Here’s Larry jumping up and down pretending to be Uncle Frank. I made him do this dozens of times before we got the perfect shot. Amazingly, we’re still friends.

All of the final illustrations for Uncle Frank’s Pit were drawn on the computer. At the time it was an experiment for me. I had never done such a big project digitally before. The process began the same way the rest of the books did: collecting reference material for the sketches. My good friend Larry played the part of Uncle Frank, and he posed for many of the pictures in the book. Next, I did the sketches, working in pencil on drawing paper. When the sketches were complete, I scanned them into the computer to add the color. I used a Wacom drawing tablet and a program called Painter. Between the two of these, I could simulate pretty well the process of working by hand. (Plus, cleanup was a lot easier.) Below is a finished image of Uncle Frank jumping. Can you tell which one of Larry’s poses I ended up using for reference?