This was my first concept for the front cover image of my upcoming children's book "Huckleberry Pie." I designed it in 2014, and it's a little rough around the edges, haha! This book has been a long time coming, and my illustration style is shifting over time. So, I'll definitely be redesigning the front cover soon! But I still like looking back on this old painting. I had a lot of fun creating it. I used watercolor and black ink.
This is another of my original illustrations for Huckleberry Pie painted in watercolor. Natural media is a blast to work with. But it can be very unforgiving! Mistakes aren't always fixable which means that whole illustrations sometimes need to be redone. I finally realized that this fact was really slowing down my workflow. I would procrastinate for weeks...maybe even months...trying to gather my courage to create ONE illustration. I tossed my composition around in my mind, contemplated how to tackle the painting process, and finally I began to put paint on paper. Then I would stall because I just didn't feel confident about my next step--and one mistake could ruin the whole thing!
If you read my previous post about this book, you know that it's been eight years since I laid the project aside and finally picked it up again. This is a recent attempt at my book's first illustration using watercolor and pen. I was really enjoying it and liking the outcome. But I had a dilemma. In the process of scanning my original sketch, printing it out, and transferring it onto my watercolor paper, the picture became smaller than I initially drew it. As I began painting the bluebells, I suddenly realized that they were just too tiny for me to paint in detail! I had already put a lot of work into the moss and other elements. Now, I was daunted and afraid that my next brushstrokes would ruin the painting. As you can see, this isn't the way to complete a book with 30+ illustrations in it. So, I've found a solution! Digital art.
I used to shy away from digital art. I had a misconception that it was cheating and lazy in comparison to real media. I was also afraid that digital art would always come out looking...digital? You know what I mean...plastic, pixelated, flat. Real media is so fluid and textured and alive. Then I began to realize that some of my most admired book illustrators like Christopher Denise are creating their beautiful illustrations digitally! So, I decided to try it. And I'm so glad that I did!
Contrary to my first impression, digital art isn't cheating or lazy! Brush stroke for brush stroke, it takes the same amount of work as natural media. And I'm really satisfied with the texture and effect I'm achieving with it! The best part is that it is completely forgiving! I can undo my mistakes and try again with no wasted material. That gives me so much courage!
After deciding to go with digital art, my next question was which style to choose. I have two art styles, and I was torn between them! The first illustration below was made in a program called Clip Studio. This style is very detailed, lots of contrast and lighting. The second illustration below was made using a program called Rebelle. This style is textured and a bit more impressionistic. Rebelle is capable of simulating the look of natural media so beautifully! I enjoyed creating both of these illustrations so much! But it was so hard for me to decide which style I wanted to settle on.
It was a little bit of a struggle to choose because I truly enjoyed making both of these illustrations. But I have decided that I'm going with the first example: the one made in Clip Studio. When I first developed this story in my mind as a little girl, I loved thinking about the tiny things on the forest floor on a large scale. This style allows me to achieve that! I'm really looking forward to continuing to create these illustrations! Stay tuned for more updates and take care!