Ice Cream and Frenchy on the Promenade

The Brief: A dog jumping up on me


The Critique: I like it! I want two scoops of ice cream. No, three scoops!
Job Status: Approved
Additional Comments: Daddy some dogs even don't have tails! They only have buttholes!
Artist's Note: Tiny A.D. was electrified by this idea and drew 4 versions of it. Below is my favorite.  This was done a while ago and is one of the pieces from the book that I hadn't posted yet:

Our Natural Habitat

Extras
When we were putting the book together we weren't sure of the exact page count so I put together a few extras to have in reserve. Here is one I liked that didn't make it in:



Our Natural Habitat

The American Museum of Natural History is where we come for inspiration, and where the Art Director explains the difference between Crocodiles and Caimans, T-Rexes and Allosauruses, and wonders why they have a stupid Apatosaurus instead of a Brachiosaurus.

Dragon and Princess

The Brief: I want you to draw a dragon eating a girl.
The Negotiation: How about if they're actually friends?
The Critique: No, he has to have that girl is his mouth. He's not supposed to be a nice dragon. He's supposed to be a bad dragon. I want to see that girl's head pointing out of that dragon.
Job Status: Rejected
Additional Comments: He has to be biting and squishing it.

What is it?

The Brief: A cat eating a fish
The Critique:
"Cool! What is it?"
"You can't tell what it is?"
"No."
"We were just talking about it..."
[No Response.]
"Do you like it?"
"Sure."
Job Status: Approved?

Collaboration: T-Rex, Superdog and Girl

The Brief: I'll show you. I'll draw it and you copy [fig. 1]. It's a T-Rex trying to eat a girl.
The Critique (on sketch, after TAD's, no longer extant): I hate that girl. You erase her and I'll draw her as I like her. I want her to be brave. She's not scared of one thing cause that's me and I'm not scared.
The Critique (on sketch, improved by Art Director [fig. 2]): I think my drawing's a little bit better than yours.
Comments on collaborative painting, above: That's my bag, and that's a puppy in it. I'm not noticing the dinosaur, but the superdog [note the 3 eyes] knows what to do. She bites it on the neck and kicks it into a lava pool -- that's the volcano.
Job Status: Approved

A Crocodile Swimming to Shore

The Brief: A Crocodile Swimming to Shore

The Critique: That’s not a crocodile, that’s a caiman! I like the noses - they’re called nostrils. How do you like mine? Do you like yours? I hate yours. Job Status: Rejected Comments on her own piece (right): That’s a caiman, that’s an American alligator, that’s an alligator and that’s a crocodile. They’re all kinds of reptiles. They’re all a family of crocodiles but that one is looking for his babies.

3D!: If you can view cross-eyed 3d images click below for a bigger version
(But I'm not responsible if your eyes get stuck that way!)

A Snowman Family

The Brief: A Snowman Family
The Critique: It’s pretty good. I love it!
Why do I have the smallest carrot?
Why do I have three buttons?
Why did you paint the lamppost? I’m wondering why it’s so thin.
Who built us? I think we built us.
Why can’t we build a snow kitty?
Job Status: Approved

Artist's Note: You may notice that this piece is not exactly seasonal - I've been withholding a bunch of pieces that I did over the last few months for the book, and now that the manuscript is (nearly) final, I'll be doling them out over the next few months.

Snail Renaissance

The Brief: A mama snail and a baby snail
The Critique: I'm sorry to say that you're worser than me. You gotta learn to draw as me. You just don't draw so well. Why do you think that is? It turns out that I'm the good draw-er. It turns out that you're the art director.
Artists Note: The critique is on the initial sketch, and compares to hers. She actually likes the painting.
Job Status: Provisionally Approved, pending addition of jumping fish in the lake

Purple Gatorade and Uger

The Brief: Purple Gatorade [The Tiny Art Director's Fish] The Critique: Why did you draw Uger? [Her sister's fish] I hate Uger! Why is his eyes like that? It looks like he's mad. What are you writing down? Grownups never lie, right Daddy? Dad, that doesn't look like Purple Gatorade. Only mine looks like Purple Gatorade. You're going to scan it, and then when you're done with it, it's going to be scrappled up and thrown in the garbage. And then mine will be our final picture. Job Status: Rejected Our Final Picture: at right

X-Ray T-Rex

The Brief: A dinosaur in a X-Ray
The Critique: I just want to see a little mousey in his tummy
Job Status: Approved (after addition of mousey)
Additional Comments: That's what kind of bones dogs like to chew on. Dinosaur leg bones.