At night after I put the kids to bed, I work on children’s books now and then.
“Sib Squad”, the first graphic novel in the series, comes out in the Spring. It’s about three younger siblings who never get to do the cool, fun stuff their older siblings get to do so they start the titular club. Anyhoo, over Christmas break, I finished work on “Sib Squad 2: Flying High” and sea monsters play a role in the story. Here’s a little art sample below.
I needed a photo for the “About the Author” page at the end of the book. I was just going to send a boring pic when I remembered that I had a model sea monster I made of clay and old toy dinosaur parts for a creative project that never materialized into anything. It was breaking apart, as you can see.
I went to the beach with my 10-year-old son, Matt (who is used to my strange ideas and a good sport) and had him snap a few shots of me holding the model.
I then used Photoshop to make our little friend larger and more life-like. Ta-da! Instant sea monster.
I think we make a nice pair. The takeaways? Never let forgotten projects go to waste. And you don’t always need AI to generate strange images.