The Making of a Cover: The Wrong Side of the Bed

Legendary librarian, teacher, and children’s book advocate John Schu (aka @MrSchuReads in the twittersphere) was kind enough to unveil the front cover of The Wrong Side of the Bed on his blog the other day. Written by Lisa M. Bakos and illustrated by yours truly, the book is scheduled for release by G.P. Putnam’s Sons on March 8, 2016.

It’s been a long time in the making. In fact, next week marks two years since I was first approached about illustrating Lisa’s hilarious text. As anyone in publishing knows, that’s just how things go sometimes. But hip, hip, hooray!—today I turned in the last bit of art for the book, the endpapers.

Anyway, I’m thrilled to have the chance to show off the front cover, and since you’ll have to wait a bit longer for a view of the interiors, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share a bit of the cover-making process.

first thumbnail sketches

The first challenge was fitting all ten characters in the story onto the jacket. As you can see above, I tried a couple of variations, with the main character surrounded by, or next to the rowdy group of animals with whom she contends. But none of these really seemed to convey enough mayhem. (One note: even though the sketch on the lower right didn’t make it as a cover, I used a similar arrangement for the endpapers.)

For the second round of sketches, my fabulous Art Director, Cecilia Yung thought that a bed should be used as a component coming in between the main character and the animals—to literally show her on the wrong side of the bed. I had been worried that such a static element might be too dull, but I tried it anyway. Here’s what I came up with, and I even worked it up into several finished variations. We thought we were there, but...

from the second round of sketches

a color finish

It turned out, this worked much better as a black and white sketch than a full-color illustration. So it was back to the drawing board. Our book designer, Annie Ericsson had the brilliant idea of using the bed as a graphic element, rather than making it too realistic. In this option, she suggested hiding the main character under the blankets, thus accentuating the craziness of the animals, who could be peaking over the top.

I loved the idea, and ran with it. As you can see in the first sketch below, on the left side—which would have been the back of the jacket—I pushed things a little too far with the farting penguins (note the dazed and repulsed hippopotamus). As all good art directors do, Cecilia reined me in just a tiny bit. That’s what you see in the final sketch, and in the finished cover.

jacket sketch, third round

final jacket sketch

The Wrong Side of the Bed hits bookshelves in March, but it’s currently available for pre-order through the Penguin Random House website. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far!

I turned in some finished art this week...

...and this is how I feel. There’s still much more to do, but hitting the “send” button feels pretty satisfying during my marathon year of picture book making. Be on the lookout for The Wrong Side of the Bed in 2016 (yes, another year to wait) written by Lisa M. Bakos, and illustrated by me.

What’s Up?

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this page with what’s on my drawing board. A lot, it turns out…

First up, I’m finishing the cover art for another non-fiction picture book by David A. Adler, called Teeth, Slides, Seesaws and Other Simple Machines, to be published by Holiday House next Spring. If you ever wondered how a small cat could push a box of bowling balls up a hill, and perhaps a few more relevant things, this book is full of answers.

I’m also having a great time painting the raucous art for The Wrong Side of the Bed, a picture book by Lisa M. Bakos, to be published by the fine folks at G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 2016.

Next up is Little Card by Charise Harper to be published by Candlewick Press in 2016, and is a book I’m super excited about.

And if you’ve every grown zucchini in your garden, you’ll understand how Zora’s Zucchini by Kathy Pryor will sneak in here in abundance, to be published by Readers to Eaters in Fall 2015.

Whew! I need to get back to work, but one last thing—in case you missed it on my tumblr last week, here’s a bit of my work for Kiwi Magazine. In the most recent issue, we learned how to shuck corn, so of course I turned the spots into a striptease. It plays quite well with any soundtrack of your choice, but I’m partial to Atomic by Blondie…

A look at the year to come

Happy New Year! I hope yours it getting off to a great start. For me, 2014 is already shaping up into a busy year. 

As I mentioned on this page a few months ago, I’m in the process of sketching 2 new picture books that will be released in 2015: The Wrong Side of the Bed, by Lisa Bakos, published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons; and Simple Machines, another non-fiction picture book by David A. Adler, published by Holiday House. I look forward to sharing a few teaser images as I get further into the painting process.

And great news! It looks like I’ll be illustrating another book for Candlewick, my World Rat Day publisher. I’ll share more details at a later date. 

My work for Kiwi Magazine continues. If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to eat more leafy greens, then the current issue’s “Cooking with Kids” section is just what you’ll need to learn how to clean and prepare kale, minus the army of industrious green peas, of course. 

If you were unable to see the Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators over the last few months, you might be able to catch the traveling show. For more information, click here. I was very pleased that my image from World Rat Day was included.

Here’s to a happy and healthy 2014!

new book news and some nice reviews

It’s been difficult keeping this page current of late, and now somehow it’s already the first day of autumn. Which reminds me...time to go balance an egg!

Okay, now that’s out of the way...

I should have shared this a while back, but some great reviews have been coming in for Things That Float and Things That Don’t by David A. Adler. Both Booklist and Publishers Weekly gave it starred reviews. Here’s a quick quote from the former:

“Raff's jaunty, imaginative illustrations feature two curious children and their dog playing around with objects and water. It’s rare to find a picture book that uses simple, hands-on activities so successfully, leading young children to a fuller understanding of a scientific concept.”

And to top things off, about a week ago, I received news from Holiday House that the book has been awarded a “Junior Library Guild Selection.”  This designation comes with its own accessory...

Now for new book news: I’ve signed on with G. P. Putnam’s Sons to illustrate a new picture book by Lisa M. Bakos called The Wrong Side of the Bed. I for one, have been thoroughly entertained during the sketching phase, which is nearly complete. Of course, I look forward to sharing some visuals when the time comes. To tide you over, here’s an early sketch of one of the book’s many characters...

And on the heels of that, I’ll be illustrating another non-fiction picture book for Holiday House by David A. Adler. So it looks like it’s going to be another busy year.

By now your eggs have rolled over...so back to it then...Happy Fall!