Highlights: Bear Rides!

These bears at a fair are in the July 2011 issue of Highlights magazine. This drawing illustrates a story entitled "Bear Rides!" by Maggie Murphy. The story is also a rebus. And for the folks scratching their fur thinking, "what's a rebus?" – a rebus is type of puzzle where certain words are replaced with a drawing that represents that word. Here's an example:

This is NOT, I repeat NOT how it was used in the magazine.

The folks Highlights wanted a dynamic composition, with the rocket ride high in the air and the fairgrounds far below. After trying to create this scene in my head, I decided I needed some reference. So I put on my engineering hat and engineered this:

I've got MAD engineering skills.

This silly contraption helped me visualize the rockets in relation to each other and to the arms of the ride.

And here are close-ups of the different characters:

And some more of the icons I created for the rebus.

And an early, ugly sketch:

These bears look like they're about to hurl.