All of My Art Starts at My Drawing Table
Where I Sketch on Paper With Pencil

I am just trying to come up with ideas, and a good over all feeling for the illustration. I use a lot of paper, pencils and erasers. During the sketching phase, I keep in mind how much text there will be on the page, and where the text will be placed. I try to keep the illustration simple behind the text areas. Once I like what I see, I go back and re-sketch again. I want a a clean illustration that I can scan into my computer, which is where I do my painting. I scan my art into my computer at 400dpi to 800dpi depending on what the client requests. I scan my art into and paint in Photoshop.

Now it's time to Paint!!

This is my Cintiq tablet. I draw directly on it just like on a pad of paper and I paint on it just like a canvas. Only I draw and paint with pixels. The pen I use is sitting just below the talbet. I use it like a pen or paint brush. . All my art is painted one stroke at a time, layer painted over layer, on my computer. All of the techniques I use to paint on the computer, are exactly the same skills I have used all my life when creating art traditionally.

This is What My Computer Screen (Cintiq tablet)Looks
Like When I Open My Painting Program Photoshop

I paint the the left side, and my brushes are on the right side.

Below are Samples of What I
Can Do With My Brush in Photoshop

If I draw a stroke on the CintiqTablet with the pen, it makes a line on the screen in the color of my choice and with the brush of my choice. Just as in traditional medium, you can layer color over color. You can either have the color below show through, or cover it completely. Because the Cintiq Tablet and pen are pressure sensitive you can vary the width of your stroke, just by pressing hard or light. If I press hard with my pen the line thickens. If I skim the pen lightly over the tablet, the line is thinner and applies much less paint. There are many brushes paint with. Or I can even use pastels or watercolor.

Here is my line art for the cover "If You Were a Parrot"

Here is my line art for the cover, which has been scanned into my computer. Just as I would do in traditional mediums, I use the line art only as a guide for where I want to paint. When painting digitally I am able to make all the white paper disappear leaving only the black lines for my reference. My line art is on separate layer from where I paint, so that I don't have to worry about ruining it.

I Start the Painting by Blocking in Color

I do this, so I can get the feel of the whole composition. As I mentioned above the blocked in color is on it's own layer. The line art is on a separate layer above it. I usually finish one element at a time. Notice how different the boy on the bottom left's beak is from the original sketch. I make adjustments throughout the painting process.

Here is a Close up of the Red Haired Girl

You see her on the left in the beginning phase of coloring. The final finished illustration of her is on the right. Her mouth changed. I opened it a bit more. Just as in traditional painting, she is many strokes of color over color. It takes a lot of time and practice to learn and master painting digitally. I have painted digitally for almost 15 years. As I finish painting an item I will erase the line art. In the end the line art will be gone and all that remains is the painted illustration.

The Painting is Completed One Object at a Time

The Red Macaw Parrot, African Gary Parrot, the boy on the bottom left, and both girls are finished. The Blue Macaw Parrot is blocked in with color. The line art still shows in some places. Notice that the Blue Macaw's location is higher than it was in the original sketch.

Here the Boy on the Top
Right is Coming to Life

Gradually he too is painted, as are the many fig tree leaves. The leaves required a lot of time and many strokes of paint. . . but they were worth it

Here Is the Final Cover

Lisa the Book Designer has added the text and background. . .It's now a book cover!!!

Thanks for looking!