HOW I WORK: TRADITIONAL ARTWORK A Step By Step Guide

A quick three step progression of the children's book cover Naughty Nestor

STEP ONE: Using tracing paper I begin with a quick sketch to basically work out where every thing is going to be placed.When using layers of tracing paper copying the section of a drawing I'm happy with onto a new piece... I can get results quickly without having to do a lot of erasing. I do these over and over again... using pieces from each sketch, until I have a finished drawing I am happy with. Scanning the final trace sketch into the computer I print-out or email the sketch to the publisher for approval.

The pencil sketch on the left is the one shown to the publisher.

STEP TWO: Once approved the next step can begin… Using a light box, I trace the drawing lightly onto watercolour paper using a sharp pencil usually a mechanical HB pencil great for detail.
This is my last chance to refine parts of the drawing... The water colour paper is then taped down onto a board thoroughly soaked with water and left to dry, if I am in a hurry I use a hair dryer.

Now I can start to paint, I cover the whole paper with a light wash of colour before I start, for this particular project I used Faber Castell water colour pencils and gouache. The pencils are ideal for getting the detail such as the fur.

STEP THREE: The finished book cover, the book is published by Igloo books and is in the shops now.
I think the colour's are too bright personally, but as the saying goes the publisher is always right, they are after all paying.

You can see more artwork from the book here