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What I’m Doing at Kirkus This Week,
Plus What I Did Last Week, Featuring Debbie Ridpath Ohi

h1 June 22nd, 2018 by jules



 

Over at Kirkus today, I’ve got the outdoors on the mind.

That is here.

* * *

Last week, I wrote here at Kirkus about Michael Ian Black’s and Debbie Ridpath Ohi’s I’m Sad (Simon & Schuster, June 2018). I’m following up here at 7-Imp today with some preliminary/process images from Debbie, as well as a bit of final art from the book. I thank her for sharing.



 

Early Sketches:


 


Debbie: “Early sketches of the Flamingo. When I drew the Flamingo in I’m Bored at the end, I had no idea that this would turn into a series. I decided to modify the appearance of this character a tad to give me more emotional options.
I gave the Flamingo in I’m Sad a distinct mouth, for example.”
(Click to enlarge image)


 


Debbie: “Early note-taking and sketching …”
(Click to enlarge image)


 


Debbie: “Close-up of some of my scribbled notes. First thing I usually do is read and
re-read the manuscript text; then I start scribbling.”
(Click to enlarge image)


 


Debbie: “Experimenting with different background elements and
how I’m going to draw them …”
(Click to enlarge image)


 



Debbie: “I do a lot of these stick-figure thumbnail sketches after getting a manuscript. Having all these on one page makes it easier for me to easily check overall pacing,
story flow, visual layout, etc.”
(Click each image to enlarge)


 

Creating a Spread, Step-by-Step …


 


Debbie: “Close-up of thumbnail sketch for the ‘why do sad things happen?’ page …”
(Click to enlarge image)


 


Debbie: “Early layout sketch of the ‘why do sad things happen?’ spread —
with my placeholder text …”
(Click to enlarge image)


 


Debbie: “To reduce clutter and improve flow, we decided to shift things around a bit.”
(Click to enlarge image)


 


Debbie: “Once final art was approved, I removed the placeholder text,
so my art director could add the real text.”
(Click to enlarge image)


 


Debbie: “The final version …”
(Click to enlarge image)


 

Some More Final Art from the Book …


 



 



 



 



 

* * * * * * *

I’M SAD. Copyright © 2018 by Hot Schwartz Productions. Illustrations © 2018 by Debbie Ridpath Ohi. Published by Simon & Schuster, New York. Illustrations and all other images used by permission of Debbie Ridpath Ohi.





One comment to “What I’m Doing at Kirkus This Week,
Plus What I Did Last Week, Featuring Debbie Ridpath Ohi”

  1. I love, love, love that we’re now giving kids the conversational cues to say “I will still like you even if you’re in a mood that lasts for days.” We all need to learn to ask for that and to say that…

         by tanita June 22nd, 2018 at 11:03 am

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