Monday, October 1, 2012

T is for Toad

If you are here from Illustration Friday, you may not know about AlphaBooks, the group drawing project run by Rich Barrett, Andrew Neal & Ben Towle.

AlphaBooks is the name of the game. We will be drawing ficitonal characters from books every week - one for each letter of the alphabet. On the first day (Monday, May 21), everyone will draw characters whose names start with the letter “A.”  The following monday, we’ll draw characters whose names start with the letter “B.” And so on! 


If you'd like to submit your own artwork to the project, please join us! It's loads of fun. You can jump in late with any letter you like so long as you don't go ahead of the game.

My entry for AlphaBooks this week is one of the main characters in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. This is a classic children's tale that tells of the gentle, rural pursuits of Badger, Mole & Ratty... & then there's Mr. Toad. A bit of a spoiled-frat-boy type, he's obsessed with the latest must-have technology, which at the time was the motorcar. His headstrong ways lead to all sorts of misadventures, but his loyal, patient friends always save the day.

Acrylic on text scanned from a 1969 Yearling paperback, ~ 5.5"x8.5" Do you see all the "T"s?






14 comments:

  1. Mr. Toad is one of my favorite literary characters! Great Illustration Friday submission!

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  2. He is adorable! Love the spats and the driving goggles! He looks just as dapper as I remember him. :D

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  3. Amazing work, I love the detail of his skin and his expression!

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  4. Gosh! Another masterful painting. I am convinced that you have never painted anything mediocre. Everything you do is absolutely gorgeous and is better than the last if not just as fabulous! I just love everything you create!

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  5. As for Mr. Toad, what a fancy dresser he is. He is lucky to have loyal friends.

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  6. Nice character! I really love the color/value work too. The variety of greens and the depth you achieved are masterful. All that and a T-t-t-tweed hat.

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  7. This is so beautiful, the detail is amazing !

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  8. Love, love, love Mr. Toad! I see a couple T's too, like in the smoke. Great job!

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  9. I love the way that you have revealed just hints of the scanned paperback text underneath the painting. Terrific illustration, too...so evocative of a somewhat snobby, headstrong character with his motoring goggles and cap.

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  10. Beautiful! I love Mr Toad and you have captured him so well!

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  11. I think that this might be my favorite! I love him :D

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  12. Ohhhhhhh... so THAT'S what alphabooks is...


    I like this WITW Mr Toad tribute. Nicely painted, as usual. I've tried doing that with cigar smoke, but it's very difficult to write a 'T'. Zs are easy, but not Ts.

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