DRAGONBRUSHER

Monsters, Ghosts and Children, Oh my! Childrens book illustrations by Dan Monroe

Dan Monroe has been drawing since he could lift a pencil. He often jokes that he was born with a pencil in one hand and a paintbrush in the other – which must have been extremely painful for his mother. From a very early age Dan would draw monsters and ghosts, “I remember sitting in church when I was about four and drawing all these monsters that freaked out the churchgoers; my dad was the minister.” He then explains, “My teachers were always amazed at my talent, but at the same time very resentful of it – they would often complain to my parent’s that I was extremely intelligent, however I never applied myself, just sat there drawing! I never thought it was a bad thing as my drawings were ten times more interesting than their lectures.” Growing up, Dan always had an idea of his purpose, “One time in fifth grade I handed in a paper about what I wanted to be when I grew up – I wrote about being a children’s book illustrator. Yet again my teacher was flabber ghasted; I sort of became her pet from there on out. I tended to be the favorite of every art teacher I had, and always ended up the school artist; I was first published at the age of twelve when I was hired to do a ten page “True Life” adventure comic for the Michigan Fraternal Order of Police Magazine.” Upon leaving school, he spent eight years in the United States Army, oftentimes doing artwork for the base commander on whichever military installation he was assigned. Dan lived several years in Hawaii where he learned the practice of airbrush and his paintings were sold in the fine art galleries. Over the years he has taught the discipline of art in a variety of venue’s, including Western Michigan University, and his art has sold in galleries all across America. He is recently working with Dustin Warburton, who has some Hollywood screenwriting credits to his name. Dustin first hired Dan to illustrate his children’s book “The Little Monster’s Guide on How to Scare Children” which, due to some trouble with another artist, caused Dan to come into the project at a very late date; “I knew Dustin was under a deadline – he already had signings and appearances set for debut – and the other artist really put Dustin behind. I told him I could get him back on track; we spoke at some length on the telephone, and when he sent me the contract and the manuscript the next day I dropped ten pages of sketches to him. Needless to say, Dustin was amazed! I had the book entirely illustrated, designed, and print ready within ten days. My job was to get the book back on schedule, and that is what I did.” Ever since April of 2011 when Dan Monroe and Dustin Warburton first came into contact with one another, they have finished two books and have several more on the way. “Right now we are working with Kostya Tszu – the former welterweight boxing champion of the world who was just inducted into the world boxing hall of fame. This will be the first in a series where Kostya is relating to children with his own personal experiences growing up in Soviet Russia. The first book is titled “Bullies Aren’t Scary” where he helps teach a trio of children how to overcome their fears and, by doing so, overcome the bully at the end of the book.” The series are set to be published in America, Russia, and Australia – where Kostya now resides. Dan and Dustin are also working with former boxing sensation Jesse James Leija on a children’s book about the Mexican ‘Day of the Dead.’ “It may seem like a weird subject, but I think it’s going to be great! The story is very child friendly and seems to dispel the frightening nature of ghosts and monsters, sort of in the same way as “The Little Monsters Guide on How to Scare Children”. Parents often tell me that they read the book to their children every night when they first bought it, and they love how the monsters were made child-friendly; I also tend to draw children from different backgrounds in the books as I feel it is extremely important to promote cultural diversity from a young age.” Dan currently resides in the town of Paw Paw, Michigan with his wife and three children. He finds new inspiration in the world around him and creates art every day. “There is not a single day where I do not draw something.”

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You can find more about Dan Monroe and his work at:

http://www.dragonbrusher.com/

http://danmonroe.posterous.com/