Holidays at Grand Mags: New Digital Art

Throughout my career as a children’s book illustrator, I have worked in a traditional style with acrylics on Strathmore Bristol Board. Over the last five years I’ve been mixing mediums by enhancing traditionally painted art with Photoshop techniques. Recently I completed a number of projects that were painted entirely in Photoshop.

After reading about a great digital painting class on Marion Eldridge’s blog NEW ART NEWS, I signed up to take an online class that would help me with a new sketch for Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

In the spring, I took Will Terry’s Digital Painting and Photoshop Course. After completing his class I was able to get more of my traditional painting style into digital artwork . Will demonstrates his process for painting with layers and the use of textured brushes you create. I learned how to use layers and much more from Will’s series. Below is the first illustration I finished after the class. The possibilities with digital media are endless!

Regardless of the painting technique, my creative process has remained the same and my first step is to begin with thumbnail sketches. Thumbnail sketches are reduced versions of the images. I use these little 'chicken-scratches' to work out everything from composition, character, colors and even text placement.

From the thumbnails, I selected the two spreads to illustrate and then move to a full size sketches.

I scanned the drawing and painted it in Photoshop using a Wacom Cintiq. The Cintiq is a tablet/screen that allows me to draw directly on the display surface.

On this spread Goldilocks is testing the hot porridge in Papa's bowl and tasting the cold porridge in Mama bears bowl. With Photoshop the art is still workable in the final stages. I added a larger chair and Papa bears glasses (not in the sketch) to illustrate the difference in size between Papa bear and Goldilocks. I connected the two single page illustrations by showing the table from the same vantage point. This perspective also allows me to feature the difference in size from Papa and Mama bear's chairs.

Here is pages 30 and 31 ... Goldilocks ran down the stairs, opened the door, and ran away into the forest.

I'm starting sketches for another project today and will post more of my adventures in
Photoshop soon!