A Basketball Story – Interior 14

December 24, 2021December 19, 2021Leave a comment

Not to end on too harsh a note for the kids, they do get to go to FUNZone. The agreement was for if they went undefeated during the regular season. So, losing the championship doesn’t keep them from getting their party.

The kids from the Jackrabbit team got to go to the FUNZone trampoline party room. The image shows seven of them and their coach. Five are leaping around on the trampolines, two are in the ball pit, and the coach is juggling three ball pit balls.

A Basketball Story – Interior 10

December 20, 2021December 19, 2021Leave a comment

Here’s the 10th interior.

The coach substitutes at the Sea Turtles’ school and observes that the team is really working well together. They’ll be a real challenge to the Jackrabbits next time they face them.

The coach stands inside a brick building, looking out the window. Outside, the Sea Turtles youth basketball team practices on the blacktop court on the playground.

A Basketball Story – Interior 8

December 1, 2021December 1, 2021Leave a comment

Here’s a two-page spread. You can see the kids are goofing off. Not really doing any harm, but not doing what they’re supposed to be doing either. In the story, at this point, they’re starting to think they’re undefeatable and they don’t have to work at it anymore. This will cause problems later.

Again, this is from the latest illustration project I finished, A Basketball Story, for Entrepreneur Media Inc.

An illustration of the corner of a school gymnasium. A kids' basketball team lounges around and goofs off. The scoreboard shows that they won the last game by 20 to 7. The coach looks on in disapproval.

A Basketball Story – Interior 6, Right Side

November 27, 2021November 19, 2021Leave a comment

Here’s the right side of the interior I posted yesterday. Coach Miles is explaining how he’ll take the team to FUNZone if they win all ten games in the season.

Coach Miles is standing in front of a classroom white board with "10 - 0 -> FUNZone" written on it. Two players in the front row are incredulous.

A Basketball Story – Interior 6, Left Side

November 26, 2021November 19, 2021Leave a comment

The next interior has two images, one on either side. Here’s the first one. Someone taking the team picture. This same picture is also used on the cover.

An illustration of someone taking a team photo using a cell phone. Only the picture-taker's hands and phone are visible, with the team visible on the screen. The actual team is out of focus in the distance.

A Basketball Story – Interior 5

November 25, 2021November 19, 2021Leave a comment

A wide view of the team’s first game for the picture book project I just finished. The text for this page fits in the white space over the bleachers on the left side. This image gives you a good view of the logo I designed for the Jackrabbits. This image took longer than you’d think because, even though the people are tiny figures there are 28 of them and most of them had to be drawn and colored consistently with the depictions of those same characters on other pages. Uniforms do save time on coloring, though.

A wide view of a children's basketball game in a school gymnasium. A few spectators and the players on the bench cheer from the bleachers while players from both teams hustle on the court.

A Basketball Story – Interior 4

November 24, 2021November 19, 2021Leave a comment

And another interior for Entrepreneur Media, Inc.’s picture book. This two-page spread only has a little bit of text, so there’s room for it in the white space over the bleachers. Coach miles is taking his new team through drills.

Four kids are practicing dribbling basketballs under their coach's supervision.

A Basketball Story – Interior 3

November 23, 2021November 19, 2021Leave a comment

Here’s the next interior for Entrepreneur Media, Inc.’s picture book. Another two-page spread, with text to be overlaid on the blank spot to the upper left. The children are eagerly gathering around Coach Miles.

Children dressed in shorts and T-shirts eagerly gather around their basketball coach.

Inktober 2020 #5 – Blade

October 5, 2020October 5, 20206 Comments

Today we have sabre drill. A girl practicing fencing with her coach. The prompt was blade. I took the time to do comic book style shading and highlights this time.

I did my best to get the lunge position and the clothing correct. My husband fences, so I got a bit of advice from him on that. The coach is based very roughly on his coach and this drill is very common for beginning sabre fencers.

Sabre is the hack and slash style of fencing. Foil and epee are the pokey styles. My daughter is deeply disappointed I drew sabre instead of epee. She thinks epee is the best. But sabre just doesn’t have as nice a sound effect. SMACK!