Yesterday’s version of this page looked too static, so I put the kids to work. Their job is to lean back to keep the boat from being blown over by the gusty wind. They don’t seem to notice that the wind is blowing them out to sea.
My “process” was to do the initial sketch in Photoshop then do the coloring in Clip Studio Paint EX. I could have done everything in Clip Studio Paint, but I’m curious to learn more about Photoshop.
Blue line layer under pencil sketch.
Today I learned the value of flipping an image horizontally to check for wonky features. My original sketch looked okay, but when I flipped the image horizontally, it just looked bad. At first I thought that the eyes were not placed properly. Even after making the eyes perfectly symmetrical, the image still look odd when I flipped it. I was puzzled, so I continued to flip. Eventually it became clear that the nose was off center and warped to one side. Once I fixed the nose, flipping image didn’t reveal any problems.
Dear Diary,
I spent the day planning the composition for page 32, which show the kids climbing up the steep cliff wall. There are three kids climbing, a burro, a blue jay, and a cougar. The butterfly is impatient and has selfishly decided to fly ahead because his friends were going to slow.
I started painting in my usual chaotic way — painting the texture of the wall first — and then I remembered that I will save time if I flat the colors first. I’m a slow learner. The picture above shows the flats for the background colors. Tomorrow I’ll sketch the figures, ink them in, and then flat their colors on another layer.
For simple pictures flatting is overkill, but with four characters, each having a specific color palette, flatting saves time and makes it easier to make adjustments if that becomes necessary, which it probably will.
Wow! The sky is filled with butterflies. Oh wow! They have to climb that cliff face!
I spent today working on this perspective picture. But before I that, I studied the rocks chapter in my copy of Jack Hamm’s Drawing Scenery: Landscapes and Seascapes. It’s a great book with hundreds of illustrations showing how to create common subjects such as trees, mountains, rocks, clouds and waves. He breaks down the concepts into chunks that I can digest one inch at a time.
I’ll flat Jimmy Jay and Buddy Butterfly tomorrow. Right now I’m going to do my daily chore: washing the day’s dishes.
Today I balked at working on my book. Over the weekend I realized that I had added too many characters to the plot. My original intent was to have a jaguar cub keep the kids from getting into big trouble. In one drawing I added a toucan to the background, but I fell in love with it and promoted it to the jaguar cub’s part. Tommy Toucan entered the story. I spent many hours drawing and painting that guy, and today I was reluctant to delete him. I really didn’t want to remove him, and I became suddenly exhausted. After a nap I realized that I had grown attached to Tommy. I was clinging to him and didn’t want to let him go. I had put so much love into creating him. Still, I realized that the story was suffering because of his presence. It was clear that I had to give him back to the muses. I returned to Clip Studio and erased all traces of him. Once he was gone, my mood lifted. I was miraculously cured of my fatigue. Afterwards I sketched some jaguars.
Appearance is not always reality. I learned this truth in my high school English class when we read Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen). The kids assumed that Carlos Crocodile was going to have them over for lunch and eat them with his shiny big teeth, but, in reality, he’s a guy waiting by the river for the delivery service to bring a vegan lunch for his family picnic.
Just to get things straight, everyone’s a vegan in this book. When you see jaguars, they’re vegan. When you see crocodiles, they’re vegan. When you see snakes and spiders, they’re vegan. No one, no matter how big, scary, or ugly they may be, will eat you.
Today I finished page 26, the river ferryman Carlos Crocodile. I call the picture finished, but when I look at Carlos’ right hand, I see that the shading could be improved…but it’s good enough for now. Instead of spinning my wheels here, I’m going to move on to page 27.
Today was also spent dealing with internet connection problems. I have a great ISP, Ashland Home Net. They’re small, but they provide great customer service, which is more than the Big Boys can do.
Today I moved on to the picture showing the kids discovering that the golden hills were not golden with Monarch Butterflies, but golden with ripe bananas.
Now that I’ve gone back to using Clip Studio on Windows, all is well again.
Today I revised the jaguar hiding behind the tree and gave him a more active pose. I took a picture of myself spying on my sofa and used it as a reference.
I’m having trouble with Jimmy Jay’s arms — they’re all twisted and painful to look at — I’ll have to work on them. I’ve add some fellow travelers on the road: a large snail, two friendly mice (they may be rats), and a tortoise. In the background a large python is thinking of what he’ll have for lunch.
Tomorrow I’m going to work on the background foliage. I’ll also add a monkey hanging from a vine, a road sign, and some small wings for Buddy Butterfly. I change the size of Buddy’s wings to suit each picture’s composition. Creative license is handy when you’ve painted yourself into a corner.
In cleaning up this picture I added a couple of stone Jaguar heads to the side of the temple. I thought a hole in the wall would look interesting and mysterious. I wonder what’s inside that old temple. When I compare this version of the temple itself to the rough sketch I did yesterday, I like the rough sketch better. I has more charm. Fortunately, I can always keep working on this and maybe I’ll be inspired enough to do something spontaneous.
