Category: Illustrations

I’ve started the process of improving my illustrations, and in some cases probably completely changing them. To do this I downloaded some pencil brushes for Photoshop and used a graphics tablet to trace my existing illustrations. This gives more consistency within the line drawing of them and gives a neater finish. I started with Speck, which I traced and changed the colour of the eyes so they’re a bit more pale and also the size slightly:

Before:

After:

There is a clear difference between the two and I think it definitely looks much neater after improvement.

New and Improved Speck with jumper:

So far I have created 5 pages for my picture book, but I’m not showing these off until the whole thing is finished. However, I will show the illustrations I have made for pages 2, 3, 4 & 5.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Initial Sketches:

I’ve started on the main character of the book, “Speck”.

At first, I found a photo of a sphynx cat from Google and started to trace it using colour brushes on Photoshop. However, I realised I’m not the best at this and it just did not look right. May be if I worked on it a bit more it would have turned out fine, but I decided this isn’t the look I want.

I then tried to create him on photoshop with the brush tool. However, I decided against these illustrations as I felt they weren’t they right look and I wanted to start with a new visual idea in mind. These are too ‘perfect’ as in the outline is neat and the painting is blocked and inside the lines.

I have decided I would like a sketched, watercolour look. I wanted to achieve this by hand-sketching the outline and then painting it with a watercolour style brush on photoshop with a graphics tablet. I am happy with the basic outline of the face that I have created for Speck, to be used throughout the book. I am unsure on the look of the style of the painting which is done on photoshop so far. I might try water paints by hand and see how this looks. I have found it difficult to get the eyes right which is why I have struggled in creating him so far, with this sketch I might try other eyes as I feel the first ones are too much like the ones in “I Want My Hat Back” by Jon Klassen, but I like them. The second eyes I made digitally so they stand out too much and may be don’t suit the character as much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Initial Sketches:

 

 

 

 

 

Full body Speck: