Constructing My Children's Picture Book: Page One

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I’m looking for a way to have consistent colors from page 1 to 32. Watercolor looks great, but mixing identical colors for 32 pages will be a challenge. Copic markers will work and look great. Ecoline watercolors can be consistent if I can settle on a color palette. Digital coloring using Photoshop or the iPad is also a good option. Now the I see the problem: I have too many options, and I have beginner skills with all of them.

Today’s picture is inked with a Uni-ball Vista pen and colored with Ecoline liquid watercolors. As soon as I finished this I wanted to change the text; next time the text goes on a separate piece of paper for layering in Photoshop. Maybe I’ll do the same with backgrounds, too.

Jimmy Jay meets Buddy Butterfly

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Here’s another version of Jimmy meeting his friend Buddy. I’m trying out Buddy’s color scheme and wing markings. I’m considering this painting another inch forward towards my March 31 deadline that’s looming on the horizon. I now have 61 days to finish this. It sounds like a lot, but with only a couple of hours a days, I’m going to hustle. Getting this book finished is a big deal.

I haven’t got a finalized page yet and I’m feeling the pressure. To cite my favorite metaphysical poet, Andrew Marvell,

“But at my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity. ”

Enough poetry!

I didn’t forget Jimmy Jay’s nose this time.

Action line with Jimmy Jay trying to rescue Buddy Butterfly

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I’ve take drawing classes that emphasize that a character needs an “action line” in order to be dynamic and interesting. Unfortunately, it seems that my characters usually don’t have anything like a gesture or action line. Today’s drawing reverses that trend. I intentionally drew Jimmy with what I hoped was an action line as he’s leaping to try to keep his friend from being sucked down a chimney.

Why did I put Aeolus up in the left hand corner? Because everyone know that he’s in charge of making the wind blow. Besides, I like the antique versions of Aeolus with puffy cheeks blowing those gusty winds at poor Buddy. I think he looks mean, but there has to be a villain in the story. He’s a good one.

I’m still going with grisaille for this painting.

A Jaybird and a Butterfly Play Poker

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Another grisaille. This time Jimmy and Buddy are playing poker, it seems. I’m not much of a card player, but I do know that four queens is a good hand. Too bad for Jimmy, but Buddy has four aces. I know because that’s the story I wrote in my head.

One thing wrong with this picture that I’m thinking of: I forgot to add Jimmy nose. Even at this year 3/4 view his honker would be prominent. This drawing, painting, and processing, and writing this post, took about 1 1/2 hours. I was hustling.

More turn-arounds for my imaginary character, Jimmy Jay

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I’m learning how to apply ink washes and glaze them with watercolor. Today, it being Sunday, I thought I’d have oodles of time to do turnarounds for all of the characters in my children’s book; Jimmy Jay, Momma Jay, Jenny Jay (I keep changing her name), and Buddy Butterfly. It didn’t happen. As usual I grossly underestimated how much time I have and how speedily I can draw and paint.

I did get Jimmy’s turnaround done. The front view is the least pleasing because his beak/nose is completely flattened, and the back view doesn’t say much. I don’t think I’ll ever use that view.

I’m converting my sketchbook to a journal/diary. Since I’m learning something new everyday, I need to write notes and comments so I’ll remember what color I used when I painted a picture. These days my drawings and paintings 100% for for practice. Finished pieces seem to be on the distant horizon.

As for my supplies, they’re the same as yesterday. I see that semi-opaque Cerulean Blue Chrome covers the line work. I’m leaning toward Phthalo Blue GS for the bird characters.

A grisaille version of the chimney house

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Grisaille: In fine art, the term grisaille most commonly refers to a monochrome painting technique by which a painting or drawing is executed exclusively in shades of grey. For a contemporary example, see Picasso’s Guernica.

I’ve drawn the house with the chimney that birds get trapped in dozens of times, and here it is again. I followed the grisaille process that Steven Reddy teaches in his book “Everyday Sketching & Drawing”. I sketched from a reference photo, inked it with a Uni-ball Vision pen, gave it 3 washes of watered-down black ink, then watercolored it. I like this friendly style, and I like that the picture looks finished when it’s in it’s grisaille black and white state. Adding watercolor is the icing on the cake. As Steven Terry mantra goes, “Black and white does the work; color gets the credit.”

My materials for the drawing: Uni-Ball Vision pen with black ink, Canson Montval All-Media sketchbook (best price at DickBlick.com), Daniel Smith Ultimate Mixing Palette, and a Robert Simmons 1/4 inch flat brush.

The grisaille version.

The grisaille version.

Book impression: “Everyday Sketching and Drawing” by Steven Reddy

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I bought up this book at Barnes and Noble yesterday — even though I’ve exceeded my book budget for the month. When I opened Everyday Sketching and Drawing It was love at first sight…every drawing in pen and ink. Pen and ink is my native style, the style I’m eternally ignoring while I search for my “real style”, which mostly means trying to draw/paint/sketch like someone else. My wife keeps telling me that pen and ink is really me and I keep thinking that I should be painting digitally and traditionally like the “real” artists I see on Youtube. That’s a real problem. I must look like I’m eternally falling down rabbit holes.

Then I find this book, and it talks to me. Steven Reddy’s style is pen-and-ink with grisaille and watercolor wash. Wow! I love it. One of the treasures in the book is a sketch of R Crumb, one of my pen-and-ink idol ever since I went into a comic book store on Haight street in 196? and bought my first stunning Zap comics. My other big idol is Wally Wood in his Mad Magazine days. Black and white, pen and ink…it doesn’t get any better.

My favorite quote from the book comes when Reddy is writing about drawing his partner. It’s easy to see that she looks obviously different in every drawing:

Creating a faithful likeness would take much longer than I want to spend on any drawing. (p. 138)

I admire the sentiment, and I’m inspired by it.

There you see the thumbnail of an ink-stained dip pen wretch.

Digitally cleaned up Bird and Butterfly Riding Bicycles

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Ah, the magic and mystery of Photoshop! On one hand it gives, and with the other it takes away. I used PS to clean up the watercolor image I made a few adjustments and added some cleanliness at the cost of some of watercolor’s magic randomness.

I removed the background, added shadows and highlights, speed lines, moved Jimmy to the background, and re-inked the outlines of Jimmy and Buddy. This took about 2 hours. I’m quite a novice with Photoshop and tasks always take longer than I think they should. I always have the feeling that I’m fighting against an invisible giant when I’m in Photoshop.

One other big difference is that I switched to my pen display today. Lately I’ve been using my Wacom Intuos Pro, the big one, but I’ve been looking at lots of reviews of the new Wacom Cintiq 16 and got the itch to reinstall my Huion drivers. I made all of the edits with my Huion GT 220 V2, which also has a stylus with 8000+ levels of sensitivity. I do prefer the feel of the Wacom stylus, but I work much faster on the pen display. What’s more relevant: feel or speed? Time will tell.

Compare this painting to the original posted yesterday.

In my hands, Photoshop removes much of the original watercolor’s charm. Sigh!

A bird and a butterfly riding bicycles!

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Today I don’t have a finished painting, so I’ll post what I have up to this point. I’ve heard you’re not supposed to let them see you sweat, but that saying doesn’t apply when I’m trying keep a record of my learning how to create a children’s book. So, here it is: my sweaty art work, incomplete and in need of some loving attention.

I’ll post the finished version tomorrow for comparison.

Jimmy Jay makes a butterfly friend

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Today the pressure of my self-imposed March 31 deadline hit me hard. With all of the questions of style, color palette, line width, pen and ink, or brush and ink, etc. running through my head, I felt the I was spinning my wheels when I should be working through my storyboard. I decided to skip all of the questions of technique and just draw and paint the best I can.

I chose to draw and paint Jimmy Jay making friends with Buddy Butterfly in a field of poppies. I think they both want to be the boss of the poppy Buddy is sitting on. By the way, Buddy is supposed to be a Monarch butterfly — I’ve definitely got his colors too reddish, but I’ll fix that in the final rendition. And I’ll make the poppies more poppyish. All in all, this is one more inch of progress.

In this picture I inkied only Jimmy and Buddy, and outlined a couple of poppies with a Prismacolor black colored penci. It’s produces a soft black that doesn’t overpower.