It's Halloween, Little Monster!!!

The Process

I am always asked how I create my art. The conversation often goes like this:

Them: “What medium do you work in?”

Me: “Watercolor.”

Them: “What? I thought it was digital.”

I love using watercolor as my medium. It has its challenges, which I like, but what I like even better is the look of it. It has a glow and transparency that I can’t get from other traditional media, with the exception of oil paint.

Below, I show how I create my artwork from the moment I sit down with the manuscript to the completion of the final art for the book.

The Manuscript

One of the most exciting things in the making of a book is when I sit down at my drawing table with a new manuscript. Generally, it is divided into 32 pages, which means 16 interior illustrations. As I go through it, I often sketch my thoughts out on the side.

The Thumbnails

Once I have read the manuscript, I move on to the thumbnail sketches. My thumbnails are small: usually 1 x 1”, sketched very fast, and they don’t look much like the final art. Their role, though, is essential to my process in that they help to establish the placement of the characters and text.

The thumbnails above are of the cover. Originally, the front and back covers were to be separate images. Eventually, though, it was decided to combine them into one image.

Character Design

The character sketches are as important as the thumbnails. This is where I establish the design and color of each character so that they look the same throughout the entire book. I created these character sketches for Go to School, Little Monster.

Side note: One of the fun things that I like to do for the Little Monster series is to give the characters a continuing role in each book when possible. If you look carefully in It’s Halloween, Little Monster, you will see the characters from the two previous books dressed in their Halloween costumes.

The Sketches

After I’ve sketched out some thumbnails, I’ll start my sketches. I work pretty tight. That’s partially because I need to give my art director a concrete idea of how I think the image should be. Then, once it’s approved, I don’t have to do much to it and can move on to my next step: the final line.

But sometimes things change and as in this case, the front and back covers originally meant to be individual images, were merged into one.

The Final Sketch

This was the new sketch for the cover.

The Rough Color Sketch

Most of the time, I can see what colors I’m going to use in my head. But sometimes, I do a rough color sample because my art director wants to see what I’m thinking before we go ahead with the creation of the final art. For It’s Halloween, Little Monster, I created the color sample purely for myself. (This was painted in Photoshop.)

One more note: Sometimes I have to get rid of things that I don’t want to in order to accommodate for the text. In this case, I had to erase the greenish-gray pumpkin to the left of Little Monster. It's such a happy pumpkin! (No worries though, it will show up in my art again.)

The Final Line

After the sketch and final color are done and approved, I begin the art that will be in the book. I start with what I call the “final line” art. You’ll notice that the lines are very crisp and precise. This is the step in which I make sure that all of the characters look exactly as they are supposed to, the layout is just right, and that I leave the proper amount of room for the text.

Transferring the Image

How do I get my final line art onto my paper? Most of the time, I use graphite paper. Other times, I use a light table.

Painting!!!

Consistency
Not only do I need to keep the character design consistent from page to page and book to book, I also need to keep the colors the same. In this image, I have the cover of Go to School, Little Monster next to the new cover for reference.
Color Swatches
I oftentimes do not use the colors directly from the tube. With Little Monster, I had to create my own purple. To keep with the consistency of the characters, I create color cards. I take note of which colors were used for everything from the color of their hair to their clothes.
Creating my Own Color
To keep with the consistency of the characters, I create color cards. I take note of which colors were used for everything from the color of their hair to their clothes.