Work in Process ... Making Changes.

I went back and made a few color changes to the illustration roughs I have been working on for my latest book in the works.

I felt the original color roughs didn't really depict the feeling of night time that I was envisioning... I felt the moon appeared almost to sun like! Not really what I was trying to show.

Original illustration rough

Revised illustration rough

The change is maybe subtle but I think I'm getting closer to giving the illustration the night time feel I want to get. I did the same with the illustration below. The moon didn't actually look very moon like...I knew I needed to do something! I may even eliminate the face images directly below the moon as they appear to be to busy for the illustration.

Original illustration rough

Revised illustration rough

These roughs will all be rendered in acrylic for the final illustrations. I will be able to get deeper colors and better detail with the acrylic...but I also want to retain some of the earthy charm the color pencils gave the illustrations.

I will admit that I am definitely taking my time with these illustrations. I feel no rush to submit this to publishers at the moment...I really want to get this one perfect!!

Stay tuned for more updates soon!

A Work in Progress

It has been a slow start...but I have been gaining some momentum.

Today I would like to share with you some of the work I have done on "The Scarecrow's Halloween".

I started with a simple mock up of the book with only the text placed where I wanted it to be. From there I sketched illustration ideas into notebooks...several notebooks... trying to create the best image for each set of words on the page. Sometimes these images came easy, sometimes not so much, a lot of scribbling goes into making a book!

After choosing what I felt were the best images for each page and then drawing each one into the mock up in pencil... I then set about to use color pencils to bring each image to life. This part of the process has been most enjoyable to me.

I will admit that these illustrations are still quite rough, but they are good guides for me in capturing the color and mood for the book.

Once I am satisfied with each rough illustration, I will start to do the final illustrations in acrylic on watercolor paper like I have done with all my book illustrations.

I still have a lot of work and changes to do with this book, but for me... that is where the fun is!

 

So I would like to thank you for checking in on my progress so far. I have other completed roughs I would like to share later...once I convince my daughter to take some more pictures with her phone!! But rest assure I will try to keep you posted.

Will all this work ever get published? I sure hope so! But for now I am just enjoying the creative process and doing my best to bring this story to life!!

Take care!!

Greg