Working with P.J. Funnybunny

 A new P.J. Funnybunny book was released this week. P.J. Funnybunny stories are written by my good friend, Marilyn Sadler. The book's characters were originally created by Roger Bollen. The P.J. Funnybunny books are adored by fans around the globe. 

I first met Marilyn and Roger, in 1989. I was getting started as a children's book illustrator and they had been very successful in publishing with several of their characters, including P.J. Funnybunny. Roger was also a popular comic strip artist with his syndicated Animal Crackers strip.

I have always tried to learn from the best, so I arranged a trip to their home. With portfolio in hand, I traveled to Cleveland and spent an afternoon with Marilyn and Roger, hoping some of their success would rub off on me. It was a great trip and they were extremely kind and generous with their time. Roger mentioned that he was thinking of stepping back from his strip, Animal Crackers, to focus on other projects. He asked if I had an interest in possibly helping with the strip. I was stunned. I had not anticipated such a huge opportunity and wasn't sure what to say. I was just starting my children's book journey and realized that a commitment to a comic strip would be very time consuming so I humbly declined.

 In recent years, I've had the chance to work with Marilyn on some of her other projects. Roger Bollen died in 2015.

Fast forward to the present. Marilyn mentioned that her publisher was interested in producing more P.J. Funnybuny books because of a renewed interest in the characters. I asked if I could submit samples and be considered for the project. Even though cartooning wasn't what I had been currently doing, I have a long history of cartooning, starting from the very beginning when I was a kid. My cartoon style is very similar to what Roger was doing so it wasn't a long stretch to consider the project. I created some samples and sent them to Marilyn. I tried to be as true to Roger's style as I could. The character of his line and the colors that he chose. All the while, thinking of the Animal Crackers opportunity that had come and gone, years ago.

When Marilyn and the publisher seemed very pleased with my art samples, I felt like I had come pretty close to the spirit of Roger's work. In an unexpected way, it almost seemed like I had come full circle to help Roger, not with Animal Crackers but with P.J. Funnybunny.

 

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. :)