Night Driving by John Coy

I was fortunate that the Frozen Man book was accepted by the publisher and the audience as a decent enough book.  Laura Godwin at Henry Holt offered me a manuscript titled, "Night Driving"  by John Coy to illustrate.

While I was contemplating all the references I would need for this book, I got married.  My wife, Yunhee, got a job offer in Denver, Colorado.  We decided it was time for a change so we moved out to Colorado.

When I read the manuscript, I had a vision of this round car going through a desert landscape. Every page required a historical reference, so I carried my camera everywhere. One weekend,we went to a town called Manitou Springs to be tourists.  I saw this car sitting in a parking lot.  It was the perfect shape I wanted for "Night Driving". 

I sent in the thumbnails of my ideas to the Laura and waited for an approval. The next step is usually a dummy book. After all the committees approve the dummy book,I start working on the final illustrations.  I begin with the first page by gathering references and supplies (paper, watercolors, and brushes). I move on to the next page when the first page is completely done. With "Night Driving", I started over many times before committing to a final drawing.

References for the rest of the book were easy to find, except for the ear on the boy in the diner.  I never had to draw an ear that was so detailed before.  I think I watched too many Star Trek episodes.  The boy  and the waitress look like Vulcans but I moved on and finished the book.