Turkey’s Fall Fumble is my ninth collaboration with author Wendi Silvano.
This is Wendi and me at my farm when she was in the area visiting a nearby school. You might be surprised that even though we’ve done ten books together, this was only the fourth time we’ve met in person.
I was very excited when I found out she wrote a Fall and football-themed book. I love Fall and I love football. That’s me top center when I was the head coach of my son Dan’s football team. Dan’s the guy in the picture top right.
For Turkey’s Fall Fumble, I drew and painted a lot of Fall leaves, which I thought of as major characters.
This is a detail of the painting I did for the title page. I thought Turkey being swept away by the beauty of Fall would be a good way to draw the reader into the story!
Disguises are always an important part of the Turkey Trouble stories. This is a drawing from my sketchbook, but it could be a drawing from Turkey’s sketchbook. I assume Turkey draws his disguises in a sketchbook. How else would he know how to build them, what materials to source, and what tools he would need?
I imagined Pig was a big help with the leaf-pile disguise. He’s got exceptional carpentry skills for a pig.
I made this scarecrow from my own clothing to use as photo-reference material for the scarecrow scene.
The illustrations always begin with a drawing…
…but when it really comes to life is in the painting. All the Turkey Trouble books are rendered in watercolor on paper. No AI!
This is me at work on Turkey’s Fall Fumble. Notice the Leprechaun outside the window? He’s there because at the same time I was painting Turkey’s Fall Fumble, I was drawing Turkey’s Leprechaun Trap.
To keep myself healthy and energized during all this work, I began swimming three times a week. It was the best idea I ever had!
Believe it or not, I use a lot of photo-reference material. A lot of this material I find right here on the farm, sometimes I find things on the internet, and sometimes I use myself as the model!
As a result, Farmer Jake and I have very similar wardrobes.
I like the in-between scenes when Turkey and his pals are concocting their next plan after the previous plan has failed. Though it may seem like silliness to you and me, Turkey and his pals take it all very seriously. Here is a detail from a drawing…
…and a detail from the final of one of those very serious meetings.
Here’s the drawing for the big football game.
Here’s the final. I have noticed that since I began raising chickens, more and more chickens have been appearing in my illustrations!
See the barn in the distance? That’s where I work. My imaginary life and my real life are beginning to blur together!
That’s not a bad thing. It comes in handy working at the same place where Turkey and all his pals live. I often begin drawing a scene with the setting, and then maybe add a chicken or two.
Then I fill in the scene with all the main characters.
To help me get the light effects the way I wanted them on this night-time scene, I began this painting with an under-painting.
Here’s how the final painting looked after I cut it off the drawing board. Notice the barn in the backround?
When all the paintings are done I wrap them up and send them to the publisher, Two Lions.
Then designer Abby Dening and ‘Team Turkey’ does the rest!