Guest post from Dav Pilkey, author and illustrator of the Dog Man series.
Hi, everyone!
I’m excited to share this “supa” special sneak peek from Dog Man: Grime & Punishment, the newest Dog Man book coming out worldwide on September 1!
I draw and paint all the Dog Man covers. For this particular cover, I had created it digitally while I was on book tour. Here’s a look at the final cover of Grime and Punishment!
For this new book, I wanted to challenge myself, stretch my imagination, and create something new and fun using simple art materials that I have in my home studio. When I finish writing and illustrating a Dog Man book, I like to immediately get started on the next one to keep my brain as active as possible. I go by the “ABC” mantra: always be creative.
I made a diorama for one of the scenes that you’ll see in Grime and Punishment. I like playing with clay so I created minifigures of my characters Mayor, Chief, Sarah, Zuzu, and Dog Man.
I also like to make animated videos for my books; you may have seen some of the Dog Man book trailers I’ve created. Here’s the beginning of a scene from a new video I’m planning to animate. I used a milk carton to create the body of the police car, finished it using acrylics, construction paper, and markers—materials that you may already have at home. As you can see, I had some fun and used Oreo cookies for the wheels! To add some action and movement to this scene, I stretched out some cotton balls to simulate exhaust smoke coming out of the police car.
Inspiration can be found everywhere, sometimes in the most ordinary and unexpected places. For Grime and Punishment, I created a new character named Munchy and used a plain lunch paper bag. Here’s how I created Munchy using construction paper, markers, tape, and crayons. I suspended Munchy using black thread.
And here’s Munchy in one of the final pages from Grime and Punishment!
Spoiler alert: There will be a step-by-step guide on how to make Munchy in Dog Man: Grime and Punishment!
To create the background for the diorama above, I drew a blueprint of the scene. I found some milk cartons and cereal boxes and painted them to create the buildings and houses. I also used some purple, white, and pink construction paper. And I used a plain black marker to bring out the details of the windows, the stars in the sky, and the expression on Munchy’s face.
Here I am creating the buildings you see.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this early behind-the-scenes look at Dog Man: Grime and Punishment.
And remember your ABC: Always. Be. Creative.
Your pal,
Dav Pilkey
