A sneak peak at the final product and now for a look at a few key points on how Brittany created her masterpiece…

Brittany begins by virtually “sculpting” Ted.  Throughout her 3-D model making process she uses a few different programs including Maya, Zbrush, Mari, & Maya Mental Ray Rendering.

Next step Brittany sheds Ted of his accessories and begins to add his illustrious texture and color.   She’s done a great job giving him that lovely pink complexion that we all know so well.  Looking good!

A wire frame is added to help give this wacky gent some structure.  You can see the virtual wire stretch over Ted’s larger body parts.  Looks like he’s gotten into those raspberry treats again…

And with a bit more work and dedication Ted is complete!  I love how Brittany relaxed his ears and rendered him to such a welcoming pose – inviting us to whatever party he’s off to next.  This young artist has much talent and I am sure she will do awesome in her future career.  Thanks for all your hard work Brittany, I wish you the best of luck!

Keep drawing, keep creating, keep dreaming!

Here you see Liam hard at work with the beginning planning stages of the game.  To his left is the cover of the book and a handmade Omnipod, which houses the game’s spinner in the center.  He crafted the spinner by surrounding an old LIFE game piece with modeling clay.  The player needs the spinner to see where to go next just as Eva relied on her Omnipod for direction.

Check out the final product! Liam designed a path from Eva Nine’s Sanctuary all the way to The Ancient Ruins! There are stops along Lacus, Solas, the Campsite and the Oasis on the way.  You can see he even included Lake Concors and the Bliek Mountains on the board to add to the Orbona landscape.  The game board journey aligns with Eva’s actual travel events and all is rendered perfectly with Liam’s awesome painting and drawing skills.  There are also action cards on the board that players can pick up, like:

Cool, right? Pick one of these up and you could be shot forward in the game for a fast win or made to fall back and loose your lead.  He made multiple cards with different player directions on each one.

And here is the inventor himself!  I am so happy to know you are such a big fan, Liam.  Thank you for sharing all of your hard work.

Keep creating, and keep dreaming!

Inspired by Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide, given to him as a gift, Dimitri did a fabulous rendition of the Knocker. Check it out:

If you’d like to see more pics of the knocker (as well as Dimitri’s other work) check out his blog.

Nice work, Dmitri! Keep sculpting, keep dreaming!

The Mandrake species is a favorite of Ray’s and he has interpreted this deadly member of nightshade family with youthful features and a fateful bite. Ray has chosen Gouache as his medium for his Mandrake creation (and has done an awesome job using it!)  As I mentioned, Mandrakes members of the Nightshade family and is a root-like plant with strange bifurcations that often resemble human forms.  Perhaps this is where Ray got some of his inspiration.

Love your work Ray, thanks for sending it along.  Keep drawing, keep dreaming!

Thirteen year-old Isaac, from Saint André, France, sent me some fantastic drawings including printouts from his very own field guide that he crafted. Check it out:

…looks like he encountered a changeling…

…and even the mythological guivre, indigenous to France. These aquatic drakes are similar to wyverns.

Great work, Isaac! I can’t wait to hear what you think of The Search for WondLa. The french edition will be released very soon by Pocket Jeunesse (who translated the Spiderwick series as well as Kenny & the Dragon), so keep on the lookout for it.

Keep drawing, keep dreaming!

Here’s our beloved friend Rovender Kitt from The Search for WondLa.  Look’s like he’s ready to travel…

Check out this rendition of Grahame, the brainy dragon from Kenny & the Dragon.  Is he reading one of your books Elly?

Elly mentioned that she chose to be Jared Grace from The Spiderwick Chronicles for her school’s “Book Character Dress-up Day.” I wanna come!

Knock out drawing of Knocker Elly.  Definitely would NOT mess with this guy….

Keep up the hard work Elly, at this rate I’m certain you’ll succeed with your creative talents.  Keep drawing, keep dreaming!

Nice work on Kenny’s penny-farthing, that thing is fun to draw, isn’t it? You are quite the budding artist, Isabella! Keep drawing, keep dreaming…

Check out Mallory fighting Red Cap!!  I think Mallory is going to win…

…and here’s a “Hoglin”.   I’m guessing it’s a type of hot-dog-goblin.  Any thoughts? It sort of looks delicious…

Great drawings Allie!  Keep drawing, keep dreaming…