be wearing.  I remember during that search, I found a really cute pair of shoes I wanted.  I still want these shoes (and I'm quite dismayed that I did not save that photo either!)  Anyway...instead of me getting them, I drew a pair for one of the girls. This part of the job came quite easily for me. (it doesn't always....but, in this case, it did)

The background, on the other hand... was a bit more of a stumper.

First, it's set in Times Square...and that's a challenge for me because, eh...buildings aren't really my thang!  Remember, I draw girly doodleheads! Second, it's TIMES SQUARE!! Everyone knows this iconic place so it needed to be recognizable. Third, the art for the previous two covers was very flat and the characters were up front and center, taking up approx 2/3 of the allotted space. So, trying to get that all come together and jive into a cohesive whole was quite a task for me.

 

 PP: There was a lot of back and forth between me and the fantastic art director, Karin Paprocki while we tried to find the right way to put this together. Our biggest hurdle was definitely finding the right sizing of the girls and still show enough of the background environment.  The characters went from being quite large (like, GIANT) to significantly smaller...and I think the final product actually works quite nicely. Phew!!

PP: "Times Squared" was just released and is currently in book stores now.

PP: I just learned the other day that there's going to be a fourth book to this series.  Soooo, YAY!!!  I'm soon off to the drawing board to figure out this next puzzle...

Here’s where you can find Paige ::

website :: www.paigepooler.com
     blog :: www.eyeswideapart.blogspot.com
  twitter :: @ppooler