Pixel Shavings

How to Get a Publishing Contract in 3 Easy Steps by Fred Koehler

2012-02-29T05:43:00.002-08:00

Okay, okay. So perhaps that title was a bit deceiving. But, after reading this humorous post on How to Win the Caldecott, I thought I might give it a shot as well. This is a general description of how I sold my first two books to Penguin USA. The first, "Dad's Bad Day," will be out in 2014.

Step 1. Get Really, Really Good at Something. Whether it's writing, illustrating, or even concept and storyboarding, put in the 10,000 hours you need to become successful at your craft. Because all work feeds your art, it doesn't matter where those hours come from. You want to be a writer? Blog. Volunteer to write press releases for a local charity. Write letters. Just write a lot. Same deal with illustrators. Start a sketch blog and add to it daily. Doodle in meetings instead of paying attention (and convince everyone that you listen best while doodling). One day it's going to click. Something original is going to emerge from your work. You'll stop in the middle of what you're doing and say "Whoah. Where did that come from?" Congrats. You've found your voice.

Step 2. Hang Out and Be Cool. For "big people" publishing, I don't know how to be cool. Grown-ups frighten me honestly. For children's publishing, join SCBWI and just go and hang out. Invest some dollars. Sign up for multiple classes and critiques at the conferences. Bring your "A" game. Bring the work that embodies that original voice and still makes you say "Whoah" when you look at it. Be proud and be excited about it. And don't be creepy or stalker-y with the agents and editors you meet. The ones I've met still talk to me because my attitude has always been that "I'd love to sell something, but I'm really just here to learn and make friends."

Step 3. Listen, Learn, and Repeat. At a conference I heard an editor say, "Anyone who submits work to me in the next two weeks hasn't been paying attention." The purpose of attending conferences is to learn how to improve our craft for revision. It's not about landing the deal. When you get that one-on-one time, offer yourself up completely defenseless. Demonstrate your ability to listen and accept advice. And for some people, that's the hardest part. You're sitting across from the person who could give you your break, so whatever they tell you to do, DO IT!!! Now go back to Step 1 and repeat until successful. And remember, the equation for success is "Every Single Miserable Failure + One More Try."

Cheers,

-fred
freddiek.com

Cloudwatching - by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

2012-02-22T14:44:00.000-08:00

This piece began as one of my Daily Doodles, where I experimented with a very loose and very sketchy line (no initial sketch/shapes) in Photoshop CS5:

I initially envisioned the little girl and her monster to be on a rooftop, but decided to put her on a hillside looking up at clouds in the sky instead:

I added some subtle shading in the bottom part of the hill to add a feeling of depth. I also used more than one pale grey for the clouds...again to add some texture and depth.

Next, I colored in the girl and the monster. Then, to make the hill look more like a natural part of the illustration, I added grass and flowers:

I drew in the stalks of grass by hand (digitally, that is) but did some cheating -- I only did a few sections, then copied and pasted those sections around the hill, altering the rotation a bit so it wouldn't look so obvious I was cutting and pasting. Then I added in some extra blades of grass here and there by hand.

Here's a screenshot of my layers, for those curious:

Yes, I love layers!

Next up: the fantabulous FRED KOEHLER.

I'm starting to blog about the process of creating I'm Bored (written by Michael Ian Black, illustrated by yours truly) with Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, for those interested. Included: photos, quotes, sketches & process info from the very beginning, working with editor Justin Chanda and art director Laurent Linn, through to finals and launch. I'd be delighted if you joined me.

-- Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Gladys And Her Cat by Russ Cox

2012-02-15T06:56:00.000-08:00

In celebration of Valentine's Day, I decided to work up a sketch I had lying around my studio that I called "Gladys And Her Cat". It is based on how children usually carry a cat around the house. I though adding the drawings hanging on the wall would help emphasize her love for her cat.

This is a tighter version of the sketch. I lightened the nose and mouth on Gladys so the line work would not stand out in the final art. The line work was converted to a dark purple to give it a bit more life than using black.

Using the multiply layer in Photoshop, I did a grayscale underpainting which I duplicated and then added a red tint. This makes it a two layer toned underpainting so that I have a dark value to paint on which helps the final art colors pop.

Working like a traditional painting, I started from the back by painting in the walls, patterns, baseboards, and floor. This helps me decide what colors to use for the main images and prevents color revisions later on by trying to get a background color to work with all of the main elements. The final art layers are set to "normal" but have my brushes set to 20-45% opacity. By doing this, it allows me to build up the color.

I then painted the drawings by using a crayon-like brush. I though the paper should be a few colors like construction paper. The dog and mouse were painted next.

Continuing moving to the front, Gladys was painted in the next step. I thought having her as a redhead would help solidify the concept of "love".

The valentine's card and cat were painted. I used my orange cat as a model for color and attitude. Sometimes I will play with the saturation if I find the colors getting flat as I work. Gladys' skin tone got a mild boost so she looks more lively.

I thought I was about done with the illustration but the floor seemed too bare and boring. Building on the drawings in the background, I decided to add some additional drawings on the floor with a few crayons laying about. I quickly sketched the new items out, scanned them, and added them onto a new layer which I multiplied so the white drops out and the line work is showing. Working digitally allows one to add and subtract images as they work without having to start over.

The final image has the new elements painted, some of the line work beefed up and highlights added.

You can view more of my work at:

www.smilingotis.com
Smiling Otis Facebook Fan Page
Smiling Otis Studio Blog

Tune in next week to see what the talented Debbie Ohi has up her sleeve!

Illustrating a Non-Fiction Picture Book from Hazel Mitchell

2012-02-08T08:08:00.000-08:00

This month saw the publication of a book I illustrated for Charlesbridge Publishing' imprint Mackinac Island. The book is 'Hidden New Jersey' and it's the third in a series featuring the States.Written by Linda J. Barth (of New Jersey), it's the first non-fiction book I've worked on - and it was quite a challenge! I thought I'd share some of the process looking at how I tackled the illustrations.

The book's a 'search and seek' concept with hidden objects on each page for children to find. There were a LOT of facts to incorporate on each double spread, each featuring a different area of the state.

This book came to me in an unusual way ... the developer, Anne Lewis, saw my work on my Facebook Fan Page and emailed me to ask if I'd be interested in doing the book. Hurrah for social networking!

I received the m/s in January 2011. At this point I realized just how much research was involved - I took a big gulp. Each area of the book was broken down into a list of facts and suggestions for hidden objects. The developer suggested I write notes on how I saw the images for each page before I started sketching. This was a great idea and saved me a bunch of time ... I spent a couple of weeks looking at images for each page and making rough notes on how I saw then working as a whole. The first thing I realized was that the objects suggested for 'hiding' took away many of the options for great compositions ... so I asked if I could choose what to hide instead. I began files of images for each illustration, making sure I had many different reference and bearing in mind the copyright restrictions on images. I made my own references sketches and often merged many different views, or worked from out-of-copyright photos. This kind of book is hard - there isn't time or money to go round taking your own photographs, which would be the ideal situation!

When I felt I'd researched enough I began to make rough sketches of each layout. In this case the rough sketch was pretty much how the finished image turned out.

I also researched the items I would hide on the page (which are all mentioned in the 'facts').

I also laid out a page to scale with the hidden objects and blocks for the text.

All the rough sketches went to the developer at Mackinac Island Press for approval .. then it was on to finished pencils.

I worked on all the images at the same stage. There were very few changes ... just minor ones to make sure things weren't in the gutter (page fold) and that the text would fit around the image.

I worked at 150% scale and scanned all the images in at 800dpi, reducing to 400dpi in CMYK at the finished size. It was a LOT of scanning. I think people forget about scanning time ... I like to do my outline work by hand and my colouring (in this case) digitally ... so scanning and then clean up time can take almost a week or more for a whole book.

NOW the fun part ... colouring! I coloured in photoshop ... it's something I have been doing for many years. I still love working by hand, but for a project like this digital painting means I can do it in a few weeks. Otherwise the time to complete this book would have been 3 times as long! (Total time was about 4 months.)

Here is the finished image and below are the hidden objects ...

And this is the finished page in the book!

One of the hardest parts about tackling this project was no running narrative. Each page is it's own entity ... although we did have a couple of themes running through the book. The kids in the canoe appear on several pages and also a little bumble bee (who is the mascot of the book and the state insect) is on every page doing something different as a little extra thing for children to find.

I also created the front and back cover art and bits and pieces for the verso and title pages.

Now that the book is out there I've been busy helping to promote the book ... which is when the hard work begins, right?

You can see the book trailer I created here ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuXJfjc-Dgo
if you want to learn more about how I did the book trailer, please visit my blog.

Hidden New Jersey is available to buy in all good bookstores or online!

Join the Hidden New Jersey Facebook Fan Page! http://www.facebook.com/HiddenNJ

Thanks for dropping by. See more of my work online http://hazelmitchell.com

Come back next week and visit Pixel Shavings to see what illustrator Russ Cox has in store for us.

Toodles!
Hazel

Maquettetebot - by John Deininger

2012-02-01T16:37:00.000-08:00

Expanding on experiments from my post last month: here is a way to use a maquette and Photoshop to build an underpainting.

So it starts with a small thumbnail...

Then a value sketch...

Ok, time to gather some reference of bats and a cool tree...

OK, so the robot is an original character - there is no reference for it. It's maquette-time!!!

But the robot's gesture doesn't have enough weight, like it would have while balancing in a tree; so let's put him in the crack of a sofa...

Cool. Now let's put all the reference together in Photoshop...

Now we're talkin! Time to work over the top of that and establish some linework, color, stars, and texture...

Sweeeeeeeet!

Now this could be used as an underpainting for oils (first printed onto watercolor paper and glazed with matte medium), or as solid reference for a watercolor made from scratch, or finished off in Photoshop using a variety of techniques.

So hopefully that inspired, and maybe annoyed the purists, but it is a fun way to get going on a complex illustration.

And for next week, please set you antennas East to receive some rockin' work from Hazel Mitchell!!!!

-John

Tea Time by Sheralyn Barnes

2012-01-25T20:03:00.000-08:00

It's January.

That time of year when the winter doldrums set in.

So this week, as the grey skies were bringing me down,

and I was feeling a bit small,

I thought to myself how nothing beats the winter blues like

a hot cup of tea,

a friend,

and my imagination.

And then I pulled out this old friend again,

who despite appearances,

should be getting us closer to spring here soon.....

Happy Groundhogs day on February 2nd!

Spring will be here before we know it....

Thanks for checking in!

You can see more of my work at

www.sheralynbarnes.com

Look for another great post by

John Deininger next week!

Concept is King and the rest of us are Jokers by Fred Koehler

2012-01-18T06:07:00.000-08:00

For this week's post I thought I'd use a recent piece that was entered in the SCBWI Tomie DePaola contest based on the classic tale of Chicken Licken. (The sky is falling! The sky is falling!) You can see everybody's entries here.

My entry did receive a good number of comments, and a lot of them talked about an appreciation of the "concept" or "idea." So I thought I'd try and share a little bit as to where and how I find concepts and ideas for illustrations.

To be honest it all starts in a text document before I even pick up a pencil. I ask myself the question "What would make this funny? Or different? Or cool?" That list of answers might hit 30 or 40 before I'm start to go back through and decide which one(s) to research further. A lot of times I try to take what's expected and do the exact opposite. (Instead of "eating pancakes for breakfast," try "pancakes eating their breakfast.")

For the Chicken Licken story, my list included "looking through a hole in the sky" and "24 [the tv show] cut-scenes." Those two stood out and I sketched them, but wasn't thrilled with the results. But here's the cool part. In doing the sketches and researching the characters, I kept my eyes open for other concepts to add to the list. I talked through the sketches with friends and colleagues and my list of concepts grew even bigger.

During this process, lo and behold I encountered a vision of the holy grail of comic iconography – a rubber chicken. And where do rubber chickens live? In a toy box. From there I started wondering if there was an iconic toy counterpart to all of the other characters. Lo and behold there was! As I finished my research I never even ended up using the rubber chicken, but that's where it all started.

Then, after all that, I did sketches. I decided on a vintage palette and a toy shelf instead of a toy box (so it would be easier for the "sky" to be falling). The result, I thought, was successful.

I titled this blog "Concept is King" because I honestly believe that the work we do before ever setting pencil to paper is the most important. The magic of our character interactions, the reaction we hope to get from our viewer – we can document those intentions and work till we achieve them.

Best of luck to all of ya, and keep up the good work!

~Fred
flikr.com/superfredd

I'M BORED book illustration from sketch to final - by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

2012-01-11T05:41:00.000-08:00

In this post, I'm going to show the step-by-step evolution of one of the images from I'M BORED, a new picture book from Michael Ian Black and illustrated by yours truly. You can see a bigger version of the spread above on the Simon & Schuster website graphic excerpt page from I'M BORED.

I love Michael's story. It's funny and inspiring, and I think it's going to appeal as much to grown-ups as it will to kids. I had a ton of fun creating the illustrations for this book and thought I'd share part of the process.

Above: an early version of the "little girl pretending to be a rampaging monster" image. I made the notes during a meeting with Justin Chanda (publisher & editor) and Laurent Linn (my art director).

With Laurent Linn & Justin Chanda at S&S.
Photo by Danielle Young.

They loved the monster hat on the girl. We decided to make the girl's mouth look more interesting; Justin & Laurent suggested making it look a bit more like the monster's, maybe echoing the shape. We also decided at this point to make any fantasy elements in the story easier to separate from the real-life elements by coloring them blue.

Above: the preliminary sketch for my revamped drawing. My sketches tend to be very loose, as you can tell, mainly to block in the shapes. Next, I added the line art:

Then I added the fantasy elements in the background (the town), color and the woodcut finish to the line art.

At my next meeting with Justin and Laurent, we decided to color in the girl's mouth throughout the book and to move the potato to the foreground where it would be more noticeable. Plus I needed to add the screaming people back into image (oops, I'd forgotten them). Here are my notes during the meeting:

And here's the revamped image:

In the final layout, Laurent flipped the image so it would work better with the overall spread, then added text:

I LOVE how it turned out and can't wait to see this book on the shelves.

I'll be talking more about the process of creating I'M BORED with Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers in the I'M BORED Facebook Page, so please do bookmark/Like.

Next up on Pixel Shavings: the fabulous Fred Koehler!

For more info about my projects, please visit DebbieOhi.com. I blog about kidlit/YA writing and illustrating at Inkygirl.com.

Developing A Concept by Russ Cox

2012-01-04T02:12:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year Everyone! For my first post of 2012, I thought I would share how I developed the concept for the above illustration.

I started out with doodling in my sketchbook. The idea of a child swinging on an old branch was too symbolize "old and new" as well friendship.

After working up the sketch into a tighter drawing, the symbolism was not working and the tree branch became too scary. Especially when the end of the branch was turned into a gnarled hand. It seemed to be ready to grab the girl instead of forming an arch to show protection.

Since the sketch was not working, I decided to go back to doodling, trying to rework the concept or come up with something complete different. Sometimes it is best to step back and come from another angle. The idea was to make the illustration warmer in concept, so I thought what if she had a large oafish friend who would do anything for her. Maybe something happened to the tree where she had the swing and her friend was welling to pretend to be one to make sure she was happy.

After roughing in the new layout, I noticed that I did not like the position of the rope over the girl's face. Plus the hand turned down had a negative feeling so I thought he needed his hand turned upward. Since he is pretending to be a tree, it was natural to put a bird's nest in his open hand.

I sketched out the new hand and girl which I dropped over top of the existing sketch. It saved me time redrawing the sketch for a third time since I would be doing a tighter version as my base for the final color illustration. I feathered the edges in Photoshop when I cut out the images so they overlapped the original sketch seamlessly.

The flowers were removed because they were a distraction from the interaction between the two characters. This is the final sketch which became the base of the final illustration which I rendered in Photoshop.

In the final illustration, I wanted to mute the color palette so the warmth of their friendship shined through.

Having worked in Photoshop for the past 8 months, I think I am ready to tackle Painter so I may post the results next time.

Thanks for reading and following our glog.

Russ

Look for Debbie Ohi's always inspiring and insightful post next week

www.smilingotis.com
Smiling Otis Facebook Fan Page
Smiling Otis Studio Blog

Love from Santa by Hazel Mitchell

2011-12-28T01:35:00.000-08:00

I hope that Santa brought you a gift this year!

Where ever you are and how ever you celebrate the season, wishing you peace,

happiness and a joyful 2012.

Thanks for visiting Pixel Shavings!

Come back next week for a post from Russ Cox.

Hazel

See more of my work at

http://www.hazelmitchell.com

or join me on Facebook at

http://www.facebook.com/HazelMitchellSketchbook

The Little Camel, by John Deininger

2011-12-21T23:18:00.000-08:00

Here's a step-by-step on a piece created last year when I was experimenting with digital collage. I have a large collection of 1/64 die-cast cars. So I lined them up in an interesting order and took a picture.

Using Photoshop, the photo is washed out and a layer of linework is built over the photo.

One of the cars is deleted and in goes a little camel, using a photo for reference.

Next step is a layer of shadows. The large shadow shape is being cast by a child.

Then the shadows and linework is put together.

Color is added by adjusting the colors of the original photo, and painting in other colors from imagination.

Then the final adjustments are made and that's it - an illustration that is a blend of imagination and reality.

---------------------

Tune in next week - the can-you-believe-it final week of 2011 - for a fabulous post by Hazel Mitchell!!!

A Solstice Serenade by Sheralyn Barnes

2011-12-14T19:50:00.000-08:00

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

What a heartwarming thing it is that during this darkest time of year,

the world is filled with beautiful lights and music.

So whatever your reason to sing this season,

I hope you have a wonderful celebration!

Peace on Earth

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to look for

another amazing creation from John Deininger next week!

You can see more of my work at:

www.sheralynbarnes.com

A Christmas sketch by Fred Koehler

2011-12-07T05:17:00.000-08:00

Happy holidays one and all. May your season be filled with gooseberry pudding, matching socks and winning lottery tickets. In the meantime, here's the elephant father/son duo I've been sketching so fervently as they settle down for a long winter's nap.

See more at FreddieK.com and come back next week for another great post from Sheralyn Barnes.

Snow Flight: created with the Sketchbook Pro app on the iPad by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

2011-11-30T08:47:00.001-08:00

Can't believe how quickly this year went by! This was my first year with Pixel Shavings, and I want to thank Hazel, Russ, Sheri, Fred and John for all their encouragement. I feel honoured to be part of this amazingly talented group.

This week, I'm going to show you how I created my winter-themed illustration, SNOW FLIGHT, using Autodesk's Sketchbook Pro app for the iPad. First I created the sky in a separate layer using a flat blue. Then I added texture in a slightly darker blue.

One of the advantages of working digitally is that it's easy to make copies, in case I screw up. Before making a radical change to any layer, I always make a copy of that layer and then hide it, just in case I need it later. In the image below, you can see how I've hidden the extra layer by clicking on the eye icon. In the active/topmost layer, I then activated the transparency mask and then added a sunrise texture/color. Because of the mask, I'm only painting on blue part of the picture, not the snow.

In a new layer, I created a separate transparency mask for the snow. At first I tried doing this with white but found it too confusing so switched to an obnoxiously bright blue:

After activating the transparency mask for the ground and painting it white, I added some texture to the snow. Then in another layer (I LOVE LAYERS), I did a quickie sketch of the flying girl.

Next, I drew the girl. Um…as you can tell, I pretty much ignored my original sketch. :-) After I finished the ink drawing, I deleted the sketch layer.

Next, I added color. I should note that I always hated coloring when I was in school because I found it so boring; I was always the kid in school who drew stuff so other kids could colour. Now I love it! Coloring's much easier digitally because I can make the brush really big so it doesn't take as long. Then I can add textures.

Here's what the colored version looked like:

I didn't like the way the black outline looked -- too boring and flat compared to the background -- so decided to add my woodcut effect, This is gradually becoming one of my "go-to" illustration styles because it feels so natural to me.

In Photoshop CS5, I use the Layer Mask tool but in this app, I used the Eraser tool instead:

I started manually erasing bits from the ink outline. This is the most time-consuming part of the process:

But I think the results are well worth it (you can see a bigger version here):

I added some footprints in the snow and signed it, then took the image into Photoshop (the app lets you save in PSD format, yay) and added more shadows as well as adding the copyright notice. I could have done this on my iPad using Sketchbook Pro & other apps, but I was already in Photoshop.

In case you were curious, I used a Pengo Stylus to draw on my iPad. It was a gift from my hubby -- he knows I find art supplies & tech hardware much more romantic than flowers and jewelry. :-)

Next up: a post from the fantabulous Fred Koehler!

- Debbie

DebbieOhi.com
On Twitter: @inkyelbows and @iPadGirl
Illustrator of I'M BORED, a new picture book by Michael Ian Black (Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, Fall/2012)

That Special Gift by Russ Cox

2011-11-23T05:19:00.000-08:00

As the holidays quickly approach and we begin to reflect on this past year, I just wanted to take a moment to say "THANK YOU" to Hazel, Sheri, Debbie, Fred, and John for letting me be part of this spectacular group of artist/writers. They say you cannot teach an old dog a new trick but with the feedback, support and encouragement from my fellow Pixel Shavers, I say you can. Each one has been a major influence on the direction my artwork is heading and on me as a person. I cannot thank you enough. They are also responsible for giving me a swift kick in the rump I needed to start writing. I would never have even considered taking that journey without that push down the writing path. So this illustration I am posting today, is for each of them and to all of my family and friends. You truly are "that special gift" in my life.

Also a big THANK YOU for coming to the Pixel Shavings glog and following our journey this year. Have a wonderful holiday season and cheers to 2012!

Russ

The charismatic Debbie Ohi will be up to bat next week.

www.smilingotis.com
Smiling Otis Facebook Fan Page
Smiling Otis Studio Blog

Flying Robot (with waffles) from Hazel Mitchell

2011-11-16T07:24:00.000-08:00

Following on from John Deininger's robot post last week I remembered a sample piece I produced this summer for my portfolio. Here's how it came together ....

First a quick thumbnail about 2 x 3".

Then I worked up the drawing in graphite, with no shading.

Scanned the line art at 600dpi and saved in photoshop.

With the multiply tool I blocked in the areas in roughly the colours I was thinking of and also coloured some of the line work itself, selecting with the magic wand tool.

Here is the end result. Most of my work is done with the mutiply tool and with highlight/burn tools. I don't work with many layers. Not sure how the wings ended up as waffles ... I guess the little boy was having breakfast and it just happened. in this illustration I was looking to keep some looseness and texture in the shading and colouring.

Many thanks for stopping by!
Come over next week to see a seasonal offering from Russ Cox.

See more of my work online at http://hazelmitchell.com and http://hazelmitchell.blogspot.com

Toodles

Hazel

Star Gazer, Step-by-Step by John Deininger

2011-11-09T09:41:00.000-08:00

Here's a step-by-step of one of my various working methods. It is fast and fun and just messy enough to feel like a kid.

--------------

1) lots of drawing and re-drawing using tracing paper

2) Transfer to watercolor paper (Arches 300lb hot, unstretched). I use blue ball point pen on top of the sketch, and carbon paper under the sketch.

3) Add a warm tint the paper with a wash of Burnt Sienna watercolor (Daniel Smith). This gives the next layers of color a unified 'warm' tint. Air dry, or hair dryer.

4) Mask highlights. Darken the linework - I used a Derwent water-soluble pencil for this one, to create a softer linework (though I abondoned the 'soft' look later - see below).

5) 'Pool' in colors of Ultramarine and Hansa Yellow. This allows me to set the warm and cool areas of the painting.

6) Add more color, and add colors with granulating properties.

7) Define darkest areas. Pencil in darkest areas, such as occlusion shadows (the area where two forms meet).

8) Scan into Photoshop, and begin digital process: adding color, define forms further, add shooting stars, add bold line work, lights, and highlights.

--------------------

Hey - that's it! A fun process since it combines the best of analog painting and digital. Check out my webfolio for a full portfolio, sketchbook, and more!

And you absolutely must check in next Wednedsay for another rockin' post by the one-and-only, Hazel!!

Going Batty by Sheralyn Barnes

2011-11-02T07:05:00.000-07:00

Halloween has come and gone, but the glow of the slightly sagging Jack O’ Lantern’s still illuminate these early dark November nights. I love Halloween and have trouble letting it go for another whole year. It’s the perfect holiday for the imagination with color combinations that can make an artist’s heart skip a beat. So I decided to extend Halloween just a wee bit longer so that I could take

advantage of it for this post.

I’ve really been trying to build my skills with color and lighting, as well as try to loosen up my computer painting technique. So here is a quick painting honoring my beloved holiday. For this piece I built layers of different colors and then erased them as if they were scratch board. I found it’s a fun technique and kind of relaxing.

www.sheralynbarnes.com

Thanks for checking in again and be sure to tune in next week for the

great John Deininger!

Sleepy Little Elephant by Fred Koehler

2011-10-26T05:12:00.000-07:00

Baby close your eyes,
The moon's about to rise.

Your day has been much longer than
you'll ever realize.

Another day is done,
It's setting with the sun

And as you dream the stars will bring
to you another one.

So baby, close your eyes.

:-) -fk

flikr.com/superfredd

Check back next week to hear from Sheralyn Barnes.

Textures, Daily Doodles & An Autumn Dance - by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

2011-10-19T05:11:00.000-07:00

"Autumn Dance" - by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

As I've mentioned in an earlier post, I try to do a drawing purely for the fun of it every day. I call this my "Daily Doodle" regardless of its content or final appearance because I find the word "doodle" helps take off the pressure and also reminds me that it's supposed to be FUN.

Started with an orange background, added texture.

My only rules: (1) The drawing can't be for any work project, (2) Don't spend more than an hour on it. When things are superbusy or I'm super-uninspired, I may spend as little as a minute or two (usually this is a quick line doodle). Average is about 30 minutes. I didn't time myself for this drawing, but I think it took me about 40 minutes from start to finish.

Added new layer with the ground texture.

Ever since attending Richard Jesse Watson's session in the Illustrators' Intensives at the SCBWI Summer Conference, I've been inspired to experiment more with textures in my art. Unlike Richard, I work digitally...but even as I was watching him work, I got excited about the possibilities of being more adventurous with different types of digital media & textures in my work.

Created a tree on a separate layer.

I started playing around with more Photoshop CS5 textured brushes, including some wonderful grungy brushes by Dawghouse Design Studio. I plan to eventually create my own texture brushes for commercial work, but first I want to find out what does and doesn't work for me.

For this doodle, I knew I wanted to work quickly to get it finished within my self-imposed time limit, so I used a cheat via Layers, Transform and Transparency: I created one tree shape and then used it to create all the other trees. To keep the trees from all looking the same, I used Transform and Transparency to change the shape and look of each tree, plus sometimes added a few branches here and there.

Then I started adding some red leaves to the tops of the trees as well as scattered on the ground. I used one of the Photoshop CS5 library brushes, I think, that I had modified slightly. For the tops of the trees, I added red leaves between some of the layers to give a feeling of depth.

I was going to leave it as just the forest and leaves but then decided to add a dancer because it needed something MORE. I always like having some kind of implied story to my drawings because it makes it more fun to draw.

Anyway, I was a bit floored by all the Likes and comments when I posted this earlier this week (!). Thanks, all. You've inspired me to work up a more polished version for my portfolio at the SCBWI Winter Conference.

Next week, you'll be hearing from Pixel Shavings' fabulous Fred Koehler!

To see more of my work, please visit:
DebbieOhi.com

Illustrator, I'M BORED by Michael Ian Black (Simon & Schuster, 2012)

Pinocchio With A Twist by Russ Cox

2011-10-12T05:36:00.000-07:00

Recently I have been thinking about the story of Pinocchio and how to do a spin on such a classic. I thought it would be interesting if kids had built him from junk that they found around the house or in a junkyard. A child has an amazing creative spirit and energy that I thought would work well for this modern take. It also reminded me of my younger days when we would build things from junk.

While I was sick last week, I began doodling and this is what appeared on the paper. Maybe a fever can be a good thing once in a while. Trying to think of things a group of children could find and use to make their robotic puppet, was a bit challenging. Most of the items are obvious but some of the support elements like the base of his face and lower body, I wanted to keep as chunks of unidentifiable rusted metal.

The faces of the children bothered me so I quickly sketched out some other ideas. Which I added to the cleaned up version of the sketch in Photoshop.

I decided to not add any tones to the sketch and keep the line work loose. The ellipses on the tires and other areas are not drawn perfectly on purpose in order to keep the illustration more child friendly. After years of drafting, it was hard not to clean up those parts of the drawing.

Using Photoshop, I added a gray tone to establish light direction and then dropped in a purple value to pull the under painting together.

I built each piece on a separate layer for easy editing. The color was built up using various brushes and textures like the background on the face. I was going for a tarnished, rusted metal look so the elements on the face stand out.

This is the final illustration. It is different than my usual vector artwork. After looking at it now, I think I will add a small cricket to the radar part of his head. Like he is whispering into his ear as the little girl looks down on him. It will tie in the basic storyline of the original and help pull the concept together.

In Pixel Shavings related news, we just mailed out our first tear sheet with bookmarks to art directors from various publishing houses. Hazel, Fred, Sheri, Debbie, John and I each did a new piece just for the promo. We think it is a pretty snazzy package that should get some attention. Fingers crossed!

Next week you're in for a treat as the lovely and energetic Debbie Ohi will share a new illustration for all to marvel!

To see more of my work, you can go to:

www.smilingotis.com
Smiling Otis Facebook Fan Page
Smiling Otis Studio Blog

The Ugly Duckling - creating an ebook from Hazel Mitchell

2011-10-05T06:37:00.000-07:00

Ebooks are springing up everywhere. With the rise and rise of ipad, and now Kindle Fire, the race is 'hotting' up. What does this mean for your commonal-garden illustrator/author?

Many of the most famous children's book titles are being generated as ebooks by the original publishers, other authors and illustrators are working directly with app companies to bring back-listed books to life. Best sellers look like they have the best chance of hitting the number one spots on the app lists.

Yet it's an open field. Anyone can create an ebook, or app, and, if it's good enough, have it accepted into the istore. And there are plenty of illustrators and authors creating work that will be published as an ebook FIRST. It's a whole new animal.

So I thought I would dip my toe in the water with a new company just about to launch called utales.com. Headed by (the wonderfully named) Nils von Heijne, this company is a little different. It's a worldwide community of excellent authors and illustrators creating quality picture books. With the online software interface created by Utales, authors and illustrators can design and upload their own books. Right now they are bringing in animation and sound tools, but I can only see these facilities growing after the launch.

One of the best things about this creator-driven company is that they have a great editing team headed up by Emma Dryden, of Dryden Books. So all the books are quality controlled - awesome! Utales are also working with 'Pencils of Promise'. P Proceeds from each sale can be donated to the charity and help fund projects in schools across the world.

The company asked for creators to retell a classic tale before the launch. I chose the great favorite by Hans Christian Andersen, 'The Ugly Duckling'. Here are some of the images I created from the book. I hope you'll check out the animated version on Utales when it launches in the coming weeks! Watch this space for details.

Oh, I didn't mention that there was also a competition involved for the creation of a classic tale. The first prize is an ipad, so please keep all your extremities crossed!

Thanks for stopping by Pixel Shavings this week.

Don't forget to join us on Facebook

Plus, watch out for the next Pixel Shavings mail out. Maybe one will be dropping in your mail box soon.

Call in next week to see what Russ Cox will be chatting about.

Toodles!

Hazel

hazelmitchell.com

Lots-O' Hippos by John Deininger

2011-09-28T11:38:00.000-07:00

Lots of hippopotamus fun this week while completing a spread for the letter 'H', for the 9 Degrees North Project - The ABC's of Northern Ghana, a charity picture book project by the Tools for Schools Africa. My assignment had the accompanying text, "Have you ever seen a hippopotamus yawn? Its mouth and teeth are enormous! Their large bodies overheat easily, so they spend most of the day cooling in the water."

I started with lots of sketches of hippos, since I'd never really drawn them before. The goal was to understand their true form, and find the details that make them exclusively 'hippos'. Lots of reference was used; lots of online image searching.

Also researched were the variety of hippos that are specific to northern Ghana; the northern branches of the Volta River is the only area in Ghana where hippos live. So the color of the river, the fish, the birds, etc. were all good details to have in mind when planning the composition,

And finally everything was put together. I know my style is bordeline crazytown of color (of which I'll save the reasoning for a future post), but hopefully it engages the young reader enough to feel like they are right there in the thick of it and looking around, using their imaginations to continue the little stories happening in various parts of the illustration.

Check out my webfolio for a full portfolio, sketchbook, and more!

And don't you dare miss out next week as the wonderful light of Hazel shines brightly upon the Pixel Shavings glog!

The Comfort Zone by Sheralyn Barnes

2011-09-21T12:44:00.000-07:00

This week I want to sing the praises of my online children's illustrator community. I can't imagine living the life of a freelance artist without the amazing people that I have gotten to know here in cyberspace. It's magical. It sustains me. It all started with sitting next to our own Hazel Mitchell at the 2010 New York SCBWI conference illustrator's intensive. Who knew?

Since that day (and thanks to Hazel's wonderful go getter personality), I have had a constant stream of inspiration and education from other writers and illustrators all around the globe. Here again I sing the praises of the SCBWI conferences, for every one person I have met at a conference, there has been many many others I have met through them. It really is amazing. On those dark days when the freelancing life seems a bit overwhelming, encouragement is just a click away.

I want to mention another illustrator, Will Terry, who I've also met online. Will just recently launched a really cool site called http://folioacademy.com. At this site you can download art instructional videos made by both Will and other artists/illustrators. I've mentioned Will here before after watching his "How to Paint in Photoshop" video and finding it very insightful. This video helped me to make the big leap from oil to digital painting. Will is a tremendous illustrator with lots of experience and he is incredibly open about sharing his techniques and professional experiences. Even more, he offers all kinds of insight on his blog for free. Being a really big fan of his use of color, I recently purchased his "How to use Color" video and found it (again) incredibly helpful. It's not my normal self to sound like an info-mercial, but I share this because I feel his videos have helped me to fill in the gaps of my knowledge about book illustration. My college Drawing degree didn't address many things that an illustrator needs to be aware of, and these videos are a great help.

So for my posting this week, it's another exercise in painting in Photoshop and trying to add a bit of the advice on color that Will demonstrates in his color theory video. I have by no means, mastered his stunning use of color. In fact, I found myself still straying back to my usual choices. It will take a little while to understand, but it's a start and an exciting new challenge.

Many thanks to all of you out there in my cyberspace studio!

Thanks again for checking in and checking Pixel Shavings out.

It's an honor to be here among these great illustrators. Look for another great post

from John Deininger next week!

www.sheralynbarnes.com

Carrot on a String by Fred Koehler

2011-09-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

My mom used to tell me that the reward of hard work was the satisfaction of a job well done. I think mom was just being a cheapskate. We all need a reason to exist. To wake up. To go to work. To eat our peas and clean our rooms. Find yours. Work hard. Reward yourself. And have a wonderful week.

Love, Fred.

flikr.com/superfredd

PS - don't you dare miss next week's post from the wickedly fab Sheri Barnes.

Random Act Of Publicity - by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

2011-09-07T05:18:00.000-07:00

Just received some good news this week! My illustrated short story, "Kodama," has been accepted for inclusion in Stone Bridge Press's YA fiction anthology, TOMO. Editor: Holly Thompson. Proceeds from the book will go toward teens affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011.

But now to the meat of today's post...

Hazel Mitchell, at the SCBWI Illustrator Intensive in LA,
holding a copy of the book I just purchased from her.

In honor of Random Acts Of Publicity Week, my post today focuses on a RAP about a book Hazel illustrated: TICK, TOCK, TAYLOR, written by Anastasia Suen. Here's how I created an image in Photoshop as part of today's RAP.

First, I scooped the cover image and put it on a separate layer, over the basic outline of my RAP cat:

I used a layer mask to clear the bit of cover that was going to have the cat's paw covering it. I also wanted an interesting background, so filled the bottom-most layer with a solid color:

As I continue to learn Photoshop CS5, I've been exploring its brush presets. One of my favorite libraries is the "M Brushes" preset. The cool cross-hatch texture in the background is one of the brushes from that preset:

Next, on other layers, I added the cat's coloring (with brushes from the same library) and the t-shirt, made some tweaks to fix the angle of the arm on the left.

Ta-daa!

Next week: the fabulous Fred Koehler.

Find out more about me at DebbieOhi.com.

If you're on Google+, do add yourself to my Kidlit Artist Directory.

Joe Bob Gristleneck the Banjo Playing Pig by Russ Cox

2011-08-31T05:36:00.000-07:00

For my post this week, I am continuing my adventure in painting with Photoshop. I am trying to capture my traditional style of using gouache and color pencil while maintaining bright, lively colors. Some of you may be saying "why not just paint it traditionally". Working digitally allows me to experiment more with colors and adjust the layout if I need to do so without redrawing it each time. I think each time you have to redraw a sketch, it tends to loose it freshness. Even though I do color and tonal roughs for balance and light placement, I still like playing with colors as I work. With this piece I really wanted a fun balance of complimentary colors to add life to the final illustration. By building the colors up in layers, allowed me to keep things bright. Working this way also allowed me to get a colored pencil looking texture in areas, especially the pig. I also wanted the original sketch to show through as much as possible. My goal is to do a new piece every two weeks and take what I learn from the previous illustration, to build upon the next one. Hopefully my portfolio will have a new look to it as well for the New York SCBWI conference in January. This experimenting really transfers over well to working traditionally. As artist we must continue to learn new things and improve on what we know.

Check in next week for what the wild and wonderful Debbie Ohi has in store for you. I am sure it will be a treat and learning experience for all.

www.smilingotis.com
Smiling Otis Facebook Fan Page
Smiling Otis Studio Blog

Flying Fairy from Hazel Mitchell

2011-08-24T07:14:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been working on loosening up my style. So noodling about before the LA conference I came up with this little fairy character ...

She's cross because she's having trouble flying.

So it all worked out in the end .....

See more of my work at http://hazelmitchell.com

I also have a new sketchblog hope you will drop by and visit.

http://hazelmitchell.tumblr.com/

Lastly and certainly not leastly - welcome JOHN DEININGER to Pixel Shavings. We are so happy to have him aboard and I KNOW there will be awesome posts by him.

Tune in this time next week to see what delectable delights artist RUSS COX will be bringing to the party here on the Glog.

Toodles!

Hazel

It's About the Story....by Sheralyn Barnes

2011-08-17T17:13:00.000-07:00

Since my last post, the SCBWI conference in Los Angeles has come and gone. My oh my....what an enlightening event. I encourage anyone who loves children's books and wants to make a career in making them to go next year if you can. You won't regret it. It's amazing, informative, inspiring, fun, exhausting, and yes....frustrating. I've been home for over a week now and all the information and experiences are slowly sinking in. I'm realizing just how important that last emotion - frustration- is. It seems equally as important as inspiration in this game. And here's why....

I've spent the last 5 months with my head in the computer trying to hone my skills at painting digitally and I've been very happy with my accomplishments. However, after this last conference, I realized that I've been ignoring a couple of key elements that are very important to being a good children's book illustrator. I've been ignoring the story and the characters, the two things that make a good book a good book! I realized that I've been so involved in making fur look like fur, snow look like snow, and wool look like wool that I haven't taken the time to really get to know my characters and how they think or explore in depth where they live. It seems crazy to only just now realize this! My training is in fine arts so I was never exposed to the basics of character design (or the importance of thumbnails) in school. I now realize that I've been using my obsessive attention to detail in painting as an excuse to avoid pushing myself out of my artistic comfort zones in illustration.

I can admit this to myself after having had an incredibly enlightening critique with Dan Santat again this year at the conference. In 15 minutes he made a remarkable difference in my perspective on my work. His critique opened my eyes even wider to what I've been ignoring.

Here's what I mean...

I showed him this piece. It is the opening illustration that I did for a final to go with a Christmas book dummy about a rabbit and mouse who hide in an old woman's barn when a blizzard comes. In this scene, the rabbit is supposed to be anxiously awaiting his mouse friend's arrival at the rendezvous point so that they can go together to the barn for safety. This is a piece that I've been laboring on for the last month (you know...getting that fur and snow just right).

Dan respectfully pointed out to me that what I have painted here is a portrait of a mildly concerned rabbit looking to his left. Then, I threw in a couple of trees to establish that he's outside and there is snow. That's it. Think about it, if he was a rabbit actor trying out for the part, he wouldn't get the role now would he? Now considering that I have sat through six workshops at several SCBWI conferences with the fab art director Laurent Linn in which he very accurately shows the many facets that make a good illustration good (and how a good illustrator is like a good movie director, lighting director, wardrobe designer, etc) I absolutely can't believe I was so blind to what I had done here! A good children's book illustration should always intrigue the viewer and make them ask questions about what is going on. The most memorable statement that Dan Santat said to me this time around was.... "Your illustration should tell a story before the text is even added."

So he gave me some tips on this piece. Here is a rough of possible changes using some of his suggestions.

Since this rough is small on the screen and hard to see I'll note what I'm aiming at. First, this rabbit is worried, his character is neurotic and he should look as worried as I would be if I was stuck in a car on the freeway in an oncoming blizzard with bad tires. I want to get that across (and intend to work on that expression and body language since it is key to the scene)! My imagined setting is Vermont....with lots of hills, pines and snow. I would have picked my home state of Minnesota, but it's too flat. So it's Vermont as I imagine it would be in winter. In the upper right, the barn and house are off in the distance and the incoming snowstorm is already upon them (this is a key location of where the story is taking us). In the middle upper right, the mouse is coming up the hill from the barn (where he's already been, unknowing to the rabbit who is looking for him to come from another direction).

So it's a start in a new direction at least. The importance of learning how to move the story forward was reinforced over and over again in workshops in LA with (the amazing illustrator) David Small, (the absolutely amazing Art Director with great hair) Laurent Linn, and (the wonderful art director) Martha Rago. All these people know what they are talking about, so I am eagerly listening and trying to stay all ears and keep my eyes open as much as possible to my own blind spots from here on out! This is why going to conferences is golden. Another reason to go to conferences? I know everyone in Pixel Shaving because of SCBWI conferences. That's been the icing on the cake! I've learned so much from knowing all of them and am so honored to be part of such a talented group of illustrators.

Thanks for tuning in!

Look for another enlightening and fabulous post from Hazel next week!

www.sheralynbarnes.com

Don't Sweat the Dummy by Fred Koehler

2011-08-10T04:47:00.000-07:00

I worry about the dummy. Did I do it right? Are my sketches too simple? Did I spec out the end papers and the intro page correctly? Did I choose the right fonts? Is that why previous dummies have been rejected?

At a recent SCBWI conference, I had separate portfolio reviews with an agent and an art director. Both of them gravitated toward a particular piece in my portfolio. The art director, Lucy Cummins of Simon & Schuster, suggested I turn it into a simple father's day story. The agent liked the idea, and I had one month to send a dummy.

So I sat down and wrote 87 words that made me laugh and cry. I sketched it all up in about 15 hours, which is all that's left in my month after a full time job and two toddlers. It wasn't fancy. It was downright sloppy. It didn't show the cover, have a title, or even have all the right pages. But I sent it anyways.

The agent emailed me back within a day and asked for more illustration samples to show around to some editors. WHAAAA?!! It's that simple? No custom fonts? No comparables? No hand-assembled book? No fully-fleshed pages?! All it took (to peak some interest at least) was a successful concept. Here's the simple format I used.

You can see some more of my work at flikr.com/superfredd. Cheers!

Pixel Shavings Bookmark

2011-08-03T04:18:00.000-07:00

Announcing our new bookmark!

All five Pixel Shaving's illustrators feature on it and it's perfect for marking those books.

Here's a closer look ...

Cute, huh?

If you would like one of these awesome bookmarks (or even two) drop an email to

pixelshavings@hotmail.com and we will snail-mail to you.

Three of the Pixel Shaving's gang (Hazel, Sheralyn and Debbie) will be out and about at the Los Angeles SCBWI summer conference this weekend and guess what? They will have postcards, so stop them and get yours!

Thanks to Russ Cox for designing.

This is our second promotional piece as a group.

Look out for a new Pixel Shaving's postcard later in the year and collect the set!

Drop by next week for more great illustrations from Florida based illustrator and writer FRED KOEHLER.

Don't forget to visit us on Facebook too ....

http://www.facebook.com/pixelshavingspage

Gator Pox by Russ Cox

2011-07-27T05:54:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I was learning Painter and trying out a new style. After chatting with some fellow illustrators, I thought I would try Photoshop for a digital painting. I chatted with Photoshop master Will Terry and followed his video tutorial to get a jump start. This is my first attempt. I must say that I found Photoshop easier to navigate and was able to create my own custom brushes very easily. Not that I am ditching Painter but I will do a few more pieces in Photoshop to get a handle on painting this way.

My first step was to do a quick sketch and scan into Photoshop. I have no idea where the concept came from. It was the first thing to pop into my head so I went with it.

After tweaking the overall contrast of the scan, I did a quick gray scale under painting to figure light direction and overall value.

I then blocked in some dark tones in various the layers. I played around with the "Multiply" settings with each layer so it would pick up some of the values from the layer underneath.

Working from dark to light, I slowly built up the colors. By using a custom made brush, I was able to create a texture on the gator. Also varying the brush width, it allows me to work in some details.

Continuing to add color and working in the dark lines, help bring the illustration together. I also wanted the original sketch to shine through.

A few highlights were added at the end. The colors were a little flat so I played with the "Saturation" setting in Photoshop to boost the color. This is the final piece. I have sketched out two more pieces that I want to try painting digitally. Maybe one of them will be in my next post.

Stay tuned next week for a special announcement from Pixel Shavings!

Ciao,
Russ

www.smilingotis.com
Smiling Otis Facebook Fan Page
Smiling Otis Studio Blog

Magic Carpet Ride by Hazel Mitchell

2011-07-20T05:58:00.000-07:00

Early August is the SCBWI Summer Conference in LA. Every year there is a portfolio showcase and this year I will be entering a portfolio on the theme of 'flying'.

I have taken different scenarios and created an image for example: fairies, ladybugs, superhero cat, a boy constructing a model plane.

This is my second year at the Los Angeles conference and I am very much looking forward to spending time with other illustrators and writers, to say nothing of the fantastic faculty this year. These gatherings give a tremendous boost and really get the juices flowing!

Attending the conference this year will be Sheralyn Barnes and Debbie Ohi, fellow Pixel Shavers, so it will be quite a reunion given that we live in far flung areas of North America.

Here is the Magic Carpet Ride image - 2 versions, one colour and the other with grayscale washes. Both are created with graphite and finished in photoshop.

Thanks for dropping by Pixel Shavings ... next week there will be something yummy from ace illustrator Russ Cox.

Catch me on google+ under 'Hazel Mitchell'

Toodles!

Hazel

hazelmitchell.com

hazelmitchell.blogspot.com

Off to join the Circus by Sheralyn Barnes

2011-07-13T16:22:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last month continuing to hone my computer painting skills and getting my portfolio updated for the upcoming LA SCBWI conference. Although I feel as if I've been going at a snail's pace for the last few months, it was incredibly inspiring to pull out my portfolio from last year at this time and compare the work in it to the work that I am doing now. It makes all the long hours of learning and fussing at the computer worth it.

On my last post, I left you with a couple of digital paintings of my newest characters of a little girl and a bear. Well, at this point, at least the bear has a name (Simu) and both of the characters personalities are starting to come together for me. I've been doing more sketches based off of Illustration Friday's weekly suggestions.

Here is the sketch that I did for the week that the topic was "Swept"....

And here is a portion of the re-worked digital painting of the Shadow puppet piece that I posted in my last post. I've been working on adding color and making the characters a bit more personable. Still have some tweaking to do, but it's been fun to experiment. I've really grown attached to these guys and look forward to getting to know them better!

Thanks again for checking in!
Tune in next week for more fun and inspiration from Hazel!

www.sheralynbarnes.com

Photoshop method by Fred Koehler

2011-07-06T04:30:00.000-07:00

It's a hot summer in Florida, and I thought I'd give you a glimpse of a Photoshop method I used with this sketch of my daughter at the swimming pool.

Choose a base color for the background and sketch on a new layer.

Under the sketch layer, add dark and light values.

Create a new layer with the blend mode "color" and bring in some selective dominant color.

Add some interesting background detail and you're all done!

See more at freddiek.com and check back next week to hear from the magnificent Sheralyn Barnes.

Sketching on the iPad Using Procreate App - by Debbie

2011-06-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

I had heard good things about Savage Interactive's Procreate app for the iPad, so decided to check it out. Nice user interface, and I'm intrigued by the brush-tweaking capabilities. I found the app's preloaded brush set pretty limited, so will be definitely experimenting more with brush import features.

If you're just interested in my summary of the app, skip down to the end of this post.
The image above is my first attempt using Procreate on the iPad. Here's how I did it:

First, I created a new layer and used the Fill command (option when you select a Layer) to choose a basic blue background. Then I browse the Brushes and experimented with textures to use in the sky, on top of the blue.

I used several colors of a stipple pattern for the sky, and then used green for a hillside, and played around with adding textures to that as well.

I created a separate layer and did an ink outline of a little girl. I wasn't crazy about the brush selection for straight inking; I'm going to experiment later with making a brush that has more variety in thickness. For now, though, I chose a basic flat brush.

At this point I realized that the initial colors I chose were way too dark, but decided to fix them later on. I added the ghost figure here, some misty bits, then played around with transparency of the misty layers so the lines wouldn't be so harsh.

I also added a shadow, fiddled around some more with the background to soften up the stipple effect. Then I took the Eraser and worked on the ink outline of the girl to make the outline a little more irregular as well as experimenting with the Smudge tool. Again, I'm hoping to eventually create or find a Brush that's a little closer to the Drippy pen I like so much in Corel Painter.

I could have lightened up the whole thing via an iPad app like Photogene but I decided to use Photoshop instead. Here's the final result:

And so ends my first attempt at using the Procreate App for the iPad. I'm intrigued enough by the interface that I'm going to do some more experimenting with this app. Things I like include:

- eye dropper shortcut tool

- option to insert a photo (handy for photo ref?)
- option to remember tool size & opacity

- supposedly you can export in layered PSD format (haven't tried this yet, though)

Features I need to try out:

- saving colour swatches/sets

- layer blend modes (multiply, screen, add, lighten, exclusion)

- playing around with brush characteristics

- locking alpha pixels (so that transparent pixels aren't affected by paint)

- using Transform to move individual layers around as well as scaling & rotating