Illustrating a Picture Book: Drawing Rhinos and Squirrels

I'm back to work on my Baby Goes Baaaa! artwork this morning, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see the 2nd half of my SketchCrawl sketchbook. I've got to crack on as I'm nearing my deadline - I have to get as much done as I can before all my March school visits kick in.

Things are still going well though. On Thursday I finished off the 'Uh-Oh!' rhinos, which I was half way through last time you looked in:

Then I began work on the letters H, I and J. These involve 3 different pieces of artwork, but the first two are linked and appear on the same page. As you can see on the roughs, 'H' if for Hee-Hee: a baby squirrel is a fit of giggles because of what is happening with the letter 'I', illustrated with a baby anteater, who has had an accident with a tub of treacle:

I got the squirrel finished first. I went for a red squirrel, rather than the greys that are common in England, partly because I like the sweet, sticky-up ears, but mostly because of their rich, orange colour. I illustrated baby squirrel in cute, dressing-up fairy-wings, since I notice these are a favourite with the small children of my friends:

By the end of Friday, I was still half way through the anteater (I'll be finishing her off today) but I'd also got most of the letter 'J' done. As previously, I worked on several pieces together, since they will all appear on the same spread, so the colours have to balance properly.

This is how my desk looked on Friday evening:

As you may have worked out, 'J' is for 'Jiggle Joggle'. I just have to draw the suckers on the birthday party octopus and I'm done. Right, down to work...