Beginning to paint

It's time to PAINT!
I've decided to go ahead and paint two paintings before I finish all my tracing drawings.  This strategy is to try and gain some confidence that I am making good progress on my time deadline.  If at all possible, I am shooting to complete all the paintings a couple of months before the deadline (July).
I've already made the tracing for this painting...and I've already cut the painting board for it and labeled what pages these are.
It's time to trace (or transfere) the drawing onto the painting board.
I line up the crop marks (where the page is going to be cut by the printer when it is bound) on the painting board with the crop marks on the drawing and tape it down.

To transfere the drawing onto the painting board, I put a piece of graphic paper under the drawing and begin tracing over the top of the drawing.

The way that I paint is to use an "underpainting" color.  Usually it is a darker color than what you will see on top (the finished look).  So at this point I only need to trace "around" each of the big shapes...no detail inside them yet.  Looks like this...

Here is my work area...the painting table is an adjustable table that adjusts to any angle and goes up and down.  I paint in an almost straight up and down position because I've had neck surgery and looking down to paint or draw becomes painful quickly.  Notice too that my chair is not something you would find in an art supply store.  It is a 1920's dental chair!  This gives me the rigid back support I need (neck surgery remember?).  Handy little chair...on the right side you will see that the arm has a painter's palette mounted to it to place my paints on....and under it is the ole "spit basin" that now is my water holder.  The colorful patch on the table is a "wipe place" for my palette knife that I use to mix my colors.
My liquitex paintes are to the side in an old coke bottle holder and other things I need periodically are close by.  An efficient creative area is vital to quality production...each person should make their own area the way they find works best for them.  This is mine after 26 years of doing art...

I've now painted inside the traced down shapes...the boy has dark brown and the thought bubble has cool blue underpainting.

Now I can paint the different details within my big color shapes.  To know what to paint, I bring my drawing back over and put it on top of the shapes...lined up exactly the same as the first time.  This time I slip a piece of "white" transfere paper under the drawing and trace down the details.

And here is what it looks like for me to begin painting on top of the darker shapes.  I call it, "painting out of the darkness" ...or "painting into the light".  From this point, I will just get lighter and lighter by degrees.  Little places here and there of these underpainting colors will show through.  I get to control where that happens.  The underpaintings help to unify the whole picture and tend to give my cartoony pictures a little more realness...3D like.

So, I begin painting in the different colors of each area.  I think I'll start with the boy's hat and the flesh tone inside his glasses which will be slightly darker than the flesh tone on the rest of his face and arms.

Now I'll continue on painting the boys flesh tone on his face and do his shirt and paints.  Notice that it is pretty splotchy looking.  I don't panic about that because I am painting each part by degrees...a build up of layers....dark to medium to lightest values in each area.  You'll see...

I mix my colors on styrofoam plates that I get at wal mart.  It affords me with a disposible clean surface that is white and shows up the colors I am mixing accurately.  When I use up one whole side of the plate, I flip it over (after the paint drys...acrylic dries fast into hard plastic) and use the other side.  Sometimes I will only use one plate per painting and then throw it away.  For me this works well.  Other times I've used wax paper (for the kitchen needs) taped down to mix my colors.  I don't use that much water when I mix my colors, so I don't have to worry about colors sliding off the plate.

Time to work on the other shape..the boy's thought bubble.  I've decided to first find the value of color that will go around the objects that will be in this shape and paint it in.

Finding that color first will help me more accurately know what colors to paint the objects that are in it.  Then I leave the bubble again and head back over to the boy to build up the layer I've begun and get rid of more of the blochiness (sp?!).

Here is how the boy looks when I've gotten the shapes and values solid in order to put the fine details on top...

I go back to the thought bubble and detail in the objects there the same as I did boy.  Here's the finished...

CELEBRATE!!!  Whenever I finish a painting, because I know there are 18 to be done, getting one completely done is an awesome feeling!  I picture myself in my imagination on a journey and I have just finished the first leg of it.  Time to go get an ice cream cone with my wife!  (We all celebrate!)

I went ahead and took the next drawing and took it through the same process as above...here is the beginning drawing...of the boy popping his balloon and Tiny barking in response.

and here is the finished painting!

Man....time for another ice cream cone!  Having these two done is a definite boost to my confidence and I am on schedule.  But this next week I will attempt to get 2 paintings done in the same week...this will mean I will need to put my nose to the grind stone and stay at it consistently.

Testing the Illustration Board

The illustration board I bought is a little different than I usually get.  I was careful at the store to go through their entire stock of illustration boards and look at their thickness and feel the texture of the board.  I also wanted to be conscious of my cost as it can be very pricey buying that much board for the whole project.  I thank the Lord that on that particular day that I went to get the board, it was 50% off as well!  YES!

But this board was a little thinner than I have used in the past and I wondered if it could stand the amount of paint that I would put on it over most of it's surface area.
I decided to cut a similar shape of a spread and make a test painting and see for myself if it was going to buckle or warp any.

I held my breath!

I didn't want a great painting so I didn't make a tracing...I just starting brushing down a liberal amount of paint over a lot of it's surface and waited to see what would happen.  I had the illustration board taped (on all 4 corners) to my drawing table to give it it's best chance at staying flat.
It did stay flat after the paint dried!

So, put some more paint on top of that....alot of paint...and waited again.
Wow, that board stayed flat as a pancake!  I was THRILLED!  This was going to work well!

Finally I decided to paint a little something with some detail on top of the background paint I had already put down to make sure it would still hold up well.  That is how I paint...background first, then come forward to the middle ground and finally the foreground where all the detail and darker values tend to be.
Wooooohooo!  Yes!  It passed the test!

I used Liquitex acrylic paints with a white bristle brush mainly.
I'm now ready to take my completed tracing (pages 6 and 7) and begin my first painting!
It's November and I'm already jumping into my first painting...the last painting is due in July.  This means I have 8 months to do 18 paintings.  I feel really good about where I am in the process...I can do this and hopefully even complete everything before my July deadline.

Preparing the illustration boards

During the time I sent the sketches to the editor, I knew it might be a couple of weeks while I was waiting to hear back from them.  What could I do during this time that would help me keep my momentum going with the project instead of just twiddling my thumbs?
I decided to prepare my illustration boards.  Here are the steps to that:
1) buy the illustration board (I got mine from Hobby Lobby...Mixed media strathmore series 400)
2) cut the boards to the right size leaving around an inch and a half of white space around the outside of the illustration area.
3) draw crop marks on the boards exactly to size (the book is 12"x 9" per speed...I also need to add a half inch all the way around the illustration so that the painting bleeds out a half inch more so that when they cut the printed pages, if they are off a little, I've got extra painting all the way around for them to comfortably work with.
4) label each cut illustration board...book name and page numbers.  When it's time to paint a particular spread, I will have all my boards ready to go....I just get the right page number board and start tracing the picture down on it.

Trick to save time and be accurate:
You'll notice the last board at the bottom of the fanned stack has corners cut out.  This is my "template" board to help me put the crop marks in exactly the same place on every board...rather quickly.  I just lay that board down on top of any other board and make my crop marks by tracing next to these cut out corners.  Then I take a ruler and draw very light lines around the illustration area so that I'll know not to paint past those lines.  Easy Peasy!

I feel good about doing something with this gap of time that will help me with my whole process later.  It will also be rewarding to watch the stack of illustration boards get smaller and smaller as time passes...and that will be a great "visual encourager"!

Beginning the tracings

The drawings I have made and sent to the editor at this point are "loose"...they need detail put in them and tightening up on my proportions and making hard and fast decisions about what exactly I will paint in each spread.
I start this process with the first spread which is the dedication, title page.  If you go back and look at what I sent the editor, you will see that it is very generic of tiny and it's small...doesn't fill the space of that side of the spread very well.
And the other side of the spread where the dedication will go, has a very finished tight drawing...it was the only page in the whole set that was a finished tight drawing...the bird in the party hat.
When I went to work on the title page, I decided to show Tiny blowing a party blower with the bird, Pete, flying up off of Tiny's nose because he was startled.  I decided to take Tiny's huge body and have it go into the gutter (center of the spread where 2 pages meet).  This would allow me to keep the dedication side open for it's own picture.  I felt Tiny needed a party hat and by the time I got the tracing like I wanted it with Tiny, the other side with the bird in the hat seemed like too much for the spread.  I felt like the dedication side only needed a piece of ribbon streamer and some confetti...sort of like an "after thought".  So I pulled the tight drawing of Pete and the party hat and drew a streamer.  I will make the streamer smaller before I paint it.
Because I had departed from what I sent the editor, I emailed the spread to them to make sure it was alright with them.  Better to find out now than have to redo later.
To date, I've not heard back from them yet on that spread.

So I move on to another drawing.
I'm choosing to work on a spread that seems close to making a tracing of it without very much work.  I really want to get a painting under way at this point as a confidence builder.  I'd like to say, "I"ve finished a painting on the Tiny book!".  It's important not to get bogged down or "stuck" in the creative process...I need to keep it moving.  Momentum is a big deal with a project this involved.
There is no background on the drawing I choose and the tracing does go quick....wooohoooo!

You can see I put a pencil on the drawing to give you a size comparison of how big the actual drawings are....12" wide by 9" tall.  I also put the original sketch above the tracing.  Now I can take the tracing...transfere it onto illustration board and start painting.

Beginning sketches finished and approved

I have finished the remaining sketches for the book that I will send on to the editor by email.

When I sent all the spreads to the editor by email, and after a couple of weeks, I heard back from them with positive feedback.  There were small comments made on several of the spreads to either add things that I had overlooked or be sure that a background in the picture in one spread was consistent with the same room background of a previous spread.
I took all my drawings and went through the whole stack writing the comments from the editor out to the side so that when I make my tight tracing (drawing), I will be sure I make those changes.

I was very happy and relieved that there were as few changes as they sent to me!

SKETCH phase: pages 6-15

I'm moving into the picture ideas for pages 6-15.
The pictures need to show the ongoing tension that will be there in every page as the boy
keeps working at "solving his problem".
Every story needs a problem in order to create tension and interest.  That is a main ingredient.
The problem in this simple book is that a small boy is wanting to surprise his best friend with a birthday party...this huge dog usually goes with him everywhere and does everything with him.  Tiny doesn't understand why his best friend is not letting him inside to be with him like usual.

Like any dog, Tiny is persistent in trying to get back in.  Meanwhile, Elliot keeps trying to get things done...he wants it to be special for his big buddy.
That is what I must show.
It is a lot of simple "back and forth" between the two of them.
Tiny will understand Elliot's distance and unwilling to give Tiny attention in the end.


Pages 6 & 7....Elliot lets us in on his secret plan (build anticipation....this keeps the kids turning pages to 
find out what happens.)

Pages 8-11....Get Tiny out of the house...even though Tiny doesn't want to go!

Notice the emotion in page 10....frustration
and the emotion on page 11....confused and a little hurt
These are communicated in facial expression as well as body language....just like you and I do in any given situation during our day.  The artist has to plug himself into another story and picture the emotional reaction and what the details of that reaction look like....then decide, "how far can I push that emotion to make my picture communicate the strongest?"


Pages 12 & 13....Tiny's perspective of being shut out...dejected, yet vigilant (just like a dog!).
I'm letting Tiny's body language tell the story here...we don't even have to see his face.
I put the ball on the page across from tiny so that I will have something colorful to add to that green lawn
that will be there...help give it some interest.  One thing I will do different is to move it from being straight across from Tiny.  The position looks too symmetrical where it is...it needs to shift down or up and to the side.  I'm symmetrical to a fault!!  My dad kept a very symmetrical yard growing up....but my wife designs our yard with curves and asymmetrically which I find much more appealing and interesting.  (Dad, I still enjoy your symmetrical yard though!).

Pages 14-15....Elliot finally gets busy on his surprise party work....he disappears from Tiny's vigilant watch...but his ears still work great!
You'll notice below, I am designing this as two different pictures on the same spread.  I feel I needed to do this because spread 12 & 13 is one illustration going across both pages.  "Variety is the spice of life".  (nuff said.)

I'm not sure I like the way I have drawn Tiny barking...kind of like a big hound dog would bark....I'm going to look up some photos on the internet of dogs barking and see if I should modify this.
What do you think?


Last, I have to keep in mind that I cannot put anything in concrete with what I have designed...the final call on my work comes from my publisher.  I need to be willing to explain why I drew/designed something the way I did yet let go of it after I've had my say.  They are always good to hear me out and consider my opinion before making the final call.  I appreciate the professionalism that Penguin Putnam has always shown me in our book projects.  They are great to work for! (no, I'm not brown nosing!  It's the truth.)

Sketch Phase...where does the story happen?

Every story happens in a place.
Tiny the Birthday Dog has already been written and I am now interpreting in pictures what the author has put down in words.  When I read the manuscript, there are no mention of "places" in the book....kitchen; back yard; library; pool; store; etc.

I get to turn on my imagination and make this story happen in the place I think makes the most sense for my beginning readers.
I must keep it simple to help them.

In a beginning reader book, the name of the game is "simple".
So I embrace the acronym, KISS....keep it simple, stupid.
When I make things too cluttered with details (that are not really needed to push the story along or communicate what the spread is saying), it doesn't read as well and it creates a whole lot more work and frustration in the painting stage.  The more I put in, the greater the design problems to work out in the art space....and the opposite.

Every art piece does not need to be a master piece (I have to tell myself that over and over!)....it's like a base ball player on a team...he carries his own weight.
A team needs nine players for a game...all of them carry their own responsibilities; all needed; leave one out and you can't play; none are more important than the other.

My illustrations have to be a team together.   A good visual understanding of the place beforehand helps me accomplish that.  
My pictures have to be easily readable and clear because my reader (pre-s to 1st grade) is just beginning to read .  My job is to help him have clear "visual clues" so he can try to figure out what the words are saying and ultimately be able to tell everyone, "Hey, I can read by myself!"

I told you in a previous post that I had begun to work on where the story is happening.  

At that point I had made no final decisions.

I now have a space that will house all the actions in the story and allow it to make sense.

After reading the manuscript, I visualize Tiny the Birthday Dog story having three main places:

1)the big room (living room) with a window that looks out on the back yard and a door leading to the kitchen

2)kitchen with a back door leading to the back yard

3)back yard with a ball in the yard  

Here is my initial unedited sketch once I saw the ingredience:

(click on pictures to see them larger)

When I lay out this floor plan without having to visualize the rest of the house, it leaves me alot of options and I can make it functional as well as charming.  I don't have tell my viewers everything...right?

After doing six Tiny the big dog books, I've made these decisions already and am now following through once again.  Two of those books already had pictures of the backyard where Tiny and Elliot live.  And two of them have parts of a kitchen...and one of them of the big room.  But I purposely didn't show every thing in those rooms so that it could stay flexible according to the story's visual needs.

The kitchen gets a checkerboard floor because I like them!  They add color and interest to the whole picture even though they are more difficult to paint and figure out in the sketch stage.   In my opinion, it's worth it.  Since things will be simple, I want to get the most out my painting real estate area.

One other thing, at this point, I don't put the furniture in the rooms yet....I don't want to complicate things here at the beginning.  Creativity needs space to expand and try ideas that come to me.  I need to walk around in these empty rooms first in my imagination....then bring my characters into the rooms and see how much furniture and "do-dads" I can comfortably put in after that.
There may not be much room in a certain part of my floor plan and if I'm bound and determined to squeeze in some furniture that I like, it will make the whole thing look contrived and squeezed...over crowded.
I have to remember KISS!

To show you how determining the place helps me move into my story layout,
in the opening spread when Elliot is introducing you to Tiny,
I draw him opening the kitchen door into the big room and whispering to the reader because Tiny is sleeping and he doesn't want to wake him.  The whole story is about Elliot creating a surprise birthday party for his lovable big pal, Tiny...so I'm starting the book on that "secret" note.  My layout for the place has helped me to do that pretty easily.

This is why it's worth my time to figure out where I see the story happening and be able to draw it out so that it is readable, flows well and makes a little sense.
I'm excited to have this piece in place and am ready to sail into the rest of the manuscript...this is a very charming story and I think it will have the potential for being timeless since kids love dogs and kids love birthdays and most kids wish they could have a dog as big as Tiny!