BMX Bike Ride Revisions

I thought I was done with the covers for the latest round of kids books and was well on my way through the interiors of them when I got a request from the editors of the BMX bike book.

As I did the pencils for the interior of the book, the story called for the main character to wear a full BMX dirt bike helmet as he raced his new bike. So, I followed the story, gave him the helmet, and everything seemed OK.

When I did the original cover for the book I hadn't read the story yet and was given very little direction as to what the cover was to look like. I didn't know if the story was about bike racing, doing tricks, having adventures, nothing. All I had to go on was the boy looked like a young Will Smith and was 14 years old. I had to ask what kind of bike riding he was doing and was informed that he was racing. So, I asked again what kind of gear he would have on while racing. Was it a casual race, with regular bike helmets and pads, full BMX gear with the plastic armored chest pieces and full helmets, or something in between? I was told to put street clothes on him and a helmet and pads.

Originally I penciled the character on the cover with a full BMX helmet but was told, in the pencil stage, to change it to a regular bike helmet. So I changed it, finished the piece up, and turned all the covers in.

But now, with the character wearing a full BMX dirt bike helmet in the interior of the book I was informed by editorial that they wanted me to change the helmet I had on the cover to a full BMX helmet. I asked if they were aware that I had done the full helmet originally and was asked to change it to a regular bike helmet? Yes, they said, they knew they had messed up and, as they said, "it was our bad."

So, I changed the helmet back to what it originally looked like when I penciled the piece and then even went one step beyond and gave the character on the cover the sweatshirt he wears on the interior of the book.

Because, you know, I want to make the kids who read the books happy.

Plus, I like the BMX full helmet a whole lot better.