OLYMPIANS POSTER! A complete walkthrough

The upcoming Olympians poster is as finished as it's gonna get. I thought you might like to see this step-by-step process of how it was made, from the finish all the way back to the sketch.

finished color

finished inks

pencils

sketch

Awesome fan art! Lil Hera! Lil Athena!

Awhile back, I drew up a comic for the ReadKiddoRead awards (Olympians was nominated for best series, and is probably losing as I type). It starred lil Olympians versions of Zeus and Hades. I drew up lil Olympian versions of the whole pantheon, wanting to do something with them in the future, but so far as I recall I never posted any other designs. Imagine my surprise then when I received these awesome drawings of lil Athena and lil Hera via twitter today from twitter user @britters1516. She figured out the underlying design principles behind my Zeus and Hades and perfectly extrapolated Hera and Athena. Amazing!

I'll have to dig up my own designs and post them, to see how they compare.

POSEIDON: EARTH SHAKER on the NYTimes Bestsller list!

A huge, heartfelt "THANK YOU!!!!" to everyone who helped put it there. Meanwhile, eternal middle child Poseidon celebrates a victory that little bro Zeus's book never quite managed.

Hades has been nominated for a ReadKiddoRead award!

...so I made this comic about it.

You can vote for me here. It literally takes seconds, and if you vote for me, and tell me, I'll make more zany comics like this. Also? I'll be your best friend.

Chance to win a free copy of Zeus!

The book review supersite Goodreads is running a contest from February 4th until the 13th in which 5 lucky people will win a copy of my very own book Zeus: King of the Gods. Follow the link for your chance to win!

Zeus on Turtle and Robot

Turtle and Robot is a new(ish) children's book blog run by my old friend (and fellow Books of Wonder alum) Jennifer "Lavoovavie" Lavonier.  Jenn knows her children's books-- in addition to serving as the manager and book buyer of Books of Wonder, for, like, ever, she was the personal assistant to Maurice Sendak. Her blog and its reviews of children's books old and new has become very, very popular, and now she's turned her attention to my very own Zeus: King of the Gods. Give a click, and check out the rest of her site while you're there.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #74

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks every day until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from April of 2007.

Today's drawing is not exactly the best thing I've ever drawn, but it was interesting for me, coming across this sketch and others like it. I had forgotten that there was ever a time when I contemplated Zeus growing to Titan-size for the final confrontation with his father. Glad I didn't go this route.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #68

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks every day until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from February of 2007.

Today's sketch is a sea of Zeus faces, with a early appearance by Heracles right in the middle. It was interesting to me to note that Heracles apparently emerged fully-formed out of the ether-- this is the earliest sketchbook appearance by him I could find, and he looks pretty much exactly as he will in Hera: The Goddess and her Glory.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #67

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks every day until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from February of 2007.

Hot on the heels of yesterday's sketch of Impetuous Zeus, which was, as I wrote, the first time I felt I 'got' Zeus as a character, is this shot of Zeus from the opposing page in the same sketchbook. What I see here is that at this point, while I may had finally figured out Zeus's face, his aegis was still awhile off. Looks like he's wearing a mink stole.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #66

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks every day until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from February of 2007.

Now I know I've posted this drawing before-- I've posted this drawing all over town. That's because this drawing is one of my favorite drawings ever. I like this drawing so much I actually named it-- "Impetuous Zeus". This was the first time I ever really "got" the character, my version, of Zeus. So even though I've posted this other places before, when I came across this in my sketchbooks again I just had to post it chronologically with all my other sketches. So take that.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #64

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks every day until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from February of 2007.

 

 

Today's sketch is Zeus getting all lightningey and stuff.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #61

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from February of 2007.

Getting so close I can taste it! Today, a bunch of marker studies of Zeus as a young god.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #57

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from February of 2007.

Back to pencils today. A couple of studies of a Cyclops, and a shot of Zeus to boot. I really dig the bottom Cyclops-- looks like he's going "whatchu looking at?"

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #55

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from January of 2007.

More sharpie goodness, this time a sketch of Zeus as a young god, looking out of the darkness of his cave into the light.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #49

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from January of 2007.

Today's sketch is me starting to figure out how to depict certain scenes. This is a visualization of the time that the Goddess Athena spent living inside her father Zeus's head (notice his headachey pose). I ultimately went with a very different depiction of this scene in Athena: Grey Eyed Goddess, but I did like the dynamism of her pose here.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #48

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from January of 2007.

Whoops! Should've ran today's post last week when I was showing all the rejected portrait covers for Olympians. Here revealed is the original title for Zeus, which was dismissed by my editor with a "What does that even mean?" .  I have to admit that "Zeus: King of the Gods" is a much more gripping title.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #40

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from January of 2007.

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, for a while I envisioned each cover of Olympians to be a portrait of the featured god; here's a sketch for the book that would eventually become Zeus: King of the Gods. Note, like yesterdays' installment,  the alternate titles and featured myths.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #22

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Takes dat! Pow! Today's sketch is a goofy little piece showing Goddess of War Athena totally decking God of War Ares with a very loud punch. Elsewhere on the page, a dark-haired Zeus looks taken aback by the proceedings. He must not like it when his kids fight. This drawing really popped out to me as I skimmed my old sketchbooks due to the sound effect. Shades of my first picture book Kapow!

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #20

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Continuing with yesterday's theme of dark-haired Zeus, here's another shot of the King of Gods, atop a cloud and about to hurl his lightning bolt. Now that I've rediscovered this drawing, I find I quite like this pose. Don't be surprised to see this pop up in a future volume of Olympians.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #19

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Today's post is going up very late because, well, I was running around all day and forgot to do it in the AM due to Saturday morning laziness. Which is a shame, because I really kind of dig this doodle of early Zeus, even if it does look like he's punching a giant floating eye . The King of the Gods pictured here has now safely moved past his cartoony face period, but is still in his his hair-turns-to-dark-storm-clouds when he's angry phase. Man, looking back, I wish I had kept that idea in the final books.