PROJECT PAGE
Wait - what? Well this isn't what you'd expect...
OR IS IT?!
YES - that is the little girl from 'I Wanna Be A Pretty Princess' dressed as a purple dinosaur and NO - it's not a mistake!
You see, the original draft of what would become 'I Wanna Be A Great Big Dinosaur' was called 'I Wanna Be A Purple Dinosaur' and served as a fairly direct sequel to 'Pretty Princess'. The same little girl had now decided for a preschool dressup parade she wanted to go dressed as a purple dinosaur.
However, after much consideration, in the form it was in, it was not going to be - HOWEVER, it was also decided there was alot to love in the concept...so that was rewritten into what is now
'I Wanna Be A Great Big Dinosaur'!
And so, these two came into being!
This was one of those lovely times where the characters appear on the page pretty much fully formed - rather than the alternate process of much erasing and redrawing and trying to figure out why they're just not QUITE right yet!
I then went and tried my hand at drssing the dinosaur up as a boy, to see how creepy that could be.
From here - it was full steam ahead! And like every other project, along the way, the odd 'deleted scene' or unused concept popped up - so here it is for you now!
There was only one deleted scene and it was a little difficult to let go of - because I liked the additional interest it provided the little boy and it really took quite some time to get the dinosaur to dance! They're not the most adaptable creature, physically speaking, so there was much erasing and frowning involved to get the outcome below!
And then, for pacing reasons, it was the page to hit the proverbial cutting room floor!
Also unused, but fun to make - this early cover concept, before the excellent, great, big, stompy design used for the book had been settled upon.
This was designed to more directly tie in with the cover look of 'Pretty Pricness', particularly with the cut paper look and the similar posing of the little boy.
And one last thing - also fun to make, a trailer I whipped up! Do enjoy, and do enjoy the book!
