Coming Soon! Elin Books by Melanie Oesch

Book 1: Elin the Wood Elf Girl

I recently completed illustrations for the awesome book series about an elf girl and her owl best friend. They are written by Melanie Oesch, musician and yodeler.



I will have more art and a link to order the books soon!

Book 2: Elin Makes New Friends

I was lucky enough to go to the Eriz Valley in Switzerland where the books take place, sketch, and shoot a ton of reference photos.

Castle in Thun, Switzerland

The Eriz Valley in person!

Sketching in Thun

Final color sketch in Thun

Sneak peek of one of my favorite images from the book!

Little Red Bat-Anticipation

Little Red Bat is shipping the first week in March and so I am posting some of my favorite pieces from the book in anticipation of it coming out.

Above is my favorite painting from the book!

While I worked on the sketches, I visited a couple who do bat rescue and happened to have a red bat family they had rescued and released a week or so later in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. (This took a LOT of phone calls. Red Bats are hard to track down in captivity) It helped so much to see them in person and I took video of the bat moving. It completely altered the way I drew them.

As an illustrator it emphasized how important it is to see the real animal you are drawing if possible. It allows you to really see and understand.

Carole Gerber and I will have a kick off signing at Blue Marble in Ft. Thomas on April 17th from 2-4.