Wednesday, February 29, 2012

capable

I believe the positive message from The Lorax is that we are ALL capable of change.  The word "Unless" is a warning. . a warning of the things we may lose if we don't harness that capability (case in point: truffula trees).  I'm looking forward to seeing the movie when it comes out this weekend :)

Also, I am happy to announce that I just finished my first picture book "A Moment in Time!"  The author/publisher has given me permission to post a few process photos.  Here is a sample of one of the pages, from sketch to finished illustration:

This is the initial sketch, where I roughly laid out the important elements, such as the character and the text.  I hadn't fully developed the character yet, so he looks a little odd.
Here, I've added in more detail and began working in the proper size for the book.  The red line marks the "safe" margin, in which all important elements must remain.  The thick black lines are the "bleed" margins, which is where the page will be cropped by the printers.

Here, I've inked the lines and removed the margins.  Notice that the smile has gotten weirder and weirder in each stage.

Final illustration: I shaded the lines to give more weight to the character, added color, and also fixed that smile ;)
 I hope you've found these process photos useful/informative.  The picture book took 8 months of planning, revising, sketching, inking, and painting. . and I learned so much along the way!  I'll let you know when the book comes out on Amazon later this year :D.

13 comments:

  1. Congrats on the book! This looks great, Charlotte! Really like your use of color, & how you bolded out the child compared to the contents of the fridge. Nice effect! Can I ask what medium the color was applied in?

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    1. Thanks so much Mit! I actually applied the color in Photoshop using different pushes to add texture ;)

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  2. You are amazingly talented Charlotte!! Please save an autographed copy for me to buy!!

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  3. OMG so excited to see the final product! I love seeing your process.

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  4. Looks great! Thanks for sharing your process. :)

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    1. Thanks Ben! Congrats on your own book release as well. . I really like your style :)

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  5. Congratulations on completing this project, Charlotte!

    By the way, I just wanted to let you know that I'm giving 3 blogger awards to you. You can visit eadisthenewblack.blogspot.com/2012/03/i-won-some-awards.html to learn about what to do to claim these awards!

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  6. my mistake...you should start with Readisthenewblack....

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    1. Thanks Cynthia! I'm fighting a flu right now but will get to addressing the award once I feel better :)

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