Why I illustrate picture books! :D

 

This is why I want to illustrate picture books,

 Rena Jones
 who wrote The Marshmallow Man sent me this wonderful picture

 that a friend of hers sent her...

 

 

 



 

 

Eastern Oklahoma Author Fest 2011

Over the weekend was the East Oklahoma Author Fest 2011.

  I have to be honest I have no idea how successful it was but it is always great to see the books you illustrate on display. It takes time and energy to make sure you complete the work in a timely fashion but in the end when I see them on displayed it brings a smile to my face.
 I do not clock hours when I work I just do not want to know how many hours it takes to illustrate one picture book. Except on a few occasions that I was paying attention to the time like with “Libby the Odd Squirrel” were I spent four hours inking fur on one illustration and “The Giving Meadow” I spent at least four hours on inking the snake scales for just one snake, that was not including the rest of the scene. In addition, I have no idea at all the hours I spent drawing feathers on birds and fluffy stuff that came off the cattails in “Ferdinand Frog’s Flight”. However, you do it. And I will keep doing it repeatedly as long as people enjoy what I do.

What a great display!

In this photo is “The Marshmallow Man”, “Libby the Odd Squirrel”, “The Giving Meadow”, and also “A New Job  for Dilly” I did not illustrate this one but it sits on my shelf proudly it was written By Rena Jones  who wrote
 “The Marshmallow Man”.

On this display you can see “Why Am I Me?” and "Ferdinand Frog’s Flight” the latest books I finished in 2011.

 I count five in total, some I have already mentioned. But I also see “Colors” this was the second book I did for 4RV Publishing back in 2008 still one of my top favorites and “Would a Kangaraffe Make You Laffe?”, and “I Fish Could Drive”.  When I look at this body of work, I see how I improved with every story. It is important to keep pushing yourself to be better.

I can also see a book that my friend Diana who illustrated “Priscilla Holmes, Ace Detective” she is an amazing talent and I am grateful for her friendship.

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This is Vivian Zable, President and owner of 4RV Publishing, she also write well and is a stickler for proper grammar.  Thankfully, someone cares.  This picture of her is one of the best I have ever seen. It is also funny that in the three and a half years that I worked for them we never spoke by phone I have only heard her voice once on a blog radio interview so that is kind of funny.

Color Breakdown

My computer was attacked and I have been working on retrieving lost information plus getting certain programs up and running again. I feel lucky that over 90% of my artwork was backed up and I was able to retrieve all of the rest with some effort.



Start with the pen & ink drawing



This is not the program I use to create my multiple level colors scheme but I lost my program and with out a back up disc I’m out of luck. (one of the two I can not fix)


But this should give an idea on how many layers I work on to create one colorful page


Bottom Layer




Layer One




Layer Two




Layer Three




Layer Four




Layer Five




Layer Six


Each layer sits one on top of the other bringing to life the pen & ink drawing adding some depth and texture to my artwork.


Finished Artwork



The Breakdown

This is the breakdown from sketch to ink drawing from "The Marshmallow Man"; it kind of speaks for its self. I like to keep the artwork looking fresh.





Sketch



part of Storyboard



You can see I don’t waist a lot of time with a clean pencil drawing. I rather add in the details as I ink my artwork and save time. Why draw it twice?



page 8 Pencil





page 9 Pencil



Using a Light box I ink the drawing onto a clean heavy stock drawing paper at one time I would have inked it onto watercolor paper but that was a long time ago now that I color digitally.


page 8 Ink




page 9 Ink



How I breakdown a story from start to finish



     Finished Art                                Pen and Ink                                Sketch

"The Marshmallow Man"

by Rena Jones 

Well I finally decided to use some of the artwork from the picture book The Marshmallow Man.
The Marshmallow Man is a retelling of the “Gingerbread Boy/Man”. It was not an easy decision on what story to talk about.

I have been thinking about how I breakdown a story from start to finish, and what project would I use to help me show my thinking process.

I loved this story from the first read and I laughed myself silly coming up with all the wonderful new and old characters for this book.
I also have kept a lot of the sketches some bad some good but I think I can pull it altogether and give a good idea how I do it.

Wish me Luck!