Tag: childrens book

How an Illustration is Made: Kūkaʻilimoku’s Escape

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Strange Things with this Hawaiian God

 

Welcome back to the wacky news from the magical whimsical side of Salem! I am Mr. Zac spilling all the odd secrets of this quirky town. Before we start I will pass on our best wished to the people of Hawaii who had suffered recently in the volcano eruption and earthquake. Luckily the most our volcano has done in millions of years in Collins Cove was crack one foundation…

By the way, above is the graphite drawing of Dave Ward, a shaman from the family of Sitting Bull. The family joke is they are full of bull… Hi Dave! This image was done first then scanned into the computer.

Later the rest of the background was drawn in and arranged on the computer with Photoshop. Kūkaʻilimoku was then drawn and added. Later the dancer and the second native was added. He was drawn from the likeness of Brudha Iz the famous singer. Each was scaled and moved into the right place doing comps on the fly and only settling in on the final when satisfied. Sometimes, different comps are saved on different layers and saved for later.

The funny thing about Kūkaʻilimoku and A Walk Through Salem, the illustration depicts Kūkaʻilimoku being rescued and sent back to Hawaii. Soon after the publication of the book, he was indeed sent back home. There are three remaining statues of him; one was in England, the second in Hawaii, and the third was in the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. They all were put together in Hawaii in the Bishop Museum for the first time in quite some time. After the show, Hawaii did make arrangements to have them returned for good.

The final illustration depicts a news story in the Salem Gazette where the public finds out about the Hawaiians smuggling Kūkaʻilimoku out of the museum and into the Unzipping Tree in the Salem Common back to Hawaii. I never did find out how they actually did transport him back…

Pick up the first book of the Salem Trilogy, A Walk Through Salem, at Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, The Witch House, or Remember Salem.

 

Cheers
~Mr. Zac

Come back every Tuesday at 3PM for new stories about Salem and images from the Salem Trilogy.

He Haunts this Town

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and Proud of it!

Welcome back to the wacky news from the magical whimsical side of Salem! I am Mr. Zac spilling all the odd secrets of this quirky town. Today I will tell you about the town’s favorite ghost. Mike was the first model Chris Dowgin illustrated for his Salem Trilogy appearing in A Walk Through Salem.

Many things about Mike and A Walk Through Salem are uncanny. Soon after publication Mike died of mysterious causes and found floating in the harbor not too far from his favorite fishing spot. His death still remains a mystery but what has not is, Mike always wanted to be a ghost. In fact, on the morning of his death, he at least visited 3 friends in their dreams.

What might have been the beginning of this fascination? He used to live in his wife’s family home where there was a ghost who would haunt the tunnel leaving the house in Chelsea. An odd member at the local poker games they held in a room off the tunnel. Later in life, Mike hosted a local ghost hunter’s film series for years. Now he haunts the harbor catching the ghost of the fish he caught and ate in the past.

So what else was weird about Mike and the book A Walk Through Salem? The funeral home and the church his funeral was in appears in the same illustration near the middle of the book. Also, he is the one who informed the author of many wonders under the Visitor’s center including Romanov Crown Jewels and Blackbeard’s skull. Maybe one day he will leave the wharf and stop aggravating his wife by smoking in her bedroom in the afterlife (which she still can smell) and take the rocket to heaven.

Till then he will be just chasing the ghost fish through Pickering Wharf…

Pick up the first book of the Salem Trilogy, A Walk Through Salem, at Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, The Witch House, or Remember Salem.

 

Cheers
~Mr. Zac

Come back every Tuesday at 3PM for new stories about Salem and images from the Salem Trilogy.

Eclectic Locations in Salem MA!

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One of the Many Whimsical Places…

Welcome back to the wacky news from the magical whimsical side of Salem! I am Mr. Zac spilling all the odd secrets of this quirky town. Today I will highlight some of the more fanciful places in Salem Ma.

The Carousel House sits just off the corner of Pleasant Street and Washington Square North and East.  Home to many artists over the year. In fact, you might hear some piano from one of the windows. The carousel horse in the bay window on the second floor is truly magical. There is also the carriage house out of Hansel and Gretel on Bott’s Court, a small winding road that terminates at the Salem Atheneum. There is the house shaped like a riverboat down on Juniper Point. The man who invented the paddle boat was indeed from Salem… Then there is Mr.Pelinger’s House on Federal Street Court behind the Rope’s Garden; filled with wormholes and many mysteries. Also do not forget, the many locations from H.P. Lovecraft’s fiction including the Crowninshield-Bently House, The Curwin House, The Essex Institute, and the Old Burying Point. Come on down or up to Salem and see these wonders!

Pick up the first book of the Salem Trilogy, A Walk Through Salem, at Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, The Witch House, or Remember Salem.

 

Cheers
~Mr. Zac

Come back every Tuesday at 3PM for new stories about Salem and images from the Salem Trilogy.

Blackbeard was Never Here!

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Even Though his Skull Partially Resides Here…

Welcome back to the wacky news from the magical whimsical side of Salem! I am Mr. Zac spilling all the odd secrets of this quirky town. Today we are talking about Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard.

Salem did have pirates off the coast, although Blackbeard was not one. He did come to rest in Salem though; at least the top of his cranium. Edward Rowe Snow a famous writer of pirates and shipwrecks had the skull plate lined in silver used as a chalice donated to the Peabody Essex Museum, which was created by a series of pirates. Well, technically privateers; a piece of paper only separated them from true pirates.

The museum did loan it to the Nahant Museum in their library but has since returned it to the dark cellars of the Peabody Essex Museum under the location of the old armory, now the Visitor Center.

Pick up the first book of the Salem Trilogy, A Walk Through Salem, at Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, The Witch House, or Remember Salem and learn a little more about Blackbeard.

 

Cheers
~Mr. Zac

Come back every Tuesday at 3PM for new stories about Salem and images from the Salem Trilogy.

Ellen Raskin: Illustrator of the Week

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Little Nobody

Sometimes I think she is the little nobody.  Several times I have looked up the illustrator of my favorite book as a child Moose, Goose, and Little Nobody. What kept me from finding anything at first I thought it was Moose, Goose, and the Little House… which they are looking for Little Nobody in his gable. I am glad to see she did several books. Thanks to the site listed below I can now go off and find the rest of her books. It has a complete list of her picture books and chapter books. It is the best bio I found on her yet.

Below are some examples of her work:

 

For More Info:
https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/authors/raskin/bib.htm

Cheers,
Chris

Dean Morrisey: Illustrator of the Week

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I am Back…
Been a while. I just found time to commit to the 6 blogs I have.
Dean Morrisey I first encountered doing puzzles with my mother when I was a kid in the 80’s. In fact that painting of a wizard which the puzzle was based on I got to see while on a Hulton family reunion while in Annapolis at the Green Dragon art gallery.

Then Dean would pop up in my mother’s Greenwich Workshop catalogs with other fine artists. Then I got his Ship of Dreams book many years later and his Christmas Carol. Both are excellent.

Take a look at his art:

 

 

 

For his bio and more of his images check out this link!
Cheers,
Chris

Illustration from A Walk Above Salem

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Illustration from A walk Above Salem by Chris Dowgin

The last book in the Salem Trilogy which details the war of the sexes fought with Nerf Guns and peashooters. Fly with Mr. Zac in a Caddy Balloon far above Salem and find out who wins!
Read A Walk Above Salem today!

Salem House Press
www.salemhousepress.com
Home of Flip and Scan eBook Cards

Tyler Moves to Gibsonton Florida

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Tyler and Clown on Ball by Christopher Jon Luke Dowgin from Tyler Moves to Gibsonton Florida

Illustration from Tyler Moves to Gibsonton Florida by Christopher Jon Luke Dowgin. The story about the boy who is always on the move with his software engineer contract working parents. This time he finds himself in a town where  rhinos, clowns, and penguins walk down the street! Will he ever fit in?

Available at Remember Salem, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, and Amazon.com.