I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! This week I’m continuing off of last week’s post by showing what the end result of my sketching and exploration process for this ARTDES 270 childrens’ book project looks like. I edited together 3.5″ x 3.5″ square illustrations and added text digitally to create a cover and four spreads.
If you saw last week’s post about the material explorations I did ahead of making the finished illustrations, you might recognize that I took cues from the thicker paints (gouache and digital) I experimented with to try using saturated application of watercolor in a similar way. I ended up pretty satisfied with the results, so I’m glad I took the time to play around with other mediums first.
The end result will become a physical board book made out of chipboard, but I haven’t made the prototype yet because I’ve been too busy with schoolwork and holiday break travel to assemble it. I may post the finished physical book in another column if anyone is interested in seeing it, however.
Once I return from my trip abroad, I’ll do my best to find some time to make sketches of what I saw and integrate them into future illustrative projects!
and digital painting.
Before we get into my opinions, let’s introduce these guys. The Monami Plus Pen 3000 (I know, a bit of a ridiculous name) is a fine tip pen. It’s also a felt tip, although I would argue it’s closer to a plastic nib (for felt tips, think Papermate flairs–these are a lot sturdier and skinnier). Even though they have a fine tip, they have enough give to them to act as a pseudo-brushpen if you want them to. I use these more often to color in small things or write, though. You can see some different ways to use these in the picture I included. One thing to note about the ink, though, is that it can be a bit splattery. It’s not juicy enough where it will leak or splatter enough to stain things, though, it’s just worth noting because sometimes it can be hard to get clean lines.
The pen body isn’t my favorite–these guys are really tall and thin, and feel kind of cheaply made, which makes sense because they’re known for being super affordable. They’re also known for coming in a huge color selection, including a lot of pastels, fluorescents, and muted colors. The set of twelve I have is mainly just classic bright colors, but I’m obsessed with the case it comes in–it’s super satisfying to unclasp it for some reason, and it’s super convenient to keep in my bag.
