I'm really happy with today's progress on my next book!
It was hard getting into the creative mindset, when my heart has been thinking a Lot about my Mom. She was a great example.💕 You'll Always be in my heart, Mom.
I learned from her to NOT be Lazy. That lesson and Much experience has taught me that when you are fighting distraction and depressing thoughts the BEST Remedy is to GET BUSY!
So, I sat down and hammered away at my DESIGN for my next main character, the GIRAFFE.
My last post showed the finished Giraffe LINE WORK.
THE STEPS THAT FOLLOWED:
As the artist, I reserve the right to make FURTHER TWEAKS. Based on the invaluable feedback of my wife, Denise, I removed the heart shape from the Giraffe's chest, It was cute, but detracts from the overall design.
I added more spots to fill in the chest area, and like the changes much better.
Now I DREW in all the BACKGROUND, employing standard strategies that give the illusion of Perspective.
The setting is African style jungle, so, AFTER RESEARCHING, I'm drawing from the Savannah, including Acacia Trees and brush, as well as Central African landscapes. You'll note the very unique Baobab tree on the cover. I think it's so weird it's Cool, so I had to have it in the book! LOL! I'm sure Dr. Seuss would approve. 😂
Once the background was drawn, I had to COLORIZE it.
An important consideration for colors here is that the Background should NOT clash with, or detract from, the Character in the Foreground.
Next, I had to determine the COLOR scheme for the Giraffe.
That's always the FUN therapeutic part. I get to color in my own Drawing page! 👍
I usually have a BASIC PALETTE already in mind for my characters, then I experiment with various shades, until what I See matches what I Visualized.
Once I have the basic colors down, I'll add DETAIL COLORS for things like eyes, hair, and eyebrows, which usually triggers me to refine some of my Line work from the previous stage.
With the Main Colors in place, I selected a couple more shades to use for LIGHT and SHADOW highlights. Leaving these out would make the character look two dimensional.
I don't get overboard with it, as it is a time consuming process, and I don't think it's overly important in this Children's book format.
That said, I continuously follow and learn from many other artists, and am always awed by the professional top-tier artists at Disney, Pixar and the big Gaming studios who can render incredibly detailed light and shadow effects with amazing skill. (One of the guys I really look up to is an awesome fellow named Mike Butkus.)
Once it's all drawn, there are some FORMATTING things to do, merging layers, saving files in different formats, and exporting them between programs.
I copied/paste my finished pic into the CorelDraw Cover template I've made. I adjust size and margins of the imported pic to ensure it fits perfectly. Now, I edit the Title on the front and on the Spine, adjusting font, outine and background colors as I see fit.
I also change colors of some of the other Cover highlights, changing things up to keep the look fresh.
Below, you see the result, the Finished COVER for Book 7!
We are officially "off to the races!" Just got a Whole Book left to illustrate...😂
Blessings,
Dave Chouhan, AKA Captain CHOO💖
