PBJ Summer Postcard Week Finale!

©2010 Deborah Melmon

Here is my contribution to the PBJ summer postcard. This is actually part of a two-page spread that will be in the July/August issue of Babybug Magazine. The story is call A Summer Walk and takes place in the city. I painted the scenes traditionally with watercolor, but only to about 75% completion. I then scanned them into Photoshop and finished the paintings there. I like to add layers of texture and pattern (you can see in the tree there is a dot pattern). I also ended up tweaking the color quite a bit. In this scene I muted the color of the street and apartment buildings. That is the beauty of photoshop.

And here is our final postcard with everyone's art... A beautiful collection I must say!

- front-

- back-

Thank you Alicia for doing such a great job on our postcard design!

PBJ Summer Postcard Week!

Can you believe it's July 1st already? Perfect time for a little summer postcard, right?

This little monkey took a long time hanging around my head to get on paper! I sketched a few ideas for our postcard, then used my awesome Twitter pals to get some feedback. Then I painted him, just my usual gouache on hotpress, but thinking I would add a little colored pencil and perhaps ink. I had been experimenting with cut paper, layering a bit. I painted the whole thing and shared it with a critique group - they put a bug in my ear about cutting the monkey out, and layering him. And they were so right!

I did learn that it's best to cut your shapes BEFORE painting, as gouache flakes around the edges. The colored pencil and some touch-up covered up a few rough spots. Also, I worked at actual size which meant the little birdie poking out of the hole in the tree was REALLY small to manage. I used the end of an x-acto to position him just so. I'm sure there are tiny tweezers that collage artists use for things like this.

I painted the background sky on coldpress, which gives it a bit more texture, and those awesome 'real' shadows. Photoshop drop-shadows just can't compete with the real thing. I wish I took more process photos along the way to show, next time I create in this style I definitely will.

Summer Postcard Week!

© Alicia Padrón 2010

This image popped in my head while walking one morning. I was going to use another illustration that I thought would fit the theme very well but when I saw these two in my head I just had to start working on them as soon as I got home.

I adore Daddy and me and Mommy and me type of books. I'd love to get to illustrate one of them. There is something so special about that relationship. I don't know if it's because my kids are growing too fast but I just want to hold on to those moments. :o)

Someone on twitter asked us if we would share our process sometime so here is little about how I created this piece:

I sketched it my sketchbook at a smaller size. I tend to work small. Then thanks to the magic of photoshop I scan my sketch and make it the size I want. I also make sure to turn up the contrast a lot on the sketch so it prints dark, then it is easier to trace that way. I then print it and trace it on to my paper. In this case I used 140 lb hot pressed Arches watercolor paper.

When I am tracing on my light box I like to redraw rather than trace. That is why I usually leave my initial sketches very loose and I don't like to rework them. Just because I think something valuable is lost if reworking them too much.

Once the drawing is transfered, I first start painting the background. In this case the sky and water went on first. I used the wet on wet technique for this. I then painted the bears and the grass was the last thing. When the painting is completely dry I then shade with a graphite pencil on the areas needed.

After, I scan the art and add effects in photoshop. In this piece the effects in the water, little flowers and the dragonfly are all digital. I also tweak the color and saturation a little bit if the piece asks for it.

And there you go! Hope you and hopefully the publishers like it too. :o)

PBJ Promo week cont'd

Here is my contribution for our PBJ postcard. Earlier this Spring, I created a worldless story for my portfolio so I adapted one of the panels to fit our mailing.

This was created digitally using scanned fabrics and "digital felt".

Yes, Kathy, Giraffes at the beach, why the heck not? And Elephants too. =o)

PBJ Summer Promo Postcard Week!

The PBJ's have a postcard all ready to go out, and this week we will each be posting our respective illustrations! At the end of the week Deb will surprise you with the final postcard so be sure to check back all week for more fun art!

I've had Giraffes on the brain this past spring (and still!) so why not Giraffes at the Beach? Surely they enjoy leisure time, we know they like the sun and drier climates so I thought they would love to visit the beach in my illustration. Hope you enjoy!