Friday 28 August 2009

Illustrating a Picture Book: Floral Wallpaper & Jim-Jams...


I love my zingy lime wallpaper and it's setting off the bears nicely. I did those tests I mentioned:

The samples look a bit dark here, but helped me decide. I went for the blocked in flowers with the pink dots in the end: less busy than the linear ones.

You can see how it looks below, in the final version of the piece I started Wednesday, but didn't get to showing you. I think the flowers finish it off nicely:


Trouble is, if I 'decorate' both sides of the hall with the same wallpaper, there will be a lot of similar colour spreads, which will not give enough visual variety.
So, for true contrast, I have decided to go with peachy orange for the other wall:


My dilemma is: I did that original endpaper piece with the lime and, because we can see the banisters, they should really be against the peach wall. Not sure if it matters, being only endpapers, but getting the insides right was more important. I can always knock out the endpaper lime later, in Photoshop.

I wasn't sure what colour to do the jim-jams and originally had blue in my mind's eye, but thought that would be too cool against the blue/green carpet, so have gone for red:


Unfortunately this was as far as I got today with this latest spread. I allow myself 1.5 days for colouring each spread so, to be on schedule, I should have got the 3 new ones done, and finished off the cover and endpapers by the end of this week.


As you can see, I've not got around to giving koala eyes on the endpaper pic either - creepy eh? It got so dark because of stormy weather at 6pm, I called it a day:

19 comments:

Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli said...

Your studio space is so fantastic - it makes me green with envy when ever you show photos of it.

And, as usual, I love to see the process shots of your pieces. Thanks for sharing.

Jill said...

I love to share your work in progress - I always knew a lot of work was involved, but hadn't appreciate quite how much!

It' an Evolution said...

Thank you so much for visiting my blog...I love your illustrations. They remind me of a part of my childhood and just bring a smile to my face...
My youngest who's pic you commented on...loves your blog as well...he keeps asking to see more pictures. He is something else :)
Janet
http://itisanevolution.blogspot.com/

Aima Kessy said...

These are such gorgeous works! :D Lovin' your studio room...hoping to have my own too someday! Have a good one ;))

Nina Seven N7 said...

lynne - I absolutely LOVE your illustrations! I checked out your site and all your books are so much fun! I'm just getting into children's book illustration (I've done one book) so I'm really in awe of your accomplishments. Thanks for visiting my blog, I really apprecaite it.

Zari said...

Hello Lynne!
I'm in love with your work! These illustrations are awesome and it's so great and generous of you to share the whole process...thank you! - I love your studio room as well; it’s such a beautiful place!

(btw, I don’t know why your images don’t enlarge when clicked…mine do and I just upload them with default settings, nothing more)

jeffs szuc illustration said...

Thanks for visiting my site and thereby introducing me to your blog. Great process shots and explanations, and of course really great work. Also, You've inspired me to clean up my studio... tomorrow.

Atsi-Batsi said...

Wow, I love your work and your workspace! Thanks for visiting my little blog :) You have wonderful work! :D

Vanessa Brantley Newton said...

this is so fantastic! I could have sat here all evening looking at your blog. What a treat I tell you! I so enjoyed every single piece. Great blog you have. I will be back for more I promise you!

Lise said...

Really beautiful here !! I love your blog ! I'll come back ^^

Owl Eng said...

the pics are marvelous!! the composition, characters & colours are very nice. Thanks for sharing your creative process - not easy yet very rewarding

Tomás Serrano said...

An excellent choice of the wallpaper!

Lynne the Pencil said...

Thank you so much for your lovely feedback everyone. Much appreciated, as always.

Asja said...

what a wonderful work! thank you for showing it to us!

granny grimble said...

Things are beginning to come together now aren't they? I'm loving you choice of colours as always. The wall paper has turned out well, a good colour combination with the carpet. Each stage of your work gets me excited and I think it's the best stage yet, but they are all really very interesting and informative, and I love them all!

Carla said...

Yes, your studio is fantastic. Looks like a vacation spot, those big windows letting the outside come in. It's great.

Lynne the Pencil said...

Yes, I know I am very lucky to have my studio. It was so wonderful to be in a position to design the space to fit what I wanted to do.

Anonymous said...

you are truly an amazing illustrator, storyteller, and .....simply GREAT! I like how you posted the process of beginning to end and it is really amusing to see the steps and the hard work you put into. I really enjoyed your blog and the site!

Lynne the Pencil said...

Shucks - thank you Wendy!