I’m a little over halfway through stitching together the scans of my watercolour illustrations for Riley’s Tooth, written by Diane Cantrell (Author of Good-bye, Baby Max). I’m really pleased with how the illustrations have turned out, especially since they are entirely in watercolour (a first for me as normally I switch to pencil crayon for the finer details.) Here’s a preview of three of the sixteen illustrations for Riley’s Tooth.
For those who are curious about the process of starting illustrations for a children’s book, thought I’d post a scan of the first pencil-to-paper (click image to see full size) on my latest project (Spotty & Eddie Visit Percé.) The first thing I do is print off the manuscript and mark with a pencil where I think the pages should be split up. Then I sketch thumbnails of the entire layout (cover to cover,) and start making simple notes on what should go on each page… this allows me to see if the story will fit the page count, and what ideas I need to combine into the same spread.
After thumbnailing, I go back to my InDesign layout, drop the manuscript in there with gray FPO (for placement only) image boxes where the illustrations will go, and write in little notes of what is to go on each page… I save this out as a PDF and send it to my authors/publishers for their feedback before I delve into proper sketches.
As an old-school artist, a valuable skill to have is knowing how to scan and stitch together your original paintings digitally. At the moment I’m stitching together the scans of the final artwork for Riley’s Tooth by Diane Cantrell. Here’s how I’m going about it…
1. Scan your artwork in pieces :
• Place your artwork on the scanning bed starting in the upper left corner.
• Find a place on your scanner where you can visually align your artwork. I piece of masking tape down on either edge of the scanner to quickly align it.
• Tip : If your artwork is thin and warped, place a magazine on top of the artwork about the size of the scanning bed area as it will help press it down. Then stack on more weight.
• Tip : If your artwork is too large for the scanning bed, make sure it lays down flat and place something heavy on it to hold it in place. Sometimes removing the lid off the scanning bed and not using it can help maneuver for very large pieces.
• The more flat your artwork is, the more even the colours will turn out in the scan and you’ll reduce shadows. Scanning in pieces will inevitably create shadows on the edge of the scan, but the bigger the angle the larger the shadows are and more difficult to remove using Photoshop.
• Set the scanner to at least 300dpi and at least 100% in size (adjust to your needs.)
• Make sure your artwork is secure, and start the scan.
• When the scan is done, carefully lift your artwork and slide it over so that you can scan the next portion of your illustration, allowing 2-3 inches of the are you just scanned to be scanned again. This overlap will help you stitch together the illustrations in Photoshop (and trust me, it’s an awful feeling when you’ve scanned something very large to piece it together only to find a big chunk missing from not overlapping enough!) (Read on …)
Here’s a second peek at the illustrations I’m working on for Diane Cantrell’s children’s book, tentatively titled Riley’s Tooth. This is a really enjoyable stage as it’s where I make a lot of the decisions about what colours everything will be. I generally have a good idea when I start out, but finding just that right shade of colour happens when I mix the paint in the palette… for instance, I knew I wanted the fairy to have blue hair, but it wasn’t until I started mixing colours that I came up with the idea to paint her hair with aqua streaks to mimmick a swirl of toothpaste.
I like to try new things with each new children’s book, and with these illustrations I am emphasizing textures with watercolour techniques such as salting (to give clothing/fabrics interesting textures) and dropping clear water to create flowers in the colour (for magical sparkles around the tooth fairy.) These photos I took over a week ago, and since then the paintings are much more detailed. Will try to post another peek soon!
p.s. You may have noticed the big pink dog… I like to bring sub-stories (secondary visual stories within the illustrations that aren’t in the original manuscript) into illustrations as they are fun for kids to spot, things such as having bugs doing silly things in the background. This sub-story is that one of the dogs really doesn’t like the tooth fairy, and tries to swat it with a fly swatter… only to get magically turned into a fluffy, pink puff-dog for the rest of the book!
You can see some of the finished sketches for Riley’s Tooth in this previous post.
Here’s another sneak peak at the illustrations I’m working on for Diane Cantrell’s new story, Riley’s Tooth. I’m working with watercolours on Arches medium watercolour paper which I’ve taped down onto masonite board. I’ve just finished painting the first layer, and am moving onto building up the layers of colour and detail. I always enjoy the loose first wash of colour… the crazier it looks initially the better once you go over and tighten up the details.
You can see some of the finished sketches for Riley’s Tooth in this previous post.
I have the pleasure of working for a second time with Diane Cantrell, author of Mom’s Choice Award winning picture book, Good-bye Baby Max. The title of our latest picture book is yet to be set, but I can tell you the story is about three pups who don’t quite grasp the concept of the Tooth Fairy and try in earnest to find their owner’s first lost tooth. I’ve just finished up the sketches… here are a handful to have a sneak peek at! The finals will be in watercolour & pencil on Arches paper. I transferred the sketches with an Artograph a couple nights ago, so once I’ve taped the paper down to masonite boards I will start painting, yippee!
I’ve been itching to do a study of this little Bébé dress by Minihaha… here’s the finished piece as part of my illustrated diary of Hera’s stuff. I used acrylic on a piece of old Pantone 178 paper by Letroset… below are a few scans I took in between the layers of painting.
First, I lightly penciled in the outline of the dress onto the pantone paper… I left the pantone details along the edge attached as thought it would be nice to remember how old the paper is.
Next, as it was such a busy pattern I painted the corderoy fabric without its pattern to establish the texture & shading.
Then, I spent quite a bit of time studying the pattern… it was so complex I left out a lot of interesting shapes & colour combinations, and tried to capture the gist of the pattern
Lastly, I added a little more texture on top of the painted pattern to knock it back a bit, and added a few white highlights to the trim.
I just finished the last illustration for Charline & Lauren’s picturebook, “Tartan Meets the Queen.” Yippee! This one was a lot of fun drawing… I liked putting the squirrel in different places… sliding down the banister, sitting on the throne, peaking out from behind the chandellier. After drawing the illustrations in pencil (below), it was satisfying colouring in all of the “bling” with a few tinting layers of colour in Photoshop (above.)
So now we’re just going through doing some final edits to the book layout, then it will be off to the printers! (Read on …)
One down, one to go! Here’s the latest illustration for Charline & Lauren’s storybook, “Tartan Meets the Queen.” The illustrations for this book are all done in regular old pencil (below), then I give them a tint of colour in Photoshop (above.)
This is the first children’s book I’ve had a chance to illustrate since I joined In The Picture, a project aimed to encourage illustrators, authors & publishers to include disabled children in their books for young readers. I’ve incorporated one little girl in a funky wheelchair in this illustration as my first contribution to In The Picture. (Read on …)
With only 3 illustrations left, the finish line is in sight for Charline & Lauren’s story, “Tartan Meets the Queen!” Here’s one of the most recent illustrations completed, I’m hoping to have the rest done in the next few weeks (depending on how long my baby Hera naps each day to let me draw!)
To see other posts on “Tartan Meets the Queen,” check out :
“Tartan Meets the Queen” © Charline Crous & Lauren Everton, Illustrations © Heather Castles
