Here's a sketch of a drawing that will come later in the book.  In this sketch, I'm not really bothering with facial expressions and character details as much as I'm trying to capture an atmosphere and composition.  I keep the background loose and focused most of my efforts on the Giant as that's where the reader's attention will naturally fall....

Sketch of the Day: I'm working on plates these days (full page illustrations scattered throughout the book). Here's a little beauty - or eight of them. Haglings have arrived at Rowan. Not quite as cute and cuddly as they might initially appear, please note their little muzzles.... Regarding the sketch itself, I lik...e the overall composition, but have some things to work out with the lighting. Also, Mum's a little too "pretty"...

Sketch of the Day: In Norse mythology, dvergar were the beings who served as the inspiration for the "dwarves" that Tolkien made so popular. In fact, Tolkien's dwarves in The Hobbit were named after those listed in the Poetic Edda (the original material from which a great deal of Norse myth stems). Famed as craftsmen for gods and giants alike, the services of the dvergar were prized. In this chapter, Max has made a visit down to a pair of dvergar brothers to negotiate for an enchanted Viking ship that can sail of itself and shrink down to a convenient pocket s [...]
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Sketch of the Day:

Scale serves as one of the biggest differences between The Fiend and the Forge and the earlier books in the series.  It is an altogether bigger book - not just in terms of length, but also in terms of the scale of the world/settings and the stakes in play.  I want the illustrations to echo and reinforce this dynamic and so here is a sketch of Max's arrival to the capital city of Blys - one of the four kingdoms that have emerged in the new order.  It's just a rough sketch, but my hope is that it immediately conveys a sense of size/depth and also tells you a little bit about the culture that would build or inhabit such a city.  Not exactly a non-hierarchical society, is it?

Sketch of the Day:  Here's a sketch I'm working on for the frontispiece of The Fiend and the Forge.  The frontispiece is the illustration that goes right inside the cover and is thus critical as an attention grabber and mood setter.  This scene is a powerful one in the book and I think could serve quite well if I can hammer out the final tweaks. 

On a more involved/complex drawing such as this, I'll work with pencil sketches, architectural models, and a digital drawing tablet to compose everything on the computer and experiment with different lighting, details, etc. before I'll commit to doing the final artwork by hand using pen and ink and water.  The computer is fantastic for [...]
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