Author: Tony D
April 14, 2008
I am in the thick of finishing the 30+ illustrations for my upcoming chapter book, Kenny and the Dragon. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, it is inspired from Kenneth Grahame’s short story, The Reluctant Dragon, from his book Dream Days. Originally, my idea was to set this story in the 1950’s -very Americana, very …
Continue reading “We Don’t Make Fuzzy-Bunny Books (part 1)”
April 4, 2008
It’s one thing to draw things we know, and quite another to draw things no one has ever seen before. This is especially true in the world of fantastical art: some artists stick to the standard fare of dragons and willow-limbed elves, and others venture far afield, creating entirely new creatures for unusual worlds. I’ve …
Continue reading “Friday Fan Art!”
April 3, 2008
We just returned home from Florida where I was recuperating from a whirlwind publicity tour in the United Kingdom. Hol and I crammed the week-plus trip with book signings and other Spiderwick media events in England and Ireland. I have to say, the UK is truly like a second home to me. The food is …
Continue reading “Home again, home again…”
March 6, 2008
Wow! Obviously with the onslaught of Spiderwick-edness that has been barraging everybody over the past month, I have received buckets of fan-mail with all sorts of well-wishes and amazing stories of how my work has affected others. I am so touched – what a validation. I’ve been so busy cranking out the final edits on …
Continue reading “Friday Fan Art!”
February 29, 2008
We got some more excellent Spiderwick an art this week, check it out! Thanks to Annie, Anna, Andrew and Marisa!
February 21, 2008
I see McDonald’s has The Spiderwick Chronicles Happy-Meals now available. If I didn’t think the film, toys, cereal, and video game were surreal enough, this definitely sent me to dreamland. My parents took us kids to get fast food every once and awhile. I grew up on Burger Chef and their equivalent to a Happy …
Continue reading “I’m Lovin’ It!”
February 10, 2008
I see that Ty’s Toy Box now has the Spiderwick Action figures available. Choose from Jared, Hogsqueal, Redcap or Mulgarath. Here’s hoping we get a Mallory, Simon and Thimbletack as well. I am not sure if these are final toys pictured here or early prototypes. If anyone finds them, please drop a comment as to …
Continue reading “Spiderwick Action Figs”
February 8, 2008
Angela and I just returned from the Los Angeles and New York premieres of The Spiderwick Chronicles movie. We watched the film in both venues (this makes it my 6th time seeing it) and celebrated its completion with Holly and the cast and crew. It was a whirlwind of interviews, photographs and fancy clothes…and in …
Continue reading “Whoa, they made a film? Outta my books!?”
January 24, 2008
My earlier talk of records and album cover artwork has inspired me crack open an old book that I’ve not looked at in some time. Upon opening it, I immediately saw that it was more influential than I realized. I purchased Roger and Martyn Dean’s Magnetic Storm back in 1984 when I was 15 years …
Continue reading “BOOKS: Magnetic Storm”
January 24, 2008
Some serious Spiderwicky goodness arrived in my mailbox this week. Check out these gems: These are just AWESOME guys (and gals)! Keep’em comin…
January 17, 2008
This ran in today’s Publisher’s Weekly: A Tasty Promotion for Spiderwick By Karen Raugust — Publishers Weekly, 1/17/2008 Simon and Schuster has partnered with General Mills for a 10 million-box, five-brand cereal promotion tied to the Spiderwick Chronicles. Running from January 1 to March 1, the promotion’s timing is tied to the Spiderwick film being …
Continue reading “Catch Lucky!”
January 13, 2008
Angela came across a writing contest, “The Ultimate Fantasy Fan”, that was being run by Spiderwick studio Paramount Pictures and Harry Potter fan club, Mugglenet. The winner of which will be able to interview folks attending the Los Angeles premiere! A 13-year old gal, Amanda, won and here is her killer essay. I can’t begin …
Continue reading “So Inspired!”
January 8, 2008
Boy, they’ve come a long way since Atari’s Adventure, and Legend of Zelda! Here are some screen-shots of the Spiderwick video game which will have more characters and settings than what is in the movie, check out these Xbox shots: …and here are some from the Playstation: (*btw, the platform system links take you …
Continue reading “Spiderwick Video Game Stills!”
January 4, 2008
7 year-old Jake is a big Spiderwick fan and sent us this killer drawing of a goblin running through the woods! What’s awesome in this piece is his sense of background AND perspective. I’ve seen college student work that don’t tackle this sort of thing – only focusing on the character design and missing the …
Continue reading “Friday Fan Art!”
January 3, 2008
Found at the local supermarket today:
December 30, 2007
Happy New Years! I hope everyone has had a great holiday season so far. I just wanted to post a New Year’s message to all of my fans, friends and fam out there who made 2007 such a memorable year for me. I have so many things to be thankful for: My best friend and …
Continue reading “Happy 2008!”
December 24, 2007
I think it would be erroneous to say that only books, and illustrators of books, were the primary influence on my artistic style. I was in a very music-loving household growing up a child in the 1970’s and 80’s. My parents had quite an LP (Long-Playing record) collection, as did I. Many a night, I …
Continue reading “A Slight Diversion”
December 20, 2007
I have been putting off my commentary on the wonderful, strange feelings that go through my mind on the realization that Spiderwick will be a feature film released across the world in a couple of months. I can tell you that recently I attended a screening for all the folks at Simon & Schuster who …
Continue reading “Friday Fan Art!”
December 7, 2007
Today we received a warm and wonderful gift for Sophia from fellow children’s book creator, Timothy Basil Ering It was a warm fleece blanket and winter boots to keep her toasty through the winter. Taped to the side of the box (yes taped) was this awesome drawing of a “Hornly Scratcher”. Thanks so much Tim! …
Continue reading “Friday Fan Art!”
November 26, 2007
For my rendition of The Reluctant Dragon, I wanted to create a comfy, cozy world reminiscent of Wind in the Willows. My motto for it was “a warm cup of tea”. In other words, I wanted the mood of the book to evoke the comfortable feeling you get when you curl up with a warm …
Continue reading “Designing Dragons (the end…for now)”
November 24, 2007
This is a special edition of “Friday Fan Art”. Its an homage to that raspberry-colored pal-o-mine! Despite all the love I have for Spiderwick, and its incredible successes, I must confess that my second picture book, Ted, is still a favorite. Sure, it’s a little long for a picture book (especially nowadays) but I was …
Continue reading “Friday Fan Art!”
November 17, 2007
So, as I mentioned in my last post, I am waist-deep in my new book project Kenny & The Dragon. It is a retelling of the Kenneth Grahame short story, The Reluctant Dragon, which was found in his book Dream Days published back in 1898. This is one of my favorite dragon stories that I …
Continue reading “Designing Dragons (Part 4 )”
November 17, 2007
Yeah, yeah its Saturday and I am posting the fan art – it has been a hectic couple of weeks here in DiTerlizziland. Speaking of DiTerlizzis, I have received some art from Celia, a distant cousin of mine who also can push a pencil and paint around: …and here is an oldie-but-goodie from my brother …
Continue reading “Friday Fan Art!”
November 9, 2007
Sometimes at book-signings, my fans will bring me little tokens of appreciation. Nothing warms my heart more than someone handing me a drawing that they did just for me. Take this one, for instance, that Samuel gave me last weekend at my event at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. …I love the …
Continue reading “Friday Fan Art!”
November 3, 2007
I’m teaching a class tomorrow at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art on creating your own unique interpretation of known fantastical creatures. One of the several designs the students can choose from will be a dragon, so I’ve amassed a library of some of my favorite images to share. It seems the timing …
Continue reading “Designing Dragons (Favs)”
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