Thursday 28 June 2012

St Andrews Book Launch this weekend


St Andrews Book Launch this Saturday - and after this date you will be able to order your book from Amazon

Friday 15 June 2012

How to...

I thought some people might be interested in how I create my illustrations, so here's an technical overview using a page from the Lion of St Andrews as an example:

Stage one - Drawing. 
I use a hard, typically HB, pencil to lightly sketch out the composition. I then draw the detail in with a technical pencil. I usually don't use references for my drawings, but in the book I included several real St Andrews locations.  For this image I used a reference photo of the castle.



Stage two - Colouring. 
I then colour the image using Photoshop and a drawing tablet (Wacom) with a pressure sensitive pen. I scan the image into Photoshop and set the layer to "linear burn" and then do the digital painting on a separate layer underneath, which allows me to see through the drawing while colouring. This is how the digital colour looks underneath the drawing..


...weird!

And this is what the final image looks like. In this example there is some digital collage I added (the musical notes) using a layer mask. 


And if you are around St Andrews this month, I should be doing a live demonstration of this colouring at my book launch in J&G Innes on 30th. In the meantime look out for news on the new Facebook group or the official Lion of St Andrews website.

Wednesday 6 June 2012

On another note...


So, as much as I want to tell you more about the Lion of St Andrews - I wanted to post one more thing first about my hero Maurice Sendak, who sadly died last month.  Of course, everyone thinks of 'Where the Wild Things Are' when that name is mentioned, but a particular favourite of Sendak's is called 'Dear Mili'.

When you find a book you love, you just want to share it with everybody!  It has been such an inspiration, that I even snuck in a little homage to the little girl from the story and Saint Joseph in the procession images from LOSA:


More of my favourite Sendak titles include:


Brundibar
Outside Over There
The Nutshell Library
Higgledy Piggledy Pop