Although all the sketches are not final, I had to plow ahead and do one of the layouts. This is a double page spread, when little Eli Treebuckle arrives at the Moonpowder factory with Mr. Moon. This is done in pencil, and then I will scan it in and paint in photoshop. That allows me the most flexibility when making color choices, and also helps me stay consistent throughout the book. The other image is a quick lighting pass that I do with the layout. This allows me to plan how the final piece will look with all the shadows and lighting in place. I probably will not post the final painting until later in the year, as right now I want to focus on getting the rest of the images figured out. For the front door of the Moonpowder factory, I drew visual inspiration from the train station in Antwerp, and the Celestial Clock in Prague. They are both beautiful pieces of design and I highly recomend seeing them in person if you ever get a chance. On another visual note, when I wrote the first draft of the manuscript, this scene had a long visual description of what was happening and what things looked like. And after I did the layout, I found that I didn't need any of that. Now it just says "Welcome to the Moonpowder Factory" Mr. Moon beamed.
By the way, to all those posting comments. Thank you. I hope that this can become an open forum for discussing the art of children's books. best, John
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