Illustrating Pippity Trimble

      The winter months are my "free time" to accomplish new ARTWORK and I am working on my new set of books. Since building  Trimble Manor, (a very important element for these books) I  now dive into illustration.

. Anyone creating a  book has their own way of doing things and I thought to show you my method of book creation.

        I begin with A STORY, naturally. But you'd be amazed at how often I am asked " DO you write the story first or do the artwork?" I am perplexed by this question, because, how do I know what to illustrate until I have a story??!!

In  this case, I have 3 stories, hence, 3 books. I have always made large books in the past, 12"x12". It requires so much time to do a 36 page book at that size, I feel overwhelmed at times. This is why I decided to create a set of small books, in the interim, at 24 pages and half the size. That doesn't mean I won't continue with larger books, I will, but they only come out every 2-3 years

  I must separate the text of my story into 24 pages, leaving enough room for the artwork, of course. When I am writing a story, I can SEE it come alive in my mind. I can imagine the illustrations for each page as I write;  my characters appearance, the landscape, the surroundings, all of it, I often have a clear vision of how things will look.  I  write notes to myself in the margins of the story as a reminder of things I wish to add to a picture.

 .
I don't make thumbnail sketches as many illustrator do, I go directly to my watercolor paper and begin a serious detailed drawing. I confess, that I erase a lot! If I do need a small sketch to work out a facial expression, or bodies position, I have a border along the side of my page that is convenient for such a purpose.

 I'm doing the original artwork on 8"x8" paper to accommodate all the details I wish to include, but will reduce the book size at another stage of production.
Of all the artwork I do, drawing in pencil will always be my favorite medium. I use a 140Lb cold press watercolor paper and draw directly upon it with a hard lead mechanical pencil. The pencil lead will not smear when I paint atop it.

Sometimes, the completed artwork is very close to what I imagined and sometimes it takes a turn, and becomes something more interesting...much to my surprise.
An example is the little wicker bench in the foreground which was an afterthought. It makes an appearance in several of the drawings now and will be helpful in telling the story along the way.

I take many photographs of the drawings as they progress from one stage to another; I like to keep a record of how the picture has changed along the way.

In this story, there are two characters. PIPPITY is the main character, and

            a Preying Mantis, is the other.

  I 've collected dozens of images of mice and preying mantis; photographs and paintings and illustrations. I will often refer to these to capture the proper stance or expression on a face.

With the tilt of the head, shape of the eyes and position of hands and feet, you can guess what  a little mouse may be thinking....

Or what is going on in the mind of a Preying Mantis.....

 Some drawings will take longer than others, especially if I have dozens and dozens of trifles to add to a picture.

 This page is FULL of Trifles... but you know how much I love those Trifles.

.

The images I've shown you are just a few of those completed. 

I'm pleased with how quickly these drawings are coming along... I will  be painting them by the end of the month.

 You may remember the garden book I was working on last summer? The garden book goes hand in hand with these mouse stories. I hope to publish them at the same time.

See here!

So, back to my drawing board and sending you a virtual Valentine in the form of these marvelous, jaunty Jonquils pulled from our meadow.... In February!

 Cheers!