Intoducing Kiki Kokí

Kiki Kokí the Enchanted Legend of the Coquí Frog is my first children's book. As the title implies it is a made-up back story to the real life Coqui Frog found in the mountains and wetlands of Puerto Rico. If you have ever been to Puerto Rico you know about the Coquí. It is the beloved mascot of the island. At night the Coquí frogs fill the balmy island air with a high pitched chirp-like call..."KoKee". As a city kid from Brooklyn visiting my grandparents on the island I was intrigued by this mysterious little tree frog.

In 2000 I visited Puerto Rico with my wife and our children and fell in love with Coquí and the island all over again. I left inspired to do something featuring all the great places we had visited on that trip. They included Spanish fortresses, pristine beaches and enormous caves, among cool other places. For years I sketched from the photos I had taken, then two years ago I took a short break between jobs and wrote the story of Kiki Kokí.

I have spent most nights and weekends of the last two years working on some aspect of the Kiki Kokí project. A gluten for punishment, I decided that illustrating the book was not enough and decided to self-publish and create product to support the property. I will give insight into that process in the future. For now I hope to share with you the creative process and journey of Kiki Kokí and IdeaRworks, the publishing company I formed to print the book under.

Wise old Turtle

This was a quick marker sketch that I added color to. As you can tell I like drawing amphibians.

Terror on the Greens

 This guy loves golf...uh golfers. I had fun drawing and rendering him.

Gone Batty

I did a rough sketch of this character a while back. Tonight I tightened this sketch up and added color on the Cintique.

The King

This is a quick caricature and color comp I created tonight.

African Rhino

A pencil sketch with Faux Gouache.

I'm Back!

Hey, I have been away from my blog for a while. I'm back and have a few things in various stages of development that I will be posting soon. The reason for my lack of posting is that I have been swamped. In addition to my day job I have been working on a Children's book for the past year and a half. In adition to the art i decided to publish and distribute it. I will be posting images and info on here as we get closer to the September release date. In the mean time here is a bench warmer I tried to crank out relatively quickly. I love gouache but never have time to set up to paint traditionally. So I created this one digitally.
be back soon.