Imagining a tropical waterhole

For me, each kind of plant has its own personality. I love to explore compositions with each one, seeing how they arrange, and what kind of space and feelings they produce. I think in another life I might have been a gardener.

Fan palms, with their energetic starburst shaped fronds are exuberant, and irrepressibly optimistic, quite the opposite of myself, which is perhaps why I enjoy painting them so much.

The art of children's book endpapers

 

I was quite pleased with the endpapers I illustrated for book 1 of this series, The Garbage Trucks Are Coming Today! And so as I set out on illustrating Susan Taylor's second book in the series, I knew I wanted to do something really fun with the endpapers again.

I'm a long time fan of Hokusai, the Japanese Edo period ukiyo-e artist (woodblock printmaking). How fun it might be I thought, to fill the double spread with sloshing, swirling waves of concrete in the spirit of Hokusai's great wave?

Book 2 endpaper design

Book 1 endpaper design

I hope you (and your children) enjoy these endpapers as much as I enjoyed illustrating them. Below are a couple more samples for your enjoyment from book 2 titled, They're Building a House Next Door!