Okay, one of our first assignments for the Childrens Book Pro class is to do some book studies. I have several favourites that I’ve collected through the years, some that I’ve already taken on as studies, so I’m excited to do this.
First up: The Gardener, by Sarah Stewart, Illustrated by David Small.
This is SUCH a beautiful book. I love the sketchy lines and dashes of water colour. I love ‘messy’ art, but just can’t bring myself to be so purposefully imperfect. Maybe I need a few more studies of this style to help out…
Here’s my other thing. Through my Draw50Things studies, I’ve found that if I really want to know what makes something tick, I need to make it ‘mine’: To put it into an original pose or scene. So, first I sketched up a few of the characters doing things they weren’t doing in the book:
And then I tried to maintain my sketchy pencil lines by scanning in the drawings and creating an overlay in Affinity for painting.
In hindsite, it would have been much easier to simply resketch it in Affinity, but this is where I got.
I like that watercolour bleed look on the front of her dress, but I think I over blended on the rest of her.
Some of the beautiful artwork from, “The Gardener.”
And, altogether:
