New artwork style for Bug Belly
By Paul Morton
Following some enthusiastic feedback from a couple of publishers and a consensus that they'd like to see non-digital artwork ("or would I mind someone else illustrating it") I've bitten the bullet, given up on the wacom tablet and enjoyed myself with coloured pencils and collage. Here are some of the results and if you click on this LINK to ISSUU you'll see my updated picture book dummy that is ready to do the rounds again.
Following some enthusiastic feedback from a couple of publishers and a consensus that they'd like to see non-digital artwork ("or would I mind someone else illustrating it") I've bitten the bullet, given up on the wacom tablet and enjoyed myself with coloured pencils and collage. Here are some of the results and if you click on this LINK to ISSUU you'll see my updated picture book dummy that is ready to do the rounds again.
I do think this style really suits - I have read the whole book and think it's fabulous!
ReplyDeleteThanks Trish, you're not by any chance starting a publishing company???? : )
ReplyDeleteHi Paul. I've only just spotted this post, so sorry not to comment sooner. I know how good your Hot Frog work is, (very, very good!) and it's dangerous territory commenting on other artist's work because what works for one person might not work for others. My first reaction on looking at these new pictures is that the colours are too hot and there's not enough atmosphere. The vivid pinks jump out a bit too much and I'd like to see some shadows or dappled sunlight or something to soften the background of the top two images. Have you thought about laying down a soft water-colour layer and then working on top of that with crayons and even pastels? It stops the white of the paper from jumping out so much. Or scanning in these crayon pictures and adding a Photoshop base layer of textured colour or scanned water-colour washes? I can really identify with this search for a picture book style because I periodically go into confidence meltdown and feel compelled to change technique and approach. It's incredibly difficult to get right. I've just spotted that Bridget is doing a masterclass called 'The Style Question' on Dec 10th, which sounds very interesting and relevant to us both. Could be a good one to attend. Cheers, Mike
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