What's up?

I'm cruising in to the home stretch. A couple more Little Beasties and I will have enough to put together a book. If you have any last minute monster requests, let me know while there's still time. I think this book will go over well in the schools. Having done school assemblies for many years, I know that kids are crazy about monsters.

I've made a game out of this for my school assemblies for many years. I call it the Crazy Critter Game or the Make-a-Monster Game. The kids in the audience pull various names of animal parts that I've written on pieces of paper ("toad eyes, elephant trunk") out of a bag when I come down into the audience. I return to the stage and read the animal part name to the audience (they howl with laughter), then I draw it onto my giant easel pad (they howl with laughter again). I end up with a hodge-podge of animal parts which combine to make a "Crazy Critter"...and an auditorium full of kids howling with laughter. So after they see the Crazy Critter that I've drawn, they'll want to buy the Crazy Critter (Little Beastie) book. It's always a slam dunk. It's great fun to draw for school audiences, then to sell and sign books. You should try it if you don't already do it.

Don't Even Think About It.

Here's another Little Beastie, auditioning for a role in my new children's book. The tentative title: The Little Beasties of Monster Island: A Sketchbook. If you take a special liking to any of the little creatures in the line-up, let me know. I will be making my choice fairly soon. But I will be drawing more Little Beasties because I want to have plenty to choose from.

Don't forget to check out my other blog, The Trowbridge Chronicles.

Easy Rider

Here's yet another monster to add to my growing monster menagery. I will continue adding beasties until I feel I have more than enough for the book. Then I'll start thinning the herd. There will probably be 12 monsters that make the final cut. Each monster, as seen above, will occupy the left side of the 7.5 inch square page. On the right side of the page there will be a simple tutorial on how how to draw the Little Beastie. So this will be a how-to-draw book. This concept fits in perfectly with my school programs since I sell lots of books at schools.


Since I've illustrated a number of 32-page children's books in full color, I know what a long haul it is to complete the work on a kids' book. This time I felt like I wanted to move through the project more quickly. Creating a "sketch book" format would accelerate the process because most of my final art would be in pencil sketch form.

Who, me?

This time it was a little swamp creature that crawled out of my sketch book last night. Let me know if you have any favorite beasties among the sketches, because I will be choosing a portion to "make the cut" for the book.

Horned Toad

Here's the next Little Beastie, this one by request from Kimber, a Twitter friend.

The book I'm planning is a picture book for early elementary age. I know from my experience in visiting schools that kids love monsters. But is this monster too scary for little kids? What's your opinion?

Do you have an idea for a Little Beastie? Let me hear it.

What are you going to do with that little critter in your hand?

Here's the newest addition to my ever-growing monster menagerie. If I can come up with enough interesting variations of these "Little Beasties", I hope to turn it into a book. The working title: The Little Beasties of Monster Island: A Sketchbook

Creepy Crab

From the seashore comes a horned cousin of the box crab, the latest in our repugnant parade of Little Beasties. Some will make the cut and be included in the Little Beastie book...and some won't. Should this creepy little creature be included...or not? Let me know if you have any ideas for a beastly creature that you'd like me to sketch. Yours just might find its way into the pages of the Monster Island book.

The next creature to get hitched to the monster wagon is an elephantine little creature. Check back soon for a look at him.