how I illustrate a book

I have not been posting much lately because I have been busy illustrating a little educational book. Remember that little fairy drawing I posted a few weeks ago? Well this is the book she appears in. I have done several of these books in the past, so I now have my game plan down on them. To make up for a lack of posting recently, I thought I would take you through the steps I use in illustrating these books. Hang on... here we go!

The first thing I do is read through the book and make a little thumbnail diagram of it. These are just doodles where I try to get an idea of what characters are on a page and what they are doing. (click to enlarge)


I think I will focus on page 9 as an example of my process. Page 9 has a poodle with a bone in her mouth and a striped trombone in her dish. These were put there by the fairy. I played a trombone in high school so I know how to fake a trombone pretty well. I think I draw a trombone better than I could play one. :0) So... I set around with lots of laser paper and a mechanical pencil and try to draw all the characters in the book. This takes a while, and usually happens in the evening while I "watch" whatever is on TV. TV is actuall a radio to me... I am pretty good at ignoring the picture and just listening. After lots and lots of doodling, I sort through all the sketches, find the poodles, and do a small but accurate drawing of the page.


After I have worked out the drawings for all the pages, I then blow them all up to actual size. A few adjustments are made along the way, like I decided to turn the trombone around so the slide won't be covered up by a block of text that will appear in a box in the lower right corner. All the sketches are e-mailed as JPEGs and I wait for the inevitable corrections to come back. Usually they are not too bad and often are improvements to what I have done. On this page the suggestion was to make the bone and trombone larger. I erased (as you can see) the bone and made it bigger, but on the trombone I enlarged the sketch on my copy machine, cut out the larger version, and taped it down. (click to enlarge)


The drawing stage usually takes about a week for me to do. This is 14 pages. After approval of sketches I go to the second stage wich is inking, scanning and coloring. This part takes another week. For inking, I put a sheet of vellum over the sketch and make an inked drawing with a crow quill dip pen. Old school. :0)


After all sketches are inked, I scan them as line art and color them with Photoshop 7. I refuse to upgrade. :0) I know just enough about Photoshop to be able to add color and create a few special effects. Color adds SO much to a drawing! Well, that's it! One book down... two more are waiting for me to do. One is due before Christmas and the other is due in early January. If you would like to see a step by step tutorial of how I color using Photoshop, just click on the "Photoshop tutorial" link under LABELS on my side bar. Thanks for stoppin by!

Jeepers!

Jeepers! I have been busy with stuff and haven't posted anything lately. I thought I should put something new up just so you will know I am still alive and kickin'. I spotted this little doodle for a book I am working on and decided ... that's good enough for now. Hopefully something else will follow soon.

HATS

For Illustration Friday this week I came up with a little limerick that I liked. That's the good news. The bad news is... I don't have the time to do a decent illustration for it. After taking a look at what is now appearing on JONESAPALOOZA, I decided that everything was looking the same. SO... for a change of pace, I grabbed my Wacom tablet and tried to draw on it. I don't think I have ever set it up to draw on, and this is the first time I have tried this. I don't consider the results anything more than a doodle with color, but it is going to have to do for this week. Anyhoo, I think I found my loose side. :0)

fairy

Well, I am busy illustrating another little educational book. The finished art is due the middle of November. That's not far away. Christmas is just around the corner. AAAAAAAAAUGH!

The first step for this project is to design the main character which is a fairy. The fairy comes into town and makes a lot of changes. I was given no direction for designing the fairy, so I went to Google Images to see what fairies look like. I liked the pixie-like fairies with the little dresses that look like flower petals. After doodling a page or two of sketches I landed on the above sketch and sent it off for approval.

Now here is what seems to happen often in the wide world of freelance illustration. The client had no idea of what they wanted until they saw my sketch... THEN they know what they want, and this ain't it! NOW they give me some specific directions. Make the fairy older and hipper, with a beehive hairdo and a tiera, and go-go boots. OK... I can do that.

This really isn't a big problem... it is just that it would be much quicker if I knew what they were looking for before I began. Anyhoo, here is the revised fairy sketch. It was approved and I am working on the sketches for the book. Stay tuned!

GROW

Here is one of the animals that I did recently that has a GROW theme. Give it a chance... maybe it will GROW on you. :0)

I have been too busy with work in the last couple of weeks to do anything fresh for Illustration Friday. And this week I am attending a 3 day workshop, so I have even less time. Maybe things will get better in the near future.

apple bear

By request, here is the bear and the apple tree. Yep, bears just LOVE apples. Can't get enough of 'em! They are known to accost campers and break into their tents looking for a good Fuji. A good rule when suddenly encountering a bear is... drop your apples and run.

Thank you for visiting this edition of Wild Kingdom.

so... any more animals you are dying to see?

porcupine on a pumpkin

Porcupine on a pumpkin

Yep... it sure SOUNDS like diner talk, but it's NOT! If you happen to order a pig in a blanket and the waiter brings you a porcupine on a pumpkin... change restaurants.

Pig and blankets

I had a request to see the pig with the pancakes. "Pig in a blanket" is more "diner lingo" (see previous post) for a sausage link wrapped in a pancake. Good stuff! We had pancakes Sunday. I like to get a leftover pancake out of the fridge and put grape jelly on it for a snack. Or... two leftover pancakes with peanut butter & jelly is also reeeeeally good. Unfortunately there were no leftovers. As the pancakes sat out on the stove, I would pick one up and munch on it whenever I walked by... and soon there were no more pancakes.

Shuckydarn!

OPEN

When you are out campaigning for president... always watch out for OPEN manholes!

le Rat

Here he is, by popular demand.... the rat on a slide! Hmmm... that sounds a lot like DINER LINGO. I really like diner lingo. "Adam and Eve on a raft" is two poached eggs on toast. "Burn the British" is a toasted English muffin. I heard one recently on the radio that I liked. It was "whistleberries and dogs" that translates to "beans and franks" :o)

So... any other requests to see any of the other 100 animals? While you are thinking about it I'm going to have a Windmill Cocktail....

le COW

Well, well, well... it seems that some of my 8 visitors don't know what a cow looks like. Now THIS... is a COW. Or at least this is how MY cows look. They are always white with black splotches... and have hooves. Study this cow for the next week and then see if you can distinguish it from a sock monkey. End of lesson. I sure hope you were taking notes here... a pop quiz can happen at any time!

This cow was one of the 100 animals that I did recently for a job. If you poke around here, you can find sketches of all 100. If you happen to run across an animal that you would really really like to see the finished version of, just let me know and I will post it.

OK, class dismissed. Please, no running on the way to the lunch room.

Thankyouverymuch.

the BLUES

MiniMo helps SocMo raise some much needed campaign funds in his run for president.

SocMo's campaign for president is sputtering along. Sock monkeys don't get no respect and are discriminated against everywhere. He has never been invited to a debate with the other candidates. But the good news is... he has learned 3 chords now and if his campaign fails, he hopes to become a country music star.

National Chicken Month!

OOPS! September has almost slipped by and I have not posted this CHICKEN! This is from a calendar I did many months ago. It's not too late, though... take a chicken to lunch today! Or... have a chicken for lunch today... whatever. :o)

JUGGLE

SocMo uses his awesome JUGGLING skills to draw a crowd as he continues his run for president of the United States.

The SocMo for president campaign is now gaining momentum across the country. Ones of tens of people are deciding that SocMo is probably good enough for them. If you want to join them and support a candidate that has no spine and is made of socks, then join the SocMo for President campaign.

If you have absolutely nothing else to do, and you like to spend your valuable time poking around sites on your computer, then you may want to CLICK HERE and see SocMo in his SECOND appearance on Illustration Friday (October 2005)... AND he is Juggling! WOO HOO! Hey... I actually entertained myself, looking back at some of the old posts.

WEDDING

SocMo thinks a WEDDING is a great place to get in a little campaigning for his presidential run.... plus there is free cake!

SOCMO-mentum

SocMo's exploratory committee says that he now has the MOMENTUM for a presidential run. Yes, SocMo is making a run for the Whitehouse... or the outhouse... whichever is closer. If none of the other candidates inspire you, join the millions... uh... thousands... er... tens of people who have decided to GO SOCMO!

If you would like to join the SocMo bandwagon and a chart a new direction for our country, just head on over to the SocMo for Prez Store. You will be able to pick up a T-shirt, mug, calendar, or mini-poster of your fearless candidate. Wear a T-shirt to work or school and enjoy the blank stares and puzzled looks you get. Dribble coffee down your shirt from your I GO SOCMO mug. Count off the days till the whole campaign mess is over on your I GO SOCMO calendar. Carry your bowling ball around in the I GO SOCMO tote bag.

Act now! ... operators are standing by... help spread the word!

MOMENTUM

The disc chasing doggy is using his MOMENTUM to catch the frisbee which is using its MOMENTUM to sail away. This is something like the nature program where the lion is chasing the poor little antelope. But no one gets hurt in this version. I have been told by experts that plastic doesn't feel pain. So there. :o)

I got an e-mail asking about this painting I did a while back. Someone was interested in buying it or a print or something. They have a dog that they play frisbee with and they liked my image. So.... I went to Cafepress and applied the image to some items to see if that would work for them. If you are interested in a disc chasing dog on a T-shirt just check out the products at Jones*Mart. You can be the only one in your town... or state... or continent to have a Disc Doggy shirt. Be unique.

While I was messing around with this image, I realized it would work very well for the Illustration Friday word. It was painted in acrylic on a panel. Thanks for looking, folks!

line art

Being led to the furnace... can you say asbestos underwear?


Coming out of the furnace... it's party time!
So... I had to do some B&W images for them 3 guys being tossed into the fiery furnace. Now, what were their names? Moe, Larry, and Curly? Anyway, I was happy, but a wee bit surprised that my sketches were approved. I like to do little characters that are 2 heads tall. They are funny looking and very cartoony. But they got OK'd like this... so I inked them up.

In the old days I would just turn in the line art and that would be that. But now, since I send everything on a digital file, I had to convert this to something. I scanned at 600 dpi and saved them as bitmapped tiff images. I have been told that 600 dpi bitmapped tiffs are the way to go for line art. You get a nice crisp line in print this way.

The new thing for me on these is that I tried adding some halftone dots for just a bit of tone. I think it worked OK considering I was pretty much making it up as I went along. I am not a Pro with Photoshop. I sloooowly figure things out and this is my latest discovery.

But... I LIKE the dots. Three cheers for Photoshop!

ALPHABET

SocMo can belch the ALPHABET underwater!

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SocMo is back by popular demand! The word for this week's IF challenge did not inspire me at all on Friday. No ideas came on Saturday either. Sunday I had an idea dealing with alphabet soup. it was OK, but I wasn't really excited by it. It would do if nothing else came along. Monday I was looking at some IF entries and saw some alphabet letters that were very ROUND. Hmmm... round letters... like BUBBLES! Bubbles are underwater.... SocMo can be burping the alphabet UNDERWATER!

BINGO! Once I have an idea that I like, it is fun do draw it up.

One word of caution.... don't try this at home. SocMo is a professional, highly skilled underwater alphabet belcher.

You can click on the image to get up close and personal with it.

VISITORS

This is something I have been working on this week and it fits the Illustration Friday theme. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are just VISITORS in the fiery furnace. They won't be staying long. Got places to go... things to do...

This was more fun 'n games with Photoshop. I threw in some brick texture from a building I took a picture of downtown. The idea here is that the guys are "cool" in the furnace, hence the blue colors and shades. Also gets that blue/orange thing going on, doncha know. A great color combo.

I'm still working on finishing the 100 animals that I posted sketches of. It's turning out to be a loooooong process...

stay tuned....