A sample of The Illustration Process

Here is a page requiring an illustration.

In this sample, 

you can see the page 

with a description panel 

telling the artist 

what the illustration needs to be.

This is the first stage of illustration:

This illustration guide 

is printed on 11x17 paper

 to give the artist the largest working area I can provide with my 

scanning/printing equipment. 

Here is 

the first draft illustration sketch

 inserted in the area after scanning, processing it for exposure & contrast and trimming it to size.

 In this instance 

the sketch was not 

made using the guide.

As you can see, 

this illustration represents

 a portion of the description.

 Since it varies from the description, Zach will be added, 

probably shown eating the eggs.

 In the next sample, 

a background and a fire 

taken from a different illustration 

has been added.

Here, the preliminary sketch 

has been place in the page.

The next stage in the process

is to go through to refine the image 

to properly match the description. 

Then the sketch is turned into a proper line drawing, with stong and clear lines. Once this is achieved, then the line drawing is printed on watercolor paper, which is then colored using watercolor. Once that is achieved, the colored image is scanned back into the computer. 

Now the main file is processed in an assortment of ways to improve it's lines and colors, but also to reshape or enhance the image as necessary.

Portions of the finished illustration might be used in any number of other ways. Enlargement or reduction may be part of that. In any event, the "now finished illustration" can be placed back onto the page, replacing the sketches, and that finished page can then join the rest of the Print Files, which are ready 

to be published as finished books. 

This process is the only thing left to do. All other layout work has been done.

The entire collection of 800+ pages is essentially finished, and ready for publication, except that 348 illustrations are yet to be completed following the process described in this fashion.

In general, I am beginning to look for more artists to work on this project, because ;

1) we need to finish this more quickly than has been the case this far.

2) we will be moving into animation 

3) we need to sculpt our characters 

4) we need to begin building sets for both the parade float and the assorted versions of the Stage Musical.

All of this is contingent upon budget, so that is another aspect of the work needing to be attended to.

Those of you who are professional can see where we stand (from what has been posted on this blog) and I invite dialogue regarding production management essentials.

AG