How would you like to go up in a swing,
up in the sky so blue…
Oh I do think it the pleasantest thing
ever a child can do!
To start off the New Year I thought I'd post my final illustration from my Children's Book Character Design class that I took at the Academy of Art this past semester. This is a page from a song that I am illustrating for my thesis project. I hope to do 5 - 6 full illustrations for this song, plus some spot illustrations. This is the first one. I like how happy it turned out. I don't think there can be anything happier than the feeling of swinging on a swing when you were 5 years old….I thought it was also an appropriate image to bring the new year in with since he is so Happy!
I thought you might also like to see the process of getting to this image including the development of the characters…..
Character line up….the raven is a surprise character that you will have to be looking for to see where he shows up in the story:)
Initial composition done in graphite on vellum. Only a rough sketch.
Color study #1 done in prismacolor marker on paper.
Color study #2 done in prismacolor marker on paper.
Final illustration in process. This is painted on illustration board in acrylic paints first. I then apply a wash of oil in burnt sienna. From there I work in oil paints, prismacolor pencil and pen and ink to create a final illustration of mixed media.
And then finally the final illustration. You can see that I make a few changes along the way. I decided to close his eyes because it helped communicate the feeling of pure joy. I also added leaves the the tree, flowers in the grass and tall weeds, and a few toys for the dog "Bean" to play with. My instructor also gave me some great feed back on the values and the sky which I incorporated. All in all, I'm happy with the final. The text is added in photoshop afterwards, but the painting itself has not been altered at all digitally.
I'd love to know what you think of this illustration, so drop me a comment below!
And Happy New Year!
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