childrensillustrators.com - illustrator - John Aardema - peace on earth
childrensillustrators.com - illustrator - John Aardema - peace on earth
John Aardema
Showing illustration: 10 of 21 | previous illustration | next illustration
illustration - peace on earth-This is my Christmas card that I sent to my clients. I was listening to a little Handel the other day, and I got the idea to use the image of the Lamb of God with the banner that said “Halleluia!” But then I got thinking about all these wars, and I decided to go with “Peace on Earth…” instead.

That lead me to the idea of the lion laying down with the lamb. I reversed the roles as I thought the Christ-like lamb should be the dominant figure. - Aardema, John
This is my Christmas card that I sent to my clients. I was listening to a little Handel the other day, and I got the idea to use the image of the Lamb of God with the banner that said “Halleluia!” But then I got thinking about all these wars, and I decided to go with “Peace on Earth…” instead. That lead me to the idea of the lion laying down with the lamb. I reversed the roles as I thought the Christ-like lamb should be the dominant figure.
previous illustration | next illustration
Next four illustrations from John Aardema:
illustrator - portfolio - Aardema, John - claude claude the vampire moth-This is Claude Claude. He's the main character in my picture book dummy--Claude Claude, The Vampire Moth-- which won first place in the 2006 SmartWriters.com book dummy division! Yay, me!
illustrator - portfolio - Aardema, John - claude's class-This is Claude Claude's classroom. He's not there because he's skipping school. He must be celebrating the fact that I won first place in the 2006 SmartWriters.com book dummy division.
illustrator - portfolio - Aardema, John - verve-An art director told me she really liked my work, but asked if I could draw a character consistently over the amount of illustrations needed for a picture book. She suggested that I draw some animal characters in different positions and add it to my portfolio.

I wanted animals that were very different from each other, and I decided the group would consist of a mammal, a bird, and an amphibian. South Africa’s indigenous species gave me a variety to choose from. Here is the next character study in the series. Verve is the first character I drew. I picked a vervet monkey because I liked the challenge of drawing a character with a face that is all black. It’s a unique look and it gave me a character that’s very visually striking.
illustrator - portfolio - Aardema, John - crockadilly-Here is the another character study in the series. I drew the bird and the monkey, and had decided the next character would be an amphibian. I wanted a water character to keep the group well-rounded. I chose a crocodile because that would give me a tall, upright character. I also decided to make the crocodile uncrocodile-like by giving her the personality of a little girl. The color pink was an afterthought. Since the other two characters were of a warm palette, and the environment she would be drawn in would either be blue (water) or green (jungle), I picked a color that would visually tie her to the other characters and make her stand out from the background.
childrensillustrators.com - illustrator - John Aardema - peace on earth childrensillustrators.com - illustrator - John Aardema - peace on earth
childrensillustrators.com - illustrator - John Aardema - peace on earth
childrensillustrators.com - illustrator - John Aardema - peace on earth
childrensillustrators.com - illustrator - John Aardema - peace on earth © copyright 2005 webwork creation, all rights reserved | terms of use | privacy policy | site map