Almost finished the line work for the “Round” Book

I mentioned earlier I was working on a picture book called “Round” by Shervonne Taylor. At first it was going to be a picture book app, but now it’s a picture book. It’s about Olivia, a round little girl who wants to be a ballerina butterfly in the school play. I now have all the rough pencils finalized and I am working on the finished line work. I usually do this in charcoal pencil on paper. Even though I color digitally, I like to do my line work in charcoal pencil and scan it in. I feel I can get a more expressive line working this way. For this book I’m trying something different, I am working with a digital charcoal pencil on my new Wacom Cintiq. It always tickles me when people say, “Oh you work digitally, so it isn’t real art work.” I do my line work, just like anyone who is getting ready to do traditional watercolor. The difference is, when the time come to color it in, I use a computer. This way I can make changes, which clients always want to make after the color work is finished. When I used traditional watercolor or pastel, I would have to start all over again. Now I can move figures around and change background colors without destroying entire piece of art. It takes the same skills as traditional watercolor or pastel, it is just more flexible. Computer painting programs like Photoshop and Corel Painter are only tools, in the right hands there should be no difference in the final product. It takes me just as long to do a digital painting as it does a traditional media painting. This book has taken 7 months so far, I probably have another 3 to 4 more weeks work. Illustrating a 27 illustration children’s book takes time. I work closely with the author to illustrate a book they will be proud of.