It came as a surprise to me that Renata Liwska, illustrator of the well-received children’s book The Quiet Book, digitally colors her pencil drawings.
Perfectly suited with a muted palette, the pictures of this book are so soft and inviting that they immediately caught my attention when they were featured in Communication Art’s Illustration Annual (2010).
I have a Wacom Tablet that has been quietly collecting dust in a closet, and on a whim today I pulled it out for an experiment.
I had drawn this little guy:
Yes, on lined paper. Hey! I was doodling.
I quickly did some digital washes in Photoshop over the pencil work and erased some of the lines. Lastly, I applied a softly multiplied layer in the shade of Old-Timey.
And you know what? Meh. I really did not enjoy doing all the color on this digitally. I’ll even say I did it grudgingly.
So, I retraced the original sketch, and inked the lines in Micron pen. I gratefully picked up my trusty brushes and dabbed watercolor onto the drawing. A dash of charcoal, and voila!
Dudes, it was so, so much faster. Old school, forever and ever. And, my scanner did a good job of picking up the texture of the vellum paper.
So what the heck? I scanned in the painted sketch and did some digital magic on that, too:
For some interesting behind-the-scenes by Renata Liwska, Amazon.com has posted some process photos for her upcoming book, The Loud Book. Have a look-see!
Interesting to see you compare the two, as I feel the same way!