Thursday, January 14, 2010

After the Kill


I am working on a picture book entitled After the Kill, by Darrin Linde, a zoologist at the American Museum of Natural History. The book is about what happens to a zebra carcass after the lions have killed it: all the animals that thrive off the kill until all that is left are a few bare bones.
I didn't know how I would illustrate the text which is graphic and realistic, until my eye caught sight of a postcard pinned above my desk of a small Picasso painting of a cat with a bird in its mouth. It inspired a quick series of thumbnails, that I am now working up into a layout. I hope to maintain the vitality and verve of the thumbnails in the final artwork.

1 comment:

Penny Phillips-Armand said...

Wow, Catherine! Vitality, they've got (all except for the poor zebra, of course). Since you haven't mentioned a recent trip to Africa,I'd be curious to know what you used for a visual reference. Photos? Live cats?
Or are you working from memory? Anyway, it's impressive.