My Sunset Illustration is Done: Another Mega-Spread!

When I am working on a complex spread, my progress always gets slower and slower, as I work from the bigger sweeps of the background colours and shapes, through the gradual definition of the various characters and then on, to finer and finer detail, finishing with my pastel pencils for sharp definition and the tiny, broken shards of pastel you can see in the littlest box below: 

The sunset spread for Jungle Grumble has been exactly like that. And because I am working in a new colour palette, different from the rest of the book, I have also had to constantly re-evaluate the tones and colours of highlights and shadows, balancing objects against one another, to make sure everything 'sits' properly in space. If things at the back are too bright or too black they jump forward, but I still had to go back and darken the background bushes and tree, once the values of the rest were established.

I'm not complaining - well, a bit perhaps: I would have liked the spread to come together slightly more quickly, since time is tight. But no, this 'feeling my way', making constant colour judgements and readjustments, is what makes the artwork stage of the project fun. If it's too easy and predictable, it's just painting by numbers. 

I suppose that's a part of what I was moaning about earlier in the week. I know one illustrator calls this stage of the book 'knitting' (I can't remember who...), because she finds the designing and drawing stage by far the most creative. Now I think about it, that sounds a bit of an insult to knitters! Sorry knitters: it wasn't me that said it - no textile-based hate-mail please :-)

Anyway, it's taken 4 days, but now it's done, as you can see. Not quite the record, which goes to spread no 8: on of the earliest I tackled. Two more (plus the cover) to go...