Twitter distractions....

I had a great day on Twitter today indulging in a game of 'quickdraw' with illustrator James Brown. It's a game he and another illustrator devised where we are challenged to draw something. The first person to finish and post to Twitter wins. It was thoroughly enjoyable AND a good way to break out of the illustrators 'block' I've been having a bit of this week (too much staring at a blank page and then thinking of a hundred different ideas at once, loosing patience and not exploring any of them)

Anyway, I challenged James to draw a pirate, and in return I had to draw a mermaid.

I got in with my Mermaid first (taking a break from reading her '50 shades of blue'!). However, I didn't add any colour. 

James on the other hand seemed to produce a whole mini story here complete with colour, so he had to win.

We next had a go at doing the same thing - 'Raining Cats and Dogs'. It's always interesting drawing the same thing as someone else as the ideas are so different.

James's fantastic cats and dogs. Some of them look really alarmed.

My cats and dogs. I really enjoyed this. I think it has echoes of my daughter who has been nagging constantly this week about us getting a dog. It isn't going to happen. Maybe it's her dream on one just landing on her?

Really enjoyable exercise. Please have a look at James's work here on his blog http://jamesbrownillustration.blogspot.co.uk.

Foiled! HapPEA Publication Day.

At last here it is! I'm so proud to show off the lovely, sparkly, pink and funny new book The Princess and the Peas from  Caryl Hart and myself, published by the gorgeous people at Nosy Crow.

I love this book and especially the cover as it was really easy    to think of the idea and it was even better that everyone liked it too! Then, the icing on the cake was the decision to use a gorgeous shiny green foil on the leafy details. Fellow Nosy Crow illustrator Steve Lenton recently mentioned that it reminds him of Mint Aero.....Yum!

Photoshop, paint and the 'build'

Back in 2001, I never used a computer. I was totally married to my paint, pens and inks. I refused to believe that I (personally) could achieve anything visually pleasing with the warmth and richness I often wanted in my work on a......(intake of breath)....computer.

However, a friend badgered me and introduced me to Photoshop. I never learnt how to use it properly. I barely know half of what can be achieved with it even now. I just blindly went in, almost trying to convince myself it was a lost cause. I surprised myself. I think the endless years of building up paintings using layers of thin inks and watercolours to achieve some depth really helped me. I started using my pencil line as my pen line, which made me feel a bit free, as I magically found I could 'float' the line above my colour keeping it sharp.

These days I often get asked by people just how I achieved a certain look from photoshop. The answer is I'm pretty rubbish at explaining it and I don't think too much about it. I set out knowing what I'd like to achieve but never how to manage it.  I approach it like a normal painting. I steer clear as much as I can from the 'magic wand' tool and use the brushes, pastels and pens pretty much as I would as if I had them actually physically here. I like just scribbling. Photoshop doesn't have to be smooth or joinless. Who wants smooth? I have a lot to learn still, I even sometimes come full circle and bring in paper that I've splashed onto to actual real life paper....just to shake it up. In fact that's very exciting.

I thought I'd show the screen shots of how I've actually built up a page. You'll see how simple it is, and actually just how similar it is to (shhhhhhh)....'real' painting.

This is a spread from 'My Adventure Island' by Timothy Knapman and Me (Sarah Warburton) published by Scholastic 2012.

So, just a pencil sketch and a sense of woodland and Autumn.

I have separated my line out in Photoshop using a clever 'Ready to Paint' function I downloaded. This allows the line to 'float' above any layer. Using a separate layer underneath all the line, I've concentrated on the characters so that whatever colour I do from now on I can make sure they aren't lost.

Colour! on a new layer underneath the line and the characters the colour experiments starts. I decided fairly early on that long shadows would add a nice woodland feel.

On top of the background colours but beneath the characters and the line - the trees now give a more dramatic look to the spread.

Quite a subtle change here, but I've added a 'carpet' texture to the woodland floor. This adventure-but-at-home idea subtly appears in book in various places. This is a square of carpet scanned, then adjustments made for contrast and then turned into a separate 'line'. This is then dragged into the picture and worked upon with erasing parts and painting parts on top, again building up a colour.

Let there be light! Adding these touches are always my favourite. This time I use a layer on top of all the layers, including the line as then as the light is built up slowly using a very subtle pastel tool on a very low opacity. Keeping it on top of the line gives it the real sunshine feel.

First attempt at animation EVER.

No laughing please. With my new bamboo drawing tablet I noticed one day that you could do animation with it. You'd think having an animator husband I'd have absorbed some kind of ability by osmosis - but no, I don't think so! It's really mind boggling. I have no idea what I was doing, what I was drawing or where it was going. Maybe some planning might be a good idea? All those zillions of storyboards they do for films - maybe they know something? ( stroke beard).

Panto Panda

I've just started work again on the annual Christmas Pantomime for the Theatre Royal Winchester. This year its Aladdin. Can't wait to get stuck in. It's always a lovely job to do, just really different and lots of fun. Today, I've begun and created Panto Panda for initial summer advertising. It's already making me smile.

I hope those Pandas in Edinburgh are having an equally fun day ;)

arrrrrgggh!

Not quite sure what to make of this post. I've been so busy on various book projects recently I've been really quiet on the doodle/blog front ( have a dreadful cold too)......Until this monster jumped out of the brush!

 For a while now I've wanted to explore the character of a monster who eats children before mending his ways and finding something slightly more delicious.  After a few years of this being in the dusty bottom drawer of my mind, I think this idea maybe a bit too harsh! However, I like the idea of him eating fluffy bunnies instead. Of course, somehow in the end the bunnies will have to have the last laugh. Slightly scared of my possible frame of mind whilst doing this! Will have to look again and bring down the violent tone a notch or two! Be very afraid.

What the Dickens?

Happy Birthday to you Mr Dickens. 200 years old. You've aged well.

I've never been so lucky as to illustrate a Dickens story. Funnily enough this week I had the urge! Dickens has been everywhere these past few months. I was really impressed with the BBC version of Great Expectations over Christmas (2011) and this week, the internet had a distinctly Dickensian feel with his 'trending' on Twitter and Google having a special Dickens design. I felt the urge to have a go. I set out to look for recent incarnations of Dickens characters by other illustrators, but found myself fairly low on images. I suppose this may be a product of the fact that unlike back in Dickens day when his books were highly illustrated - they aren't now (unless shortened versions for children). I can't help thinking this is a huge shame.

Anyway, here's my effort from Great Expectations. I haven't worked in black and white for a while and it was a real treat. I love a bit of history (even if the history is all made up).

Below are Dickens images that I really like. I'll always hold a torch for 'A Christmas Carol', as it was the first Dickens I read as my Dad loves the story and collects versions of the story on film. He consistently says that The Muppets Christmas Carol is one of the best!

A Christmas Carol

Fagin in his cell - Oliver Twist

Muppets Christmas Carol