Drawing a spread for a kids book

A look at my new process

Hi everyone!

Did you catch the newest post from the

illoguild

? We all shared about “creating things,” and I wrote about my DIY Sticker Cards.

But another topic I really wanted to share with you is my process for a recent children’s book spread, so that’s what we’ll be discussing today!

My steps for drawing a spread:

1. I started with thumbnail sketches. This part of the process is about getting ideas out without judgement. The hope is that at least one spread will spark excitement, and I’ll take that thumbnail to a more polish sketch. Here are some of the thumbnails:

   

   
   

2. I learned a tip from

   Adam Ming
   about sketching a spread on paper as large as the actual book, so then I did that:

   

   
   

3. I took a picture of that sketch and brought it into the ipad to finalize the line work:

   

   
   

4. Next I transferred the final sketch onto watercolor paper and began painting (note: I didn’t have large paper, so I had to use separate pages; using one large piece would be much easier!):

   

   
   

5. When it was done, I scanned it into the ipad to stitch the pages together, make final adjustments, and add some lighting . Here’s the version stitched together, before any other digital edits:

   

   And then with final edits:

   

This workflow had so much back and forth between traditional and digital, which is actually what I like about it. I like that I felt so accomplished when moving onto each new step. Here’s a recap:

1. Digital thumbnails on the iPad

2. Traditional sketch on paper

3. Finalize sketch on the iPad

4. Gouache painting on paper

5. Final digital edits on the iPad

I’m really excited to continue doing more of this! As artists, our process is always evolving as we grow and change. So I’m curious…

What is your process like? Anything the same or different between ours? I’d love to hear about what works for you!

Thank you for being here, and see you next week for the first post in a new series about commissions!

Katie

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