Nancy Drew Diaries, 3 and 4

Nancy Drew Diaries 4 - Once Upon a Thriller

Fun with Nancy Drew continues! These are covers 3 and 4 in the Nancy Drew Diaries series. This one with Nancy in the bookstore might be my favorite yet. Also, this cover with Nancy spying on a horse just came out this week, so yay!

Nancy Drew Diaries 3 - Mystery of the Midnight Rider

Sketches for these covers are usually a fun challenge. We aim to show some drama, but not really give away much of the story. Here are a few sketches from this round-

I looked up lots of hay lofts to figure out the angle for this one. Also, I now know what a hay loft is. Since this series has a fairly large title treatment, I always leave a lot of room for it to fit nicely. It's a challenge, but I think the type helps my compositions in the end.

And for cover 4, more fun bookstore angles! For both of these covers, I mocked up some simple geometry with the 3D Bevel/Extrude tool in Illustrator. I know a lot of illustrators use Google Sketchup for similar purposes, but I'm not tech savvy enough to use that, so Illustrator gets the job done.

In other news-







Next week I'll be attending Spectrum Fantastic Art Live along with some artist friends (Drew! Mclean! Andrew!), and I'm very excited.
I attended the first Spectrum last year and was completely blown away by the high caliber of artists exhibiting there. I've been to lots of different types of conventions (comic book cons, SCBWIs, concept art, etc) and Spectrum felt very special to me. I highly recommend it.

I won't have a booth there this year, but I did use Spectrum as an excuse to update and print a new portfolio book. Happy with how these turned out-

So say howdy if you're there!

Til then, take care!
-Erin

What I Came to Tell You

What I Came to Tell You

Here is the cover for What I Came to Tell You, written by Tommy Hays. This book will be out in September this year, published by Egmont USA, and I had great direction from Sarah Hoy. It was very fun to paint the bamboo grove and all of its colorful leaves.

Detail

I also drew a forest girl, for kicks. It's nice to spend some time with real media before I jump into the digital world. Maybe I should put some of these media studies up as prints?

 Enjoying the restless spring, looking forward to camping, Game of Thrones, and Spectrum next month. I hope all are well.

Going on an adventure

The Adventurer

You can never be too prepared for an adventure. Fezzes always remind me of Moonbot and Bill Joyce, who has a mighty collection. It's finally spring, which means we have that short, glorious window of weather to go outside, go camping, enjoy things a bit before it's summer.

Also, are you on Instagram? I am! You can follow me here. I mostly use it to fill in the gaps between blog updates. It's way easier to post works-in-progress and sketches (plus the cheap thrill of a photo filter). Here's a few recent ones-

Girl of Rainbow Feathers

Sara Sketch

Flower Crown

Sleeping Loki

Bijou Sketch

Time machine concept

And of course, I may post the occasional cat picture. Here's me transcending to a Level 3 cat lady.

Hello children.

So, enjoy! Til next time, take care.

Darkbeast Rebellion

 Today is technically the last day of winter (I know this because tomorrow is my birthday, the first day of spring, vernal equinox!) so I thought I'd post one last vestige of snow as we move into warmer times. I had fun illustrating Darkbeast last year, and I am happy to show the cover for the sequel Darkbeast Rebellion as well. Similar to the first book, I created this illustration as a wraparound that will extend onto the back cover.

Darkbeast Rebellion is written by Morgan Keyes, published by Simon & Schuster, art directed by  Russel Gordon.

And hey! Look at that, I've updated my website with this and other new work for your viewing pleasure.

Newly updated www.emcguire.net

Thanks for checking it out, and take care.

The Real Boy

Happy to finally show the cover for The Real Boy, my second book with author and fellow cat owner Anne Ursu. The Real Boy is a middle grade novel set entirely in a new fantasy world, and stars Oscar the magician's assistant, and five cats.

I had such a good time working with HarperCollins/Walden Pond Press on Breadcrumbs, that I was super excited to be asked back for Anne's next book. I've written a longer post about the work that went into this cover over here on Nerdy Book Club.

Many thanks to Jordan Brown and Kellie Celia at WPP for their help with everything, and to my wonderful AD on this project- Amy Ryan. Hand drawn type for the cover is by Sarah Hoy.

Saranormal-thon

Saranormal 9

Saranormal 9 Detail

It occurred to me that I am behind on posting recent Saranormal covers! Here are covers seven, eight, and nine in this series with Simon and Schuster. I thought I'd include some detail shots as well, for kicks. As you can see, I get a lot of use out of my sparkle brushes. Art direction as always by the wonderful Laura Roode.

Saranormal 8

Saranormal 8 Detail

Saranormal 7

Saranormal 7 Detail

Thanks, and take care!

Valentines and Watercolors

A little watercolor to say Happy Valentine's Day! Lately I've been trying to include watercolor breaks into my schedule as a way to loosen up. For a few weeks I tried drawing a different kid every break, here are a few from that set that were fun for me-

I was fortunate to attend Austin's SCBWI conference last week, and I had a fantastic time. The Austin book community was very vibrant and welcoming, and I drove back to Dallas full of inspiration.

The next big conference on my calendar is in May, which is Spectrum Art Live. We attended last year and this year's lineup sounds just as exciting.

Til then, take care!

Nancy Drew Diaries- Strangers on a Train

Nancy Drew Diaries

The first two books in the Nancy Drew Diaries series are in stores tomorrow, and I'm excited to finally see them in print! I previously posted my cover for Curse of the Arctic Star, and I thought I'd celebrate their release by showing the Strangers on a Train cover as well.

These are a few of the early sketches for this cover. We ultimately decided against the more action-packed Nancy, since it was a bit similar to cover #1. The slightly more subtle and suspicious train station setting proved more successful.

Literary classics are always a pleasure to illustrate, but they are challenging as well. Nancy Drew has been around for about 80 years, and creating artwork that lives up to and fits in with that legacy is a lot of pressure. It's been really great hearing from folks in the Nancy Drew fan community while working on the series, their words of support were greatly appreciated! I hope all her readers, new and old, are happy with her new look.

Thanks, and enjoy!

Season's Greetings

Happy Holidays, friends! Hope everyone has a great time with family, and plenty of good food. I hope 2013 is as busy and exciting as this year has been.

Take care!

Jo March - Light Grey Art Lab

“You are the gull, Jo, strong and wild, fond of the storm and the wind, flying far out to sea, and happy all alone.” ― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women 

 
Happy to share the piece I did for Light Grey Art Lab's GIRLS: Fact + Fiction show. The premise was to choose either a historical or fictional female character to illustrate.

I chose Jo March, the heroine of Little Women. I admire her stubbornness and independence, plus I've seen the movie enough times that it's become part of my DNA. And, though I'm living in Texas now, I'll always be a New Englander at heart.

If you're in the Minneapolis area Dec 7th- Jan 4th, the entire GIRLS: Fact + Fiction show is on display, and the lineup looks fantastic. Address and times here. Plus, the exhibit is available as a book, or as individual prints here.

If you'd like a print of this Jo March piece, they're exclusively available here.

Enjoy!

Thanks!

Thank you everyone!

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway! The contest is now over, and I've already notified the winner. I really appreciated all of the entries, and if you didn't win this time don't fear- I'm sure I'll do another giveaway in the near future.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and take care!

-Erin

Prints available, and a Giveaway!

Erin McGuire Prints

Hello! I'm pleased to finally be able to offer prints of my work through inPRNT! If you're interested in a print of one of my illustrations, check out what I have up here. I hope there's something for someone on your holiday shopping list as well.

Also, a Giveaway

As a thanks to everyone who has kept up with my blog, I'm also doing a giveaway! In thinking about what to give away, I thought about the art books I made for Spectrum Live this past year.

My art book is softcover, about 40 pages and showcases all of my recent work (some of which isn't available online), and there are very few of these left. As a bonus, I'll do an original sketch request in the front. I don't sell these books online anywhere. Short of meeting me in person, there's really no other way to get one of these books, which makes it a perfect giveaway.

To keep everything fair and legit, I'm using the rafflecopter widget so I can actually get a hold of you if you win-
a Rafflecopter giveaway
To enter, you can do one or both of the following-
- Comment on this post
- Follow me on twitter (@emcguirestudio), and post- Just entered @emcguirestudio's art book giveaway- http://emcguire.blogspot.com/

I'll be running this giveaway all week, and will pick a winner at random on Saturday, November 24th.

Thanks everyone, and good luck!

A Song for Bijou

My illustration for Josh Farrar's new middle grade novel with Walker/Bloomsbury- A Song for Bijou
Art direction from fellow Ringling alumni Nicole Gastonguay!

Goodreads summary-

Life for Alex Schrader has never involved girls. He goes to an all-boys prep school and spends most of his time goofing around with his friends. But all that changes the first time he meets Bijou Doucet, a Haitian girl recently relocated to Brooklyn after the earthquake-and he is determined to win her heart. 

It was a pleasure illustrating such a sweet story. Also, this was one cover where I managed to stick pretty close to the original thumbnail-

And finally, the cover with type-

Hope you enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Just a quick update with a water color warm up from the other day. I love doing these in the morning to loosen up a bit. This is the best time of year for anything pumpkin related.

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!

Saranormal, plus updated website

Saranormal Book 5 - Moment of Truth

Saranormal Book 6 - Giving up the Ghost

I'm happy to share the covers for Saranormal 5 and 6! This series has been a lot of fun to illustrate, one of the fun challenges is mixing up the palette for every cover. For Book 6, I initially had a lot of cool blues and night time tones, but it made the cover way too similar to some previous books. We experimented with some other colors and ended up with this golden look, which is way more interesting than what I had originally.

Also, I've updated my website with all of my recent projects. You can see everything at www.emcguire.net 

Thanks!

Endings, New Beginnings

Today is my last day as a full time artist at Reel FX Studios. After much deliberation, I've decided now is the time for me to throw one hundred percent of my efforts into being a full time freelance illustrator.

I spent four great years at Reel FX working on over 200 commercial and film projects with a hardworking, kind, and talented team of designers. But at the same time, for the past three years, I've been moonlighting in the publishing world, doing all of the books and covers you see here. I never wanted to publicly admit how hard this double life was, how crazy the hours were becoming, because I kept feeling like my luck would change.

After working on over 25 books this year alone, it was clear I didn't need to keep waiting for a sign that I'm ready. Anything pursued with hard work and passion has a tendency to work out. So when it came time to choose, I knew the world of kid lit was my home.

This time last year, I spoke to students at Ringling College of Art and Design about my experience working on childrens books. One student asked me what my dream job would be, my reply was something along the lines of "Well, I already have it. I want to make books for kids for the rest of my life."

And I do. So here we go.

Frogged Cover

Frogged by Vivian Vande Velde

I'm so happy to share the cover I illustrated for Frogged by Vivian Vande Velde, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, with art direction from Elizabeth Tardiff.

We started by exploring a few different approaches to show a princess turning into a frog, as well as an illustrated frame approach. At one point in the story, there's a funny disagreement between two characters, as a boy steals a female role in a play (ala Shakespearean plays where boys play the female roles), leading to the only time I've ever sent a children's book publisher a character in drag.

Such a beautiful "Lady"

But in the end, this was not the sketch we picked. I tried another variation on the illustrated frame approach, yielding this sketch-

Also, Darkbeast goes on sale today!

You can see more of the wraparound cover here. I actually had a chance to read this one as I worked on the cover, and I think it's a really beautiful story.

 Thanks everyone!

Nancy Drew Diaries

Nancy Drew Diaries

I am very excited to share a new project I've had underway for a while. I'll be illustrating covers for the classic Nancy Drew, in her newest series, Nancy Drew Diaries. As a Nancy Drew fan myself, it's been an incredible honor, and I hope to do the new series justice. The first book, Curse of the Arctic Star, will be out in February of next year.

More information on the other books in the series is at Simon & Schuster's page.

Thanks!

-Erin

Saranormal Cover 4

Saranormal : Spirits of the Season

 I've been having a great time working on the Saranormal Series with Simon & Schuster. This is the fourth book in the series, a spooky story during the Christmas season.

And the final crop with type treatment by Laura Roode, my awesome AD on this project.

Hope you all enjoy, thanks!