Monday 9 February 2009

Drawing Dinosaurs in Pastels


After a few last-minute tweaks, I have at last finished the artwork for my latest picture book, Rumble, Roar, Dinosaur!:



I have been generally re-lightening and brightening things, after the annoying dulling-down from the fixative, but also working further on the rocks. I needed to wait for decent daylight to judge my colours accurately, as the publisher still wants to keep an eye on the 'pink factor' (see A New Cover For Rumble Roar). They asked me to make sure the rocks were erring towards orange, so not too obviously pink and girlie.

Orange is a tricky colour and can be a bit overpowering, so I decided to do the rocks as I would normally, still using quite a bit of pink, but then layer yellow and orange mark-making over the top, to push it more towards orange:

One problem was that, once the rocks were more apricot coloured, the lilac shadows worked less well. I introduced small incidents of deep orange into all the rock shadows, which pulled it all back together.

I now have to mount it up and get it posted off to the publishers this afternoon. Better go - it's surprising how long the mounting and packaging takes!

I do hope they like it...

6 comments:

Jess said...

Hi Lynne, I really enjoy hearing about your work and the process. Could I ask you how you send your artwork? Do you buy insurance to make sure it gets delivered safely? Thanks! Jess x

Adam Whitmarsh said...

Congrats on finishing it Lynne, the end result is great.

Rgds
Adam

Doda said...

Well done - I am sure they will be delighted with it!

Lynne the Pencil said...

Thanks Jess!

Nothing fancy: I package it VERY securely with tons of stiff card and sellotape, and then post it at the post office.

I send it Special Delivery, so it is a priority item (which I figure helps to keep it safe)and it has to be signed for all the way, so it's difficult to 'lose'.

There is some insurance that comes with Special Delivery and you do have the option to up it.

To be honest, I've been lucky, but friends have found that disappearances can happen when artwork is sent overseas for scanning.

So far, things have only ever got slightly damaged in transit and then only when publishers have occasionally skimped on stiffening.

Hope that helps!

zillustration said...

Hey Lynn, Great finals! I was wondering if you find much struggle with the amount of desired detail (dino skin) and the tooth of the paper? On your close-up shot, I notice the pastel and tooth seem to create a gridwork or sorts. I don't use pastel, so I was wondering if there is a way you override that within the focused areas... Saturation? Does tool pressure flatten the paper's pattern? so many questions... so little time.
;> z

Lynne the Pencil said...

It's no problem really - those close-ups were really close: the texture is quite small.

I don't usually have to draw so much itsy-bitsy detail either. Pastels are more designed for bolder work really. I get by ok, using sharp pastel pencils for tiny details like eyes and teeth, and the pencils over-ride the texture.