H.E. persists in suggesting I do my own children’s books. I’m not against the idea, but I need time to work on something publishable. In the meantime, I’ve started doing interior illustrations.

The book is Toto’s Tale, by K.D. Hays and Meg Weidman, published by Zumaya Publications, for whom I’ve done covers for books like Unveiling the Enigma and Busting Loose.

Toto’s Tale is essentially the story of The Wizard of Oz, as told from Toto’s point of view, and I did about half a dozen black and white illustrations for the book, plus the color cover art. Here is one of them:

It was fun doing something completely hand-drawn for a change. I got myself new pens for the project alone and experimented with watercolor pencils for the color. With the exception of one illustration that needed to have a part of it removed after the author requested changes, the only computer work I did on the project was in scanning the finished drawings and laying out the cover.

The book should be available soon, and I’m hoping this is the first of many such assignments. I’ve already started doing research on my second, which right now I’m keeping a secret, and I’ll post more about it when I’ve made some progress.

But for now, a small clue … it’s been around a while, and if it isn’t considered a classic, it should be.

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