Illustrating a Children's Book: Pastel Artwork

I had a couple of days out of the studio last week: Monday giving a talk at the university and Friday doing storytellings in a couple of schools in Leeds, for Children's Book Week. Apart from that, I have been head-down in the studio, trying to finish off my Swap! artwork. 

I was getting on quite well a few weeks back and had just made a start on the piece above, when suddenly preparations for the Frankfurt Book Fair interrupted proceedings. I had to stop and do some digital work on the first batch of scans, then design the cover,  but once all that was out of the way, I started getting back down to things again. This illustration is Lucy's first foray into Sparky's world: playing in the park with all the other dogs: 

Finishing this spread seemed to take forever: sometimes I lose momentum if I stop half way and it takes a while to get things up to speed again. Anyway, I finally got it done by Wednesday afternoon:  

The next one I tackled was Sparky's first go at being Lucy:

I'll be honest: I chickened out at the start of doing the Swap! artwork and pastelled all the easier bits first. Unfortunately, that means I have some really tricky, complicated pieces to finish off with. This kind of heavily detailed illustration is really not what pastels were designed for, but with patience I'll get through it.  I find listening to stories while I work is very calming.

I made a good start on the classroom spread on Thursday, so I'm hoping another day might be enough.