Done and Done!

OK, I've been done with the latest Jake Maddox, Stone Arch books for over a week now so I figured it was finally time to get back to the blog. I know I've neglected it and I hope it forgives me.

The four books I spent the last eight to ten weeks working on focused on kids and Nascar racing. Now, I know I posted my first attempt at doing a cover for one of those books that was shot down. So, I figure it's only fair that I share with you the covers that got approved and will be lining school library shelves in the fall.

Like I said, before, I'm not the biggest car guy. I like my Jeep, I've had it for over twelve years, and it works fine. I don't lust after the newest car or read car magazines or really ever enjoy drawing cars. So, after I took this assignment I kind of regretted it. The problem was I had a few weeks lead time before I started it so too many negative thoughts ran through my head. But, I turned it around and looked at it as a challenge rather than a burden. I figured, if I'm going to have to draw cars for these next four books then I'm going to draw the best cars I can.

It seems to have worked out well.

The first book I illustrated was "Speed Camp." It featured kids going to camp and learning about racing, building a car, and then driving it. Of course, I did the covers first before I did the interior or even read the story. It was only after the cover was finished that I discovered the car I had designed and drawn had been built by the kids in the book. And, not only that, they painted it themselves and it only took them a day to do it! Man, if these kids can do a paint job like this in a day then they need to get a job somewhere and charge some high end rates.














So, here it is, the design of the car and my original cover design before it finally ended up on the cover of the "Speed Camp" book.

I guess I'm not so bad at drawing cars after all.

Enjoy!