The Photoshop Frenzy: Cut-Outs

I was working so flat out last weekend, I didn't get time to explain properly what it was all about. Having blogged Bears on the Stairs through the entire project, from the very first rough sketches, it seems a shame to miss the end, so here goes:

There is a certain amount of 'finishing' work to be done in Photoshop, before the book can be proofed. Some illustrations are fine and ready to print, but not all. Like the cover I showed you previously, the title page image above needed to be cut from the pink paper I draw on.

Both the koala spreads also needed cutting out, and then popping onto bright colours. I'm thinking yellow and bright pink...

The pastels make this job quite tricky though. Here's a detail from the original scan and the first stage of putting in the new background:

Once the new bright pink is in, it shows up all sorts of problems that need touching up, like the nasty pencil lines around the white bannisters and the boy's pyjamas, the 'noise' under his arm and the furry edges around his fingers:

It takes quite a while, working my way around every edge, checking for touch-ups.

There are a couple of other jobs to do at this stage too, but I'll tell you about them next time.