Illustrating a Picture Book: Grappling With Bears

I made a start on Friday. I find the first bits of colour both exhilarating and very scary. What colour should things be? There are so many to choose from! Will I mess it up and have to start tracing all over again??? Eeeek!

But unlike later on, when the colours of things are established, every step here is breaking new ground, making creative decisions.

I'm starting with the endpapers above, as they are just character studies of the bears really, so a chance to get a feel for them as a foundation to the rest, and start a bit at a time, without tackling everything at once.

I decided on lime to throw out the big bear and got in the darkest and lightest tones. Also I felt the need to establish what other bright colours were to appear, like the stair carpet and clothes, before working into the characters.

I am working on the cover at the same time, with both pieces side by side on the board, as the images have so much in common:

Before I began, I sprayed each of my traced drawings with fixative: after background areas are covered over with pastel, you often need to 'find' the original drawing beneath. I can rub away the chalk without destroying my precious pencil guidelines. Sneaky stuff eh?