Here’s a real treat from our friend Noah. He’s shared all three different stages of his drawing of Jared, Simon and Mallory Grace (from BtSC) with us, showing the sketch, ink and color stages

Nice work Noah, keep on drawin!

Here’s a newly discovered creature recorded from Tess, it’s called a “Sea Slither”. Nice design Tess, I especially admire details like the floating eggs!

This weekend I finished the last illustration for The Spiderwick Chronicles. As I’ve mentioned I’ve been working on the third installment of the Beyond The Spiderwick books and the series finale, The Wyrm King. The final image rendered was actually the last parting image in the book. Among the final pieces was an illustration of Jared Grace drawing in his sketchbook and following in the steps of his great uncle Arthur.

That got me to wondering – How many times have I drawn Jared? So, I did a little counting. And here is some fun Spiderwick art facts for you:

Total number of finished illustrations for the original 5 books, plus the 3 Beyond… books (not counting the front and back matter of each book): 367(!)

Total number of illustrations where faerie-creatures are featured prominently: 129

Total number of illustrations with Jared present: 109

Both The Nixie’s Song and The Wyrm King are tied as the “most illustrated” with 54 illustrations per book.

While I am at it, here are some other fun art facts from the series that you might enjoy searching for:

BOOK 1: The Field Guide

page 49 – There are Victorian silhouette images of Arthur and his wife hanging in the water damaged hallway.

page 50 – Miss Fly’s 1920’s hat, from The Spider & The Fly, is hanging on the dressmaker’s dummy.

page 65 – Angela and I actually owned two pet mice while I worked on the early books. This image was drawn from life.

page 72 – The Spiderwick estate kitchen was based on the kitchen in our first house in Amherst.

page 88 - Mallory was playing an old Atari 2600 as evidenced by the joystick lying on the floor.

page 106 - The Secret Commonwealth was one of Holly’s reference books while working on the series, and can be seen stacked behind Thimbletack.

BOOK 2: The Seeing Stone

page 1 - Jared has written his name on the pages of his text book: an old grade school tradition which is no longer done.

page 5 - There’s a portrait of a younger Lucinda on the stair wall behind Mallory.

page 16 - Mallory is looking at the “lucky” horse shoe hanging in the carriage house. It is upside down, which many superstitious folks believe pours the luck out and therefore is a bad omen.

page 98 - Hogsqueal is pointing to Byron with a charred drumstick. (That’s one of my favorite hidden things)

BOOK 3: Lucinda’s Secret

page 72 - As you can soon read about in the upcoming Completely Fantastical Edition, this image mimics the composition of Alice talking to the Cheshire cat from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

BOOK 4: The Ironwood Tree

page 12 – As many have discovered, that is Holly and I sitting in the bleachers in front of the Graces. There are also paper-plate portraits pinned to the bulletin board outside of the principal’s office on page 26.

page 89 – The unusual pebbles and stones balanced on the tips of the stalagmites was something I imagined that the knocker had been  doing. Now that you know that, you’ll see his handiwork everywhere in the dwarven mines.

BOOK 5: The Wrath of Mulgarath

page 5 – Mal’s teddy bear can be seen in the debris here along with a copy of a Spiderwick book.

page 40 – There is symbolism here in the two trees which represent Jared (the young birch) and Arthur (the ancient oak).

page 52 – If you look closely, there is a little beetle crawling on the ground near the can. Could that be Mulgarath?

page 84 - The palace of trash is adorned with some interesting license plates…

T6D-9: My birth year of 1969

AD5-73: Angela’s birth month and year

FIN4-4: The art for this book was finished in April 2004.

…Holly’s initials can also be found as well as our editor, Kevin Lewis.

page 94 – Tip off that this isn’t Mr. Grace: look at the fingernails.

page 118 – Lucinda’s childhood marbles (from book 3) can be seen on Arthur’s desk.

BOOK 6: The Nixie’s Song

page 11 - If you unscramble all of the letters in Nick’s soup bowl, it reads “Man, this is so lame”.

page 99 - The sandwich board sign was based on one I’d seen at Atlanta’s Little Shop of Stories when I did an event there in 2006 for G is For One Gzonk.

page 136 - As most Florida residents can relate to, there is a wasp’s nest tucked under the roof of Jack’s shack.

BOOK 7: A Giant Problem

page 16 - Laurie is wearing her locket, even though Nick doesn’t figure it out until page 67.

page 75 - Jack Junior was based on our Spiderwick editor at Simon & Schuster, Kevin Lewis.

page 152 - The composition of the Grace kids mimics the cover to book 1.

The Ubiquitous Hoodie

Jared’s “protective” red hoodie appears throughout the entire series, worn by many characters. In fact Mallory is wearing it first in book 1. Later, she borrows it from Jared after her watery escape from the river troll in book 2. Mulgarath himself creates the hoodie when he appears as Jared’s evil doppleganger in book 4, though Jared keeps it on for the remainder of his adventures through book 5.

But it reappears again in A Giant Problem, when Cindy is wearing it. And clever Laurie dons it in the final book.

…what hidden tidbits will there be in the last book? You’ll have to wait and see…

PS – I finished detailing the mermaid piece that I had blogged about earlier. Additional linework was done via Photoshop, what do you think?

Our talented friends Sascha and Mina sent some wonderful sprite and faerie drawings to share from Holland…nice work!

Here are two nice Kenny Rabbit drawings from Issac and Gracie, whom you may remember from the “Design Your Dragon” contest. Its great to see some more Kenny art, he can be a tricky one to draw…but these two both did a great job!

I conclude today the inking process for the frontispiece to the final Spiderwick book, The Wyrm King.

After my warm up on the Arthur Rackham study, I was ready to begin inking. I started with Nick, who is not only the hero of the books, but the focal point of this image. That means if I was to blow it on inking him, I’d likely start over – so its better to get him finished first.

Just like the pencil work on the Rackham study, there are lines here that won’t be rendered in ink (like the flush on his cheeks). Satisfied for the moment, I move onto the much more complicated mermaids.

Like I mentioned earlier, the cluster here has to act as one. However, I’ve put in details (like different hair color and texture) to differentiate them upon closer inspection.

Here is the full piece in progress. At this point I’ll move onto the remaining mermaids and then the aspects of the environment. The watery surface won’t be done in inks – I’ll save that for the watercolors.

When I feel the inking is complete and ready for color, I scan the image so that it can be used for an interior illustration as well.

This method follows what was traditionally done with old woodcut/black & white illustrated fairytale books: One of the eye-catching interior pieces was colored and tipped in (a process where the color printed image was hand-glued into the book). Often, it accompanied the title page at the beginning of the book (hence, a “frontispiece”) and created excitement and intrigue for the story right at the start.

What’s interesting about my “to-be-colored” inked images is that they are not always rendered in a rich gamut of varying gray tones. In fact, if you browse through the other Spiderwick books (especially book 1), and compare the colored frontis to its black & white counterpart, you’ll note that the linework is little more than contoured outlines. It looks like there is a little bit of that going on here with this image too. So, for the final black & white inked interior illustration, I will add more linework in Photoshop to give the art a sense of depth and finish. However, for its initial use as an inked drawing that needs color, it is ready to go.

With my reference handy of underwater swimmers, I was able to finish the image with watercolors. I’ve been using Yarka watercolors on all of the Spiderwick chapter books, and really like how the colors glow when I glaze them in layers. I’ll go into a step-by-step on how that is done in future post…

…In the meantime, I’ll get to tweaking the scanned inked image for the final book interior illustration and share that with you once it is done.

Before I begin inking my image for the frontis to The Wyrm King, I am going to do a quick warm-up to get reacquainted with my pens. I strive for a lively, loose pen line to maintain an energy in my ink drawings. Before I begin any final inkwork, I do a small, simple exercise to get in my grove.

Usually, these warm-ups are non-commissioned pieces for the project - that way there’s no pressure on me if they don’t come out well. Oftentimes, I copy a master in order to pick up a thing or two which may help me with the image at hand. For the mermaids in my piece, I’ve been studying Arthur Rackham’s amazing illustrations from Siegfried & The Twilight of the Gods (1911) and The Rhinegold & The Valkyrie (1912) which have been conveniently bundled together by Dover Publications in Rackham’s Color Illustrations for Wagner’s “Ring”.

I found a nice image of Sieglinde drugging someone’s drink (p. 20). Her profile was classic Rackham, and a perfect image to study. Here you see my quick pencil reproduction. This is likely much larger than the size Rackham would have worked at.

I am putting in underlying anatomy that I know I won’t ink. It still helps me to understand the form so that I can chose what is important to ink, and what to leave for the eye and brain to fill in.

I use FW inks for everything. For the Spiderwick books I use black India. In the past, though, I have used burnt umber – which is likely what Rackham used, especially if he planned on coloring the image after. A deep brown would settle into the washes, possibly even emulsifying a bit, and would look less like a cartoony outline.

This study, and most of the illustrations I do in ink, are rendered with a Hunts 102 “crow quill” nib. It can draw a beautiful, delicate line but also has a lot of pluck – which I like. I save the older, worn nibs so that they may be used for thicker linework.

I keep a scrap of board nearby to scribble out and get the ink flowing. I also use a damp paper towel to keep the nibs clean. I usually scrape off the dried ink with a blade before I begin.

Here’s the pencil drawing inked. I used Rackham’s image as my guide for what to ink, and what to leave untouched. Especially when drawing women, the more lines you give them, the older they appear.

I erase the pencil lines and scan the image as a bitmap (at least 600 dpi). From here, I would do clean up and all fixes in Photoshop. In the past, I would have used gobs of China white paint to white out areas for re-inking, or simply patched in a new piece of Bristol (which Charles Gibson often did). Thankfully, those days are behind me.

Next up: Time to ink the final!

PS: It looks like the Rackham book by Dover is out-of-print. However a quick search for his name on the Dover site brought up several other books chock full of great Arthur Rackham art (and at an affordable price).

PPS: while you’re there, check out this awesome inkmaster of the past: The Drawings of Heinrich Kley

Nicolas has given us a wonderful glimpse into his own Arthur Spiderwick-inspired field guide to the faerie world. Its awesome for me to see fans collecting data on the elusive invisible world. I especially love the page on goblins where he’s included real goblin tooth items, including rose thorns! I wish I had thought of that, it makes perfect sense! Keep on drawing Nicolas!

I continue my progress on inking the final colored frontispiece for The Spiderwick Chronicles finale, The Wyrm King…

My desk is actually a light table. Its large size allows me to transfer images onto the Bristol board which I use for most all of my artwork. Here is a shot of my desk with the frontispiece in progress. Also present is some of the reference used in this final drawing stage.

First off, you’ll notice Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide (ASFG). I am referencing the mermaid designs so that these are continuous with the look of the story. Also present is the last S’wick book, A Giant Problem, in which I illustrated only bobbing heads. In this new illustration, we will now see the merfolk in all of their underwater glory, and you’ll be able to match faces from Giant Problem to faces here in The Wyrm King. Lastly, the paper behind ASFG is the printout sketch that I refined and sized on the computer.

This shot shows how the lines transfer from the rough sketch and get detailed and reworked as I prepare for inking. Nick has simply been traced and slightly refined, while the mermaids are almost complete. All of this is done simply with a #2 Ticonderoga pencil.

Here the final drawing is almost completed. I’ve also added lines to aspects of the image that will only be dictated in color, such as the ocean surface and the light rays. Note that forms are drawn through others to continue their lines correctly, even off of the border.

Here’s a detail of the mermaids’ faces. Though they are individuals, they are rendered as one formation to retain the sweeping movement of the composition.

And here is a detail shot of Nick. Unlike the fluid, dynamic shapes of the merfolk, Nick’s arms and legs are sprawled out in a clumsy (helpless turtle) pose as he drifts to the ocean floor.

As I’ve mentioned before, the basic shapes are in place and SOME of the details are worked out. However, I’ve purposely left room for me to render with the inks only. Simply tracing perfect pencil lines creates a static, non-energized line for me. I have to do some of the final spontaneous drawing with the pen.

Next stage: inking. Including a warm-up study courtesy of Mr. Rackham…

With my thumbnail approved by the team at S&S (and Holly), I was off to refine the sketch and prepare it for finish. For that, I began looking at reference of swimmers photographed underwater, like this image from LIFE magazine:

Immediately I was struck by how wonderful the light refracts through the ripples onto the pool walls and the swimmer’s body. This was great inspiration to me. Energized, I redrew the image and began to hone the composition. Below is the thumbnail sketch redrawn:

Some have observed that the pen & ink illustrations in the Spiderwick chapter books are rendered a little different than say, how I would paint a book jacket, or even the “natural history-esque” plates of Arthur’s Field Guide.

For these books (and my picture books), I use more of an animator’s approach: I study life, collect reference, but draw the scenes from my mind so that the characters are a touch cartoonish. I feel this exaggeration helps them convey their emotion better from the 5 x 7 inch stage of the illustration in the book.

Speaking of, I have the border that I use for the Spiderwick books as a template in Photoshop. Once I find the sketch I like, I drop it into this template and continue to rework the composition.

Here you’ll see that I’ve not only nudged our hero, Nick, up in scale, but moved him so that he overlaps the ring of mermaids. This helps to create a sense of depth in the image. Also, I’ve begun to add some tonal fields (which are really nothing more than notes to myself) as I continue working.

I mirror flip the art around in Photoshop, correcting any errors I find. I then size the piece (here 11 x 14 inches) and print it out on bond paper.

Next, I’ll transfer it to bristol board and prepare it for inking…