But first, some “First Draft Fun Facts”:

The Search for WondLa: 221 manuscript pages, 51,000 words

A Hero for WondLa: 237 manuscript pages, 61,000 words

The Battle for WondLa: 230 manuscript pages, 59,000 words

Now, the cover.

These covers have been somewhat tricky for me. My main goal in the image is to present an intriguing world with compelling characters – all without trying to give too much of the plot away. The design went through an overhaul during the first book’s transition from hardcover to paperback (which you can read about here). The second book had a large-scale scene also intent on enticing new readers.

Now we come to the final chapter in Eva Nine’s ascension to a true heroine and so I want to depict her teetering on the edge of two worlds: that of a passive character versus a character of action. Or it is the transition of an individual naive to the world around them to one who is cognizant of their surroundings. Essentially, a symbolic image of the child-Eva becoming a young adult.

I have to start with reacquainting myself with Eva. Sure, I scribble sketches of her in scenes throughout the writing process (like the sketch above done back in January in my Moleskine journal).  However, I still need to draw her portrait to mark the transformation she is going through from book to book – like this image of Eva as she appears near the end of book three:

Then I am off to find inspiration. Émile Bayard‘s iconic image of Cosette sweeping from Victor Hugo’s 1862 classic, Les Misérables, gives me a despairing feeling that I hope to capture in this third cover.

You can see Bayard’s influence on this sketch of Eva, here.

So I continue to explore and pursue the perfect cover image: one that entices readers while accurately exhibiting the mood and tone of the story and one that satisfies my artistic vision. As I said, it is a tricky act to be sure, but one I thoroughly enjoy doing.

Unlike previous posts (where I am quite educated on the artist and can show how their work directly influenced me), Vogel is simply one of those that is so grand, so in tune with the art I make, that I mostly just want to share a bunch of hi-res scans with you. Though, I must confess that part of this reasoning is because I honestly don’t know a whole lot about him.

What I can tell you is that I was at San Diego Comic Con a few years back walking the floor with my wife, Angela. Out of the throngs of costumed fans, Charles Vess appears, seizes me by the sleeve, and escorts me over to a used bookseller’s booth. He points to a 1894 German edition of the Grimm Brothers’ Kinder und Hausmärchen (Children’s & Household Tales) and tells me, “This book is expensive ($100+), but you won’t regret purchasing it.”

I picked the book up and leafed through the pages. In one chapter’s worth of illustrations, I closed the book and opened my wallet. Charles was right. (click on each thumbnail to have your mind blown)

Since then, I have managed to find a few more copies of Vogel’s magnificent work. He released four albums of collected art around the turn-of-the-century. The cover alone is a triumph of design.

While I’ve been hunting for his books, more artists have mentioned their mutual love of Vogel’s work. Michael Hague, Barbara McClintock and Brian & Wendy Froud are all fans. For me, its the disciplined draftsmanship that is matched only by his epic imagination.

Here’s some scans from Heldensage Deutsche (German Heroic Sagas) and include illustrations from Beowulf and the Nibelung.

I wish I could tell you that Dover books offered affordable reprints for you to snag and add to your collection. However, as of this writing, none exist. In the meantime, I will scan and post more images here from time to time. If you own/find any of his books let me know, I’d love to share what everybody has and build a wishlist.

UPDATE: A friend on Goodreads, Angie, found a link for the online version of the Grimm’s tales on the Open Library site. Enjoy!

As Pedro patiently waited for his copy of Spiderwick to arrive in the mail his anticipation and enthusiasm for the fantastic grew.  Upon reading the chronicles, he immediately took to the tale and was inspired to create art of his own.

The piece above was directly inspired from Simon and Byron’s epic fight against Mulgarath’s mother Dragon.  Though Pedro has been dabbling in art since he was a toddler, he has only been seriously tending to his craft for the past year.  Currently he is learning how to draw with Photoshop but he also works with pencil and watercolor.

Great palette and movement, Pedro!  You’re Photoshop skills are impressive.  I love the hand drawn quality you have brought to this digital medium.

Keep drawing, keep dreaming.

For one night only (May 15th) we will both be signing at Barrington Books, in Rhode Island. Bring your young readers, your camera and your books! (Yes, I really will be handing out FREE Wondla II sketchbooks.)

And, for you art students of Rhode Island School of Art & Design, we shall be visiting in the afternoon and holding a special presentation on creative process and answering any/all questions. I hope we see you there!

I was asked to donate a Wild Things homage to be auctioned off with all proceeds benefiting RIF, an organization I am proud to be affiliated with. In fact, some years ago I contributed a short recollection of my mom reading young Tony House at Pooh Corner for RIF’s anniversary book, The Art of Reading.

Maurice’s legacy in words and pictures has inspired me since I first lay eyes on In the Night Kitchen and Higglety Pigglety Pop! 1980′s The Art of Maurice Sendak had a tremendous influence on my journey to become a children’s book creator. In fact, I quoted from it last year when I spoke at the SCBWI’s annual conference. Like many, I was saddened to hear of his passing last year. I honored Maurice by reading Wild Things before beginning my first event in Los Angeles for the Hero for WondLa tour.

Needless to say, I was nervous and excited to “cover” Maurice’s most beloved characters. I’d seen some lovely tributes before and knew I had my work cut out for me. I came across a little drawing of Max, likely done back in 1999 or so.

…and since Max is who I associate with most, I started with him for my new rendition.

I returned to my dog-eared (signed!) copy of the book looking for inspiration. I really liked the wild rumpus scene where Max is riding the minotaur as king; however, I worried that my version would look really minotaur-y (yes, its a word). So, I swapped out the minotaur for the bearded Wild Thing (with the striped shirt) as he seemed the most iconic of all the monsters.

In drawing the Wild Thing, I realized what an influence their design must have had on Jim Henson when he was creating his more monsterly Muppets – especially Sweetums. (In addition, I once read that Maurice’s Outside Over There was the inspiration for Labyrinth.)

As I refined my sketch, I remembered an interview where Maurice said that the Wild Things were inspired by his aunts and uncles. With that in mind, I put a little of Maurice in the monster. (Or did I just show a little of the monster that was in Maurice?)

I’d like to think Maurice would have liked this. I sure hope you enjoy the final result. I’ll post news on the auction once it goes live.

After I would wear out my paper toys of cranes and rabbits, I would pester my mom to make me new ones. Finally, she told me to read the instructions and learn to make them myself. I folded for many years throughout my childhood and found the hobby highly relaxing. I even made some of my own paper (from tissue and tin foil) in high school so that my paper models would hold their form.

So imagine the paper-folding pleasure that greeted me when origami master, Joesph Wu, sent me a note asking about the details of of my 1994 rendition of Planescape’s Lady of Pain.

Joseph’s work is not new to me. I marveled at his manipulation of paper years ago when I saw his origami D&D denizens.

This model utilizes two squares of paper; one for the head another for the body.

On top of that, he folded the “Pacific Sea-Maid” from Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide!

Thank you for contacting me, Joseph, and for sharing your fantastic folding talents with us.

Be sure to check out Joseph’s facebook page. You can see more pics of these models in progress as well as an additional, larger version of the Lady of Pain.

Keep drawing. Keep dreaming.

The Battle for WondLa plot picks up shortly after the end of the second story, A Hero for WondLa. The story has been outlined thoroughly and I am in the process of writing the first draft, which I hope to complete this spring. In all, the writing and illustrating will take most of this year putting the release date for Battle early in 2014.

That’s a long wait, I know. But I want this finale to be exciting and deliver what has been promised in the first two installments. You will see a return of most of the main characters from both books. This includes fleshing out of smaller characters that were introduced already in the previous stories, like Caruncle from book 1:

“A grotesque, lump-faced, heavyset character strolled over to Eva. Striking cobalt blue wattles hung near its tusked snout in front of large mustard eyes. Its heavy natty jacket was worn and frayed, and it dragged on the ground, concealing most of the creature.”

–The Search for WondLa, page 361

Yes, the adjectives do go on a bit here. That is because I didn’t have time (or the page space) to add an illustration of Caruncle. I had sketched him out early on and used the sketch as my point of reference when I was writing him in.

Besides revisiting some familiar faces, there will be a new character introduced as well. And sadly, there will also be a some characters that don’t make it to the end of Eva’s story. Hopefully in the end, it will make for some entertaining and imaginative reading.

Thank you all for your kind praise, interest and words of encouragement. It keeps me going. Look for more WondLa news here soon!

Like myself, she turned to other artists to fuel her creativity, spending much time in her youth getting lost in fantasy illustrations. She’s also a fan of one of my favorite and most influential artists, Arthur Rackham.

Years later, June’s love for Rackham’s enchanting illustrations led her to Arthur Spiderwick’s findings in The Spiderwick Chronicles.  In fact, she even chose Thimbletack as her inspiration for an awesome polymer clay sculpture.

This wasn’t the first time June had turned to Thimbletack for artistic inspiration, she had sculpted the brownie 10 years prior but lost the original in an accidental fall.  Although the sculpture’s break was a sad loss for her it turned out to be more of a motivator to test her artistic skills and take her craftsmanship to the next level.

“Recently, I had been wondering if my skills had been improving and pushing myself to do better. Out of the blue, Thimbletack for no apparent reason, fell off the bookshelf and broke irreparably. House felt empty with out him, so I sculpted a new one.” June explained.

June’s Thimbletack is a multi-media work of art consisting mainly of Sculpey’s Premo polymer clay, dressed with feathers for his hair, leather for his hat & suspenders, and a man’s dress sock for his pants, all delicately put together and mounted on a wooden base.  It took June about a month to finish her final sculpt with much of that time spent finding the mixed media accents.

Excellent work, June!  I’m glad you took the time to bring another Thimbletack to life.  It really looks like he could walk right off that wooden mount taking Jeffrey and Lemondrop with him.

Keep sculpting. Keep dreaming. Keep creating.