It was the story of an elephant who befriends 4 penguins while out sailing.   This was the cover for the dummy I submitted. 

The first idea I submited to Houghton Mifflin in the Fall of 2004 was rejected.

Mayor guin dictates a fish letter for Mr. Elephant--to be sent by postwhale.

While the rejection letter didn’t arrive for 6 months, I had already come to realize my book idea would not be accepted, so I worked a bit more on the story.  I quickly emailed these two finished concept illustrations back to the publisher--which piqued their interest.

From Rabbit to penguin, Mr. Elephant’s home finally became an Elephant.

Choosing the right look for Mr. Elephant’s home was another challenge.

First, Mr. Elephant needed a reason for going to Icetown and also an adventure that both he and the penguins could take part in together.

Throughout the next summer, I tried to figure out who Mr. Elephant was, but reached a dead end until my wife helped me see that Mr. Elephant was really me.  The natural choice for Mr. Elephant was to be an Architect--and the real story began to unfold. 

At this point I switched back and forth between working on the storyboard and sketching.  I kept the first storyboard simple so I could easily and quickly make changes as I worked on the story.

From the sketches and the storyboard, one more dummy was made and sent off to Houghton Mifflin--and this time, the story was accepted. 

I made at least 5, perhaps 6 different dummies for this book.

Icetown underwent dramatic changes as well.  My editor wanted to see a skyline of Animals--perhaps showing the penguins’ other penpals.  Note that the post office now has a large bird nesting on its roof and the first sketch of Icetown has no ice animal buildings at all, not even Hotel Penguin, although the crane has been there from the beginning.  

The story that my publisher accepted was 88 pages long.  The challenge was to cut down to at least 48 pages.  As the story progressed, I made a more detailed storyboard.  Once I started the final sketches, I made a final storyboard to keep track of what pages I had finished.  I layed this out in Photoshop using my computer.

This is the type of sketch I typically end up with just before I begin rendering a final drawing.

“...Schallau's pictures are certainly fun to examine...”

--Booklist

“...the Arthur Geisert-like pen-and-ink and colored-pencil illustrations...are replete with numerous tiny details that children are likely to pore over...”

--School Library Journal