Thursday, April 25, 2013

One spread down, twelve more to go!

My "before" rough sketch for DaisyLocks interior spread
My "after" illustration following comments from the publisher
I wanted to show you part of my process when illustrating a picture book. I've already done my storyboards in Indesign and those have been revised and approved. Now I'm working on individual spreads. My rough is really loose. I've worked with Sylvan Dell before so they understand my shorthand roughs and have a good idea of how I'll finish the artwork. Their comments were to have more emphasis on plants than animals. So I took out a scorpion in the middle ground and added more plants. Since I work in Painter I've isolated various images on different layers; like the plants, turtle, background, daisy blowing in the wind, etc. This way Sylvan Dell can easily pull out parts to use for their creative minds sections for teachers and home schoolers. Also, when illustrating I have to keep in mind where the type will be (in the lower left hand side of the spread) and that the book folds right down the middle, referred to as the gutter. Books are a lot like life, you don't want something important falling in the gutter.

One spread down, twelve more to go!

Wind blows daisy seed from a hot environment to the cold arctic. Do you think this will work for her?

















Make that two down, eleven to go.

Daisy's not ready to put down roots just yet.
Three down, on to the next one.

Blowing around looking for just the right spot....
Four finished spreads! You can click on the images to see the full art.

This spot looks promising, but not quite right. Still looking....
Five spreads done. I always feel better when I'm past the halfway mark. Still have a way to go.

Wind blows Daisy to another possible new home... Could this be the place? Probably not.
This is the last illustration I'll show for DaisyLocks for awhile. I'm currently going back and forth between two books for two different publishers with a third about to start. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but it's summer in Colorado and I need to get out and play a bit. Thanks again for taking a look at my blog!






























2 comments:

Unknown said...

Cathy,

This was a great post. I loved the artwork, and what fun it must have been to go to the Morrison Museum for research. This book looks fantastic!

Cathy Morrison said...

Hi Nancy, Thanks so much and thanks again for tagging me for the blog tour. It's a very fun project.

I'd never been to the Morrison Museum before. It was always on my "want to go one of these days" list so I was glad to finally make it and was amazed at all they had going on there.

Hope you're doing well and staying far away from all these fires.