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So millions of drawings, and many years later...I am now almost finished with Illustrating the K-3 science curriculum for the Hawaii Coral Reef Initiative. We're calling it "Reef Pulse".

Recently I was tasked with developing a front cover illustration for the curriculum, in the same style as the covers for all the individual Units and Lessons.  I thought some of you might enjoy seeing the process behind merely one illustration...

I was given a lot of liberty with this illustration (as I often am) so I first had to come up with some good concepts.  I figured that it didn't have to be very specific in it's content since it would be the cover for all the different concepts of the curriculum.  Immediately I thought it would be cool to just show a fun underwater scene and a child interacting with the ocean life.  This made me think of one of the very first project I did for HCRI...5 years ago.  It was the cover for a kid's activity book to be given out at the Honolulu Aquarium:

Of course the curriculum cover couldn't have any cartoony faces on the critters, but I still thought it would be fun to do a parody on my first HCRI work.  I scribbled out a sketch and sent for review:

HCRI liked the idea...but they decided that they wanted the cover illustration to take place in a classroom, since much of the other covers are set in underwater scenes.  So I put my thinking cap on again, and came up with another idea:

A class of kids and a teacher look on in amazement as a student draws an intricate drawing of a Hawaii Coral Reef all over the chalkboard.  The Title "Reef Pulse" would be written in the chalk.  I sent the idea...and waited for a response.

Well, the office in Hawaii got busy for a couple days, so I didn't hear back on my latest little sketch.  Generally I take no news as good news, so I began to lightly pencil out my idea at a full size.  This time I seated the kids at desks.  Once I got the whole thing planned out, I sent the sketch back to the main office, hoping to get an approval.

Turns out, they really liked it!  But they had a couple ideas of their own. They really wanted to see some of the students participating in an activity that is taught in the curriculum and they really wanted the kids sitting on the floor not on desks. (They suggested putting the teacher on a chair instead of behind a formal desk as well) For the activity, they suggested having some of the kids play around with these Coral Reef themed masks that they make in one of the lessons.  So I gave it a go:

This drawing was really just a tiny thumbnail that was scribbled very quickly.  (But good enough for review) HCRI responded quickly, saying that they liked the masks...but thought that the kids looked like they were goofing off in the back of class instead of paying attention, and suggested that I put them at the front of the class and lose the kid with the chalk.  Phew!

This last sketch was approved for coloring, and I immediately started coloring in photoshop...

And here's the final Cover!

Ben is a Christian graphic artist and musician from Hawaii that now lives in Nebraska. Ben gets excited about things like sanctification, family, community and beauty.

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