Roughing It

I love playing with expressions.  Below are rough sketches for "Chicken, Pig, Cow's First Fight".

Below are thumbnail sketches for  "Chicken, Pig, Cow Horse Around".

The above thumbnail shows Chicken not being so keen on accepting fabulous newcomer, Horse as a friend. He likes his posse just the way it is.

Very messy, very rough.  This is me brainstorming.  If you look carefully, you might notice that there is something printed on the other side of the paper.  This is because I often use recycled paper from my blue bin for this stage.

The above is a very early  idea for "Chicken, Pig, Cow Horse Around".  I love drawing Horse!

In "Clara and the Bossy", (Annick Press/Story & Art by Ruth Ohi) Clara's best friend becomes more bossy than friendly and Clara starts to worry.  Can Clara make her own decisions and keep her best friend?  I originally populated "Clara and the Bossy" with people, but later decided guinea pigs were the way to go.  Below is one of the first thumbnails for "Clara".  To the right is how things turned out in the book.

 Sketch and finished artwork from "Clara and the Bossy". (Annick Press/Story & Art by Ruth Ohi)