Sunday 20 February 2011

Baby Goes Ahhhh... Cuckoo... Dada!


Well, I finished my big-eared, furry friends on Friday morning, as promised:



In the afternoon, while I was in 'bear-mode' I thought I'd crack on with the third bear page: 'Baby goes Dada':


Both a koala and brown bear featured in my last book
Bears on the Stairs and, although my treatment of them is not dissimilar, both characters are completely different personalities this time.

Since 'Baby goes Dada' sits opposite 'Baby goes Cuckoo!' in the finished book, I thought I'd work on them together.


Friday turned out to be a very productive day - I worked straight through until about 6pm and somehow managed to get the bears finished and the cuckoo well underway too.
Here's a close-up of Daddy and Baby bear:


I'm having a lot of fun on this project. It's so much better when every page is a different character: I don't get caught up trying to imitate what I did on the previous illustrations, but can be fresh and equally creative on each and every page.

Here a close up of the cuckoo so far. I decided not to worry about what colour a real cuckoo would be and just went for whichever colours took my fancy and balanced against what I'd already used for the bears:

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

What will happen to the lines denoting movement?

Lynne the Pencil said...

They will stay - when I knock out the pink paper, I use a 'selection tool' based on colour, so they remain.

Unknown said...

Magnificent depiction of a koala, fully endorsed and given the stamp of approval by your Southern Hhemisphere fan base of ridgey-didge, true blue Aussies. We all went Ahhh...

Lynne the Pencil said...

Ha ha - thanks Deborah, and hi to all the diminutive Aussies!

Anonymous said...

Your pictures are just wonderful. Every time you put up a new animal I fall in love with it! It is so fantastic to follow your process as well -- thank you so much for sharing it with us - I find it incredibly inspiring. I jump for joy whenever you put up a new post! Will be so great to buy the finished book at the end having followed it coming to life as well. Alexandra

Lynne the Pencil said...

How lovely - thank you Alexandra!

Anonymous said...

When can we buy the book? My daughter is 6 months old - It would be so good to be able to buy it before she's too old for it! That sid my 8 yer old was looking at the pictures and wanted the book!!
Keep up the good work x

Emily said...

Cuckoo socks!
Seriously cuckoo socks... even my insides are giggling!
Indeed you can tell when an illustrator loves doing what they do.

Bethany said...

I totally agree with Emily!! I am loving those little patterned feet! What happens to al these drawings after you scan them in? Do you ever do art shows?

Lynne the Pencil said...

Thank you for all your lovely comments guys! All being well, Baby Goes Baaaa! will be available in April / May next year. There's generally at least a year between artwork completion and publication.

Yes, Bethany, I do occasionally have exhibitions. I had a big retrospective in 2009 (see http://lynnechapman.blogspot.com/2009/08/well-that-was-fun.html) and have another major show this summer through until November: http://lynnechapman.blogspot.com/2010/08/another-exhibition.html