People often ask me how I go about creating an illustration for one of my picture books. So I decided to walk through the process with a page from one of my latest books: Pottleplum’s Bottle by Eva Hwa.

After I’ve read the story and talked over possibilities with the author, I begin with a few rough sketches. unfortunately, I didn’t save any of these thumbnail roughs for this page. These are generally no more than a couple of inches tall and mostly incomprehensible to anyone but me. When I hit on a  composition I like, I sketch out a detailed version in pencil at the full print size.  (You can click on any image to view it larger).

I then send this sketch to the author for her approval.  There’s often a period of revision here, as elements are tweaked to fit the author’s vision. But not this time, Eva approved the sketch on the first try.

Once I had the approval, I began to work on the final art.  I enlarged my approved sketch and used it as my guide to draw the final ink lines. I usually draw the art slightly larger than print size so that I can pack more detail and tighter lines into the smaller space. In this case, I drew the art 15 in x 10.5 in for a final print size of 10 x 7. The art is done very traditionally, with ink on paper. I mostly use the Rapidograph pens by Koh-i-noor.

The art is now scanned into the computer and taken into Photoshop for the coloring. Sometimes I use physical coloring methods like painting or markers as well. (Remind me to do a post about that sometime.) I begin by laying in the flat colors without variations in tone or shadows. At this stage, I’m trying to make sure that the colors are balanced and work well together. For this story, I was also trying to use color to portray emotions as well.

Once the entire image is colored in flat, and I’m reasonably happy with the flat colors, I begin the final coloring process. This is reasonably similar to traditional painting, only digital. Here’s a look at things halfway through.

As I worked, I decided that there wasn’t enough color in the Prince, so I changed the colors of his clothing and skin tone. And then, finally, I’m done! The whole process, from rough sketch to final art took less than two days.

 If you’re interested, you can see the final art in all it’s glorious printed form by buying the book on Amazon at this convenient link: