Trace Broadcasting Concept Sketches

© Trace Broadcasting

Case of the Gasping Garbage (SRA/McGraw-Hill)

Backtracking a bit and retro-blogging some noteworthy projects. “Case of the Gasping Garbage,” commissioned by SRA/Mc-Graw-Hill, was one of my first full-length book commissions, compressed into a short production time line. I remember, really wanting to push my creative muscles in creating images that were dense ‘total environments’ for children to really get immersed into. By chance, the project’s timeline coincided with my planned move from Canada to the United Kingdom. So amidst packing and moving to another country, I was grappling with moving from the comfortable working environment of my Vancouver studio, to drawing at coffee shops, on the plane...wherever really. I always had a portable scanner and laptop in my backpack. I’ve inserted a few photos to contextualize my quickly changing working environment over the course of three month. Special thanks to Art Buyer (at Pronk & Associates) and personal friend, Thao Lam (Little T) for being so patient in dealing with my changing phone numbers and addresses!

Above: Preliminary book sketches . Completed from my Vancouver studio

Above: Secondary sketches created in Toronto, days before flying to the UK.

Above: Final Artwork created from my 'portable' London, UK studio.

Booooggeeeers!

© Houghton Mifflin / Bill Smith Studios

Lemonade Stand Comic

Fantastically Fun Crosswords for Kids - Cover Art

by Trip Payne, Ken Gamage (Illustrator)

Product Details

• Pub. Date: April 2006
• Publisher: Sterling Publishing
• Format: Paperback, 96pp
• Sales Rank: 23,438
• Age Range: 8 to 12
• ISBN: 1402721633

Synopsis

Puzzle master Trip Payne is back with more Mensa-quality crosswords for smart young word lovers. His brain-busting collections--including Awesome Crosswords for Kids and Clever Crosswords for Kids have all become bestsellers, and in these puzzles Payne's devoted audience will find the challenges it craves. Each crossword offers plenty of variety, with questions about sports, food, movies, geography, colloquial sayings--anything at all. And to make things even trickier, the same word might recur in different contexts from one puzzle to the next: Bat might be the answer to "flying animal" in one instance and to "baseball club" in another, so watch out! From "Homer Simpson's exclamation" to "The calm center of a hurricane," these crossword clues offer plenty of intriguing enjoyment.

Available at: Barnes and Noble, Amazon, WHSmith (UK)

Lemonade Stand Comic

Lemonade Stand Comic

Basketball Valentine (Peaceable Kingdom Press)

© Peaceable Kingdom Press & Ken Gamage

Fold-out Valentine's day card (1 of 3) for Peaceable Kingdom Press