Big bed and tough sleep

Some time ago I've been asked to make a try out (sample) illustration to the Andersen's story 'The princess and the pea'. Good picture would give me an opportunity to illustrate the whole book so I wanted to do it the best I could. Obviously :)

Oh, illustrating Andersen's fairy tales would be like an early Christmas! *__*

 I've started with designing the princess. I wanted her to be slim and 'long'. It fits princesses in my opinion :)

 This one looked nice enough so I stayed with her as my princess. Then it was time for the whole illustration's composition.

The main idea was to show how big is the bed because of all the blankets and mattresses. But the princess needed to be clearly visible too (the publisher wrote so).

 And that's what I liked the most.

 It has been quite hard to draw the princess, though. With this long neck and big head she looked like a lollipop. Or as if her head was just to fall off. It was hard!

 But I've managed :)

As you might have noticed - sketches were prepared for a horizontal illustration for two pages but the final is vertical. That's what happens when you read without understanding! Thankfully I've noticed this point of description before colouring, so I just had to play a bit with the sketch in Photoshop. Uf!

Still, I didn't get the job :(
But publisher said that they liked my illo a lot and they will remember me. We'll see what comes out of it.

A.

Boy's busy day

Yesterday I was working on this little boy's story for the whole day. A publisher has sent me a text some time ago and has told me to try if I fit. Here's my try :)

 Here's the boy and small sketches of illustrations. I liked the idea of him wearing dungarees but it was clearly stated that he had a red sweater on top. Shame :3

 The boy in a sweater. Looks quite cute ^^ You can also see a bigger sketch of the first illustration where he is sleeping and holding his dream by its tail.

 Sketches for the next illustration - the boy is having a bubble bath and playing with a sponge frog and a plastic turtle. It's hard to draw a frog in a different way than the obvious one.

 Final sketches of two first illustrations. 

And here's the third illustration - the boy is holding his mum when she brings him to a kindergarten. I liked the first idea of boy "spreading" across two pages but I was quite sure that, considering publishing rules, the main character should not be not-facing the viewer and should not be on the pages' bend. 

 Final outline of the first illustration. It will stay on the illustration. However, I was not making FINAL illustration - it's only a try to illustrate the story and what I needed was sth that will show the publisher my idea. So if I were to make this book I would make everything once more and looking more fancy and swirly :D

 Second illustration - I have an idea for a better composition in it with the boy being much closer. But this one isn't that bad, is it? 

 The last one. Very simple. I think that the story would have few small illustrations on white pages - like this one and maybe more smaller ones.

And here are finished (but not FINAL) illustrations:

My youngest sister likes them a lot so I think they are initially approved :D

A.

Book illustrating - what I like and what I hate

Some time ago I have finished illustrating a book for kids with few stories inside. It was my first time I did all the illustrations with watercolours. Sometimes it was dramatic - you can check my previous posts or twitter cries if you don't remember ;)

Anyway, here's a glimpse:

It all went quite well. I was working every day as long as there was even a bit of sun outside. I could do it as my regular job *nods*

But when I make a project with a very limited amount of time and a lot of pictures to create after some time I have this feeling to change my approach to the given theme. But when you have to work fast there's no time for that. And, actually, it has never been the right time.

Now I'm hoping to have the opportunity to really WORK on a book. Not just sit down and start painting ready images but to think about them and then re-think them few more times.

Hope this wish will come true :)

A.

Spring comes together with changes

I don't remember if I have already announced it on Twitter but let's do it properly - I've got a proper job! :) This is one of my New Year's Resolutions and is very important for me.

It's not only about the money. I feel that I need to have a constant income so I can slowly upgrade my artistic style. Lately, I've been feeling so not-in-my-own-skin when it comes to illustrating. So I need time and a lot of, probably lame, tries on a new way of creating without a never fading worry about the money.

Going further, I want to start something more complicated in my illustrations. I would like them to be more sophisticated and "beautiful", not just "nice". I don't know if I can explain it properly but I fave this feeling inside and hopefully it will show me which path is the best. In this try-out period I won't be searching for commissions or other art jobs as much as I usually do; I would like to concentrate only on my personal upgrade. It's a very bad feeling I've got right now, I just want to work on getting rid of it ;)

About my job - I will be working in a coffee shop (Wayne's Coffee, a Swedish shop) :D Gosh, I love coffee! And now I will be making it all day long. And drinking as much as I want (but not too much - it could get really unhealthy ;P). I have, of course, made a goal to achieve there too! I will be practising Latte Art! Right now I'm not that keen on it but I will have plenty of time and plenty of coffees to practise on :) When I get better I'll take photos of what I create and post them here. Hope my Latte Art will look superb!

And now few spring photos: crocuses in a park.

 A.

Masking fluid problems

It happened to me before so I can say I have been prepared.. But actually, every time it happens it shocks me and is a great (and sad) surprise.

When masking fluid goes off with paper and your painting.

Previously it happened to me because I wanted to rip off the fluid when the painting wasn't dry enough. That was my mistake and now I always wait as long as necessary or even longer, just in case. But this time I have no idea why it happened. And as you can see it went off with a lot of the outline.

 Thankfully those ripped off spots are not that visible on the finished picture.

However this one ladybug is kind of fluffy ;)

After this dramatic situation every time I use masking fluid I'm afraid it will ruin my painting. Wonder what was the reason. Maybe you know?

A.

Bye bye winter

Next part of progress photos. This time I was making two big illustrations to nursery rhyme about winter going away and a beginning of spring.

In the first picture there was a lot of snow and ice shown so I had to use plenty of masking fluid to cover it, just in case. My way of making first two layers of watercolour paint is rather spontaneous so many areas are painted even if they shouldn't ;)

For applying masking fluid I use old and cheap brushes. Those are the three I've used this time (I have a big bunch of them). From the left: used to make masking fluid outlines, used for smaller parts, used to covering bigger things.

Easy way to add details and make picture look more complicated - spots on bushes or trees or grass. Then you can leave them white, colour them so they look like flowers or fruit or cover the whole element with another layer of green paint and it just makes a nice texture.

Almost finished painting. It's hard to paint with light like that - paper's texture is too visible and disturbing.

 See what I mean? You can overlook some details and forget to paint them ;)

 And, at last, finished pictures :) I've taken this photo at night with my table lamp so the colours look actually a bit different. Don't you think that those clouds are fabulous? :D

And Marie Antoinette again! :D I must say, I had no idea her tail has got a brown end! Lately, she hasn't been sleeping in her bed because there was not enough sun here. However, spring started today and it's already more sunny :) So I hope she will come back to her pillow, just next to me.

A.

First nursery rhyme done

Right now I have more illustrations made but since I haven't shown all the photos I've taken just when they were up-to-date, now I have to divide them into smaller parts :)

Part one: The making of next 2 illustrations to a first story about a naughty little girl who makes pranks. In the previous post you can find the 1st illustration of this set.

I was making two big illustrations at once. One is a kitchen scene and the other one shows a bit of a living room.

First of all, after preparing the paper (what was described several times) I have put on a masking fluid. You can see the bottle of it on the photo.

Cat in the picture :) I wanted to add the cat, the one which got its tail green, somewhere in the presented room. But since there was not enough space I've decided to make a picture of it.

 When the masking fluid was drying I could use my desk again. However, it dries quite quickly so I got back to work soon.

I've bought myself a new green watercolour. Just in case. You can see the two greens I have - one is emerald and the other one is dark and dirty, so it's sometimes hard to make a perfect shade of green out of them.

 

 In the painting process. And a cat :) There must be a cat!

 I like the moment when the colours start to look so vivid and bright.

 Finished! They look nice together :)

And my kitty at the end :) In the sleeping mode - as always.

Hope you like the pictures!

A.

Sleepy day but with no sleep at all

I am recently illustrating a children's book with nursery rhymes so I don't know how much time I'll have left for personal work. I will surely make all Illustration Friday pictures but to keep my blog more busy and you more interested I think I will show photos of how progress is going :)

So let's start with today:

I have changed my cat's bed's place so now it's next to a window right beside my desk. The cat likes it so I can watch her sleep almost all the time now. What makes me sleepy too =o=

Yesterday I have prepared outlines for three illustrations to one of the stories. It's about a little girl that makes tricks to her family.

First of all I have used tape to stick the paper to a board. Then I have "painted" it with water. In that way no matter how much water you use later the paper won't get wavy.

 

But first you have to let this water layer dry completely. It's best to leave it for the rest of the day.

 Because I couldn't work on that illustration for a moment I've started another one - this one is smaller and won't have a background so there was no need to soak it with water first. I have used masking fluid to cover places where I definitely want white or places that shouldn't get brownish while painting fur.

 Then goes the painting process. My cat enjoys walking across wet paintings, licking paint and drinking water from a water jar... And if the level of water is too low and she can't reach it then she just puts her head inside and stares through the glass ;P

 Finished illustration :) It will be on the 1st page of the book. Cute beginning.

And then the sun came to my window and I felt like sleeping on my desk :D But I just glued the 3rd illustration to another big desk and soaked it. So for tomorrow I will have them both ready for painting. The beginning process of such big illustrations is rather slow: I make several overall layers of paint waiting between each of them to dry (so I won't get nasty stains). It takes a lot of time and it doesn't even feel like PAINTING. But I can work on one when the other one is drying. And I have more sketches and outlines to prepare too :)

Busy busy me, oh how much I like it ^^

A.