Witch | Illustration Friday

This is the witch from a children's book I was developing called Little Monster. She steals the heart of a baby boy, and when is a little older he goes on a quest to confront the witch and get it back.

Sprout | Illustration Friday

My entry for this week's Illustration Friday challenge, sprout. I did this originally for a children's poem called Window Pet.

Illustration Friday: Skate

For this week's Illustration Friday challenge, Skate, I'm sharing an illustration I did several years ago for HappyReading.org for a poem called Skate Park.

Illustration Friday | Mother

My entry for this week's Illustration Friday challenge, Mother. This was originally done for a poem titled Two Hugs, for HappyReading.org.

My Newest Fan

My newest fan enjoying a print of my Alphabet Garden illustration that her mom got for her first birthday. Clearly, she already has a refined and sophisticated taste in art.

Cover Art for Well-Trained Mind

Had the privilege to do the cover art for a children’s storytelling CD called Tales From Cultures Far And Near. The story I picked to illustrate was from Japan, so I made my first-ever attempt at emulating the style of Japanese woodprints. The CD is published by Well-Trained Mind, and you can purchase it here: welltrainedmind.com

Snake

Here’s a little something I did initially for the 21 Day Drawing Challenge by Von Glitschka (Day 6: Get Cubistic). I really liked how the drawing came out and thought it would be another great opportunity for me to play around with the Megapack set of Photoshop brushes from the awesome Kyle T. Webster.

21 Day Drawing Challenge: Day 1

I just started the 21 Day Drawing Challenge by Von Glitschka, from Lynda.com. I doubt I'll be posting these every day, but I'm really excited so far and couldn't wait to share my first piece. Our first challenge was to draw a cat. My solution was to come up with an image that conveys my own fondness of cats and of what great companions they are (contrary to popular misconceptions!). I also took the opportunity to experiment a bit more with my approach to digital coloring, which I found very rewarding. Somewhere along the way, I got inspired by the old animated intro to My Three Sons, which helped me to go for a more elongated composition. I think it helps to convey the relationship between the cat and his owner more from the cat's perspective, which is fitting since "cat" was the prompt for the day's challenge. 

Story Starters With YA Author Lamar Giles

Last weekend, I attended a local SCBWI event (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) in Richmond, Va. Among the three excellent panelists was YA author, and 2015 Edgar Award Nominee, Lamar Giles.

Lamar did a super-fun Mad-Lib-style exercise with us called Story Starters, where he and the audience create a unique opening line by committee. Once the line’s created, the writers/illustrators in the audience have 15 minutes to write or sketch whatever that line inspires.

The sentence we came up with was "Alice never wants to hurt anyone again, but the robots won’t end the experiment."  Here's what I came up with in 15 minutes: 

I liked the sketch so much, that I went ahead and did a more finished version at home:

The cool part was that Lamar was pretty excited to share what everyone did on his blog, so I happily sent him both the sketch and the finished piece. Much to my surprise, not only did he post my images, but wrote up a pretty great review of my work as well. You check it out here: http://www.lrgiles.com/story-starters-scott-dubar-illustrator/ And for everyone interested YA fiction, definately check out Lamar's books Fake ID, and Endangered.

Power Kids: Pennsylvania's Electronic Library

I got contacted last Fall by local design studio The Ivy Group to work on a really great project for the Pennsylvania Department of Education. They were updating the look of their online library and needed a couple of illustrations of Ben Franklin, and one of a friendly librarian.

I had a great time working on this. Not only was it a fun project, but everyone involved was really great to work with as well. You can check out the site here: http://kids.powerlibrary.org/Remote/Remote.asp?ID=eCard

CD Cover Illustration For Greathall Productions

Here's an illustration I did for the cover of the latest Greathall Productions storytelling cd, George Washington: First in the Hearts of His Countrymen, told by award-winning storyteller Jim Weiss. 

The project posed a bit of a challenge in that I needed to be able to replicate the style of art they normally use for their covers, in less than a week, and using only traditional media (i.e. non-digital). 

I made the switch to digital coloring long ago (I still prefer to ink traditionally) and all my paints, brushes and related supplies are currently in storage, and probably not in the best of shape. 

I did a quick digital sketch and sent it to them, and while waiting to hear back I borrowed some really nice watercolors from my good friend and fellow Urban Sketcher, Jessie Chapman. After that came a very frantic day of painting, during which I sorely missed my beloved Photoshop. Thankfully, I had some water-soluble colored pencils to help me out.

In the end, I got the job done and my clients were very happy with the final piece. The original is now framed and hanging on their wall along with all the other covers they've had done over the years. 

My First SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Conference

I attended my first-ever conference for the Society of Children's Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)  this past weekend, and all-in-all had a great time! My favorite talk was by illustrator/author Pat Cummings who was every bit as funny as she was informative. But the highlight for me was meeting illustrator Henry Cole for a critique of a children's book I'm currently working on. His enthusiasm for my book along with his insights on improving it were worth the trip alone.

My portfolio display at the SCBWI conference.

I was there!

A couple of sketches from the event.

New Web Site For Kid Hercules

Announcing the all-new, official Kid Hercules web site! Featuring daily drawings from my 365 challenge, a brief synopsis of my upcoming series, and a few action-packed illustrations of the world's strongest kid in full, blazing color! Check out all the awesomeness at www.kidhercules.com.

Kid Hercules 365 Challenge Update

Here's just a few samples of my ongoing 365 challenge for a character I'm developing called Kid Hercules. I actually completed the challenge back in April, but have a pretty big backlog of images to upload. This has been such a great project and something that has helped improve my work in ways I never expected!

You can follow my progress over at kidhercules365.blogspot.com and check out everything I've been able to post so far.

Gee Whiz! I'm on TV! (sort of)

NBC29 WVIR Charlottesville, VA News, Sports and Weather

One of my clients, up-and-coming TeeGee Toys, was recently featured in a local TV news segment. Even cooler (for me, at least!) is that you can see part of the illustration I did for their New York Toy Fair display on Tom's iPhone when he's demonstrating how TeeGee works.

Illustration Friday: Vocal

Well, it's been awhile since I participated in an Illustration Friday challenge so I thought I'd at least dip my toe in the water again. This is an older piece that happened to already fit the theme and was done for a children's poem called The Singing King. Hope you all enjoy it!

FoundFolio's Illustration of the Week

My children's illustration Hot Spot, done for HappyReading.org, was chosen as Illustration of the Week by the good folks over at FoundFolios.com. Here's what they had to say:

This week’s illustration winner is Charlottesville artist Scott DuBar, for his cute, colorful kid-friendly image of (we like to think) a future Internet mogul on her first laptop. We love how the oversized laptop, high bar stools and nearby adults help us remember what the world feels like when you’re a small fry. We wonder whether she has the same slack-jawed, glazed-over expression we adults tend to assume when we’re surfing the net.

Link: http://flow.foundfolios.com/march-12-16-illustration-of-the-week-winner-scott-dubar/

New York Toy Fair display illustration

I recently completed a giant display illustration for TeeGee Toys, who will be first-time exhibitors at the 2012 New York Toy Fair this Feb 12-14. At 10'x8' it is literally the biggest job I've ever had! I'm super excited that my work will be on display at one of the coolest events in the world. Below are some shots of me with the final display before it has its debut in NY.

Santa Boy book illustrations

Here's the cover art for the book Santa Boy, a short e-book available on Amazon.com. I completed this awhile back, but I felt it would be nicer to wait til Christmas time before posting. I did a couple of interior illustrations as well, but you'll have to buy the book to see them! You can order your own copy here: http://www.amazon.com/Santa-Boy-ebook/dp/B005MU9GOY/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323288558&sr=1-2

 Original sketch for the cover.

This was an alternate idea for the cover. I thought of giving the book more of a 50's retro feel, but the AD preferred the first version. I still kind of like the simplicity of this one, though.

And here are some sketches of the interior illustrations.

Halloween Card "My Pet" Now Available

October is here! That makes it the perfect time to buy my awesome new Halloween cards for all your friends and family. You can buy as many as you want here: http://www.zazzle.com/my_pet_card-137420153285742520