Bloom where you are planted.

Twenty years ago, I decided to build an art studio. I was inspired by a drawing of Norman Rockwell's studio (in one of his books) and started with that basic idea. I wanted a great working space, tall ceilings, natural north light during the day and plenty of good lighting to use for the all-nighters. Lots of shelf space for books and storage for whatever else I picked up as inspiration.

I made a cardboard, to scale model of the building and put it on the driveway, near the spot where we planned to build. That gave me a good idea of how the daylight would come through the windows. I gave my cardboard model to a local builder and they drew the plans to build the structure, next to the house.

I've worked in a variety of spaces and this was, by far, the best place to work. Not all of my best work was created in that studio but it was a really nice place to use for those twenty years. There were some really beautiful sunsets behind the studio. In the winter, I didn't have to drive to work but I had to shovel a path to the studio door before I could start painting.

We recently moved and my new studio is in a different space. A much different surrounding but I will fill it with things that inspire me, make sure the lighting is good and start anew. There are plenty of ideas, waiting to be painted. New stories to be crafted and opportunities to grab ahold of. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Here's to the new adventure, the next chapter... 2018 will be a great year!

Some SWEET artwork is baking at the studio.

Here's another "chef" painting that I recently completed. I took a couple of pics while putting together this illustrative recipe.

It's funny to think that baking is a lot like painting. I mix and choose the right tools to work with...

apply some juicy textures...

and add the final touches... yum!

Here's a delicious detail of some of that sweet texture. Acrylic on gessoed board.

Back to the drawing board. -T.

Bowers Blogs about Buddy's Bedtime Battery.

A new book just hit the shelves, last week. Buddy's Bedtime Battery by Chirstina Geist (published by Random House) is my latest book and I want to take you behind the pages to see how the project progressed.

It's always exciting to get the first printed books in the mail. After months of a studio full of art boards in progress, wet paint and gallons of coffee (not part of the painting process but very necessary), the final product is a welcome payoff. Buddy finally arrived!

  

Now, let's look at how Buddy arrived. After reading the story manuscript and creating sketches for the characters, a full length book dummy was created. When the book sketches were finalized, the painting process began. 

I created a production line of boards with images of each page. I taped the edges with low-tac tape to keep that area clean and white. Then, an underpainting with brown acrylic paint was washed (thin layers) onto the boards. I usually do this when the final art is created with oil paint. The acrylic and polymer layers sealed the paper board from the oils and gave me a good (light and dark) value study to follow.

At this stage, the studio was full of artwork covering every flat space to be found. I have a drying rack for storing work in progress but I like to see everything laid, side by side.

     

Here is the title page. The towel area on the left was used for copyright and publishing information. The title was placed on the wall, above the bathtub. Notice the pajamas are visible, just below the towel. I often use elements and story props to hint at what's coming on the following page(s).

Here is one of the illustration spreads. One of my favorite images of the book.

This was my table, somewhere under the shingles of drying illustrations. The images were at various stages of completion so Buddy's hair looks really dark on the bottom image, etc. I worked on several paintings at a time and all art started to finalize toward the end of the process....which is also called..."the deadline" (If all goes as planned). It was a fairly long process and sometimes hard to see the end when spending days painting little parts, adjusting colors and adding detail. But eventually, it all came together and a package with the final art of Buddy's Bedtime Battery traveled to Random House. 

Buddy's Bedtime Battery reading

Then, months later, I get to see the book on NBC, being read to millions of TV viewers. How COOL is that? So exciting! ...So surreal! ...Yay, Buddy! 

...deep breath...now, back to the drawing board. :)