Behind the Scenes of Charlie's Dirt Day - PART 6 - sketch

This is the last sketch that I'll be sharing from my new children's book, Charlie's Dirt Day. Stay tuned to see how the final art turned out; I'll be sharing that illustration tomorrow.

If you've missed any of my previous process posts from this book, you can find them all under the hashtag #CharliesDirtDay.

Behind the Scenes of Charlie's Dirt Day - PART 5 - sketch

This scene takes place a year after the rest of the story as the characters are heading to the next annual Dirt Day. The same characters who attended the previous year have decided to come back, but because so much time has passed, I included some small changes in their appearance, such as the hair on their heads and facial hair. The two little girls who met at Dirt Day last year became friends and are going together this year.

You can see from my sketches below that I had to alter my original layout in order to be able to fit in everything I wanted to include plus have enough room for all the text. The final sketch features some of the things that Charlie wants to grow in his garden.

Behind the Scenes of Charlie's Dirt Day - PART 4 - sketch

For this sketch, I tried to make the composition more interesting by playing with the foreground. I liked the idea of bringing the viewer into the scene on the left side of the spread with a close up of a bowl of freshly picked tomatoes while Charlie and Mr. Martino made a sauce in the background on the right side. Whenever possible, I like to integrate the text with the image and the bowl provided the perfect opportunity for that.

Because Charlie is so short, my initial plan had been to have him standing on a stool, stirring the pot of sauce. However, my publisher pointed out that it wasn't the safest place to put a little boy, something I hadn't considered when I was coming up with ideas for the spread. I reworked the drawing to instead show Charlie offering Mr. Martino tomatoes from the bowl.

Behind the Scenes of Charlie's Dirt Day - PART 3 - sketch

When designing an illustration for a picture book, you need to leave room for the text. This double page spread had quite a bit of text to work around. In my initial thumbnail, I had envisioned the older man on the right side filling most of the page, however, I ended up needing to adjust him quite a bit to make even more room for text in the space behind him.

Behind the Scenes of Charlie's Dirt Day - PART 2 - sketch

This image is one that I had in my mind from the very beginning, and you can see from the initial thumb nail sketch below that it didn't change much. Because of all of the characters that I wanted to include, this spread was quite intimidating for me. I ended up spending a lot of time on it in order to fit in everything in a way that worked.

When dealing with a double page spread, it's really important to pay attention to the gutter, that's the part of the image where the page folds. You don't want to have anything important, like someone's face, crossing that line. The part of the illustration that goes through the gutter can get lost once the book is bound.

In the end, I had quite a lot of fun with this spread and as a result, it's probably my favourite illustration from the book. I'll share the final art tomorrow, along with some of the personal things that I snuck into the image.

Follow my hashtag, #CharliesDirtDay.

family portrait commission - sketches (1 of 3)

Here are some of the preliminary sketches for a family portrait that I worked on last fall...

Tomorrow I'll post some progress shots of the final painting as it came together.

darth vader

stormtrooper

Oops! I meant to post this yesterday :)

leia & luke

Lately I've been sketching Star Wars characters in my style. Above is Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker.

sketchbook - coffee snob

Does anyone know the plural form of macchiato?

today's sketchbook activity...

sketches of bottles

book cover

While we were living in Edinburgh, I was asked if one of my sketches could be used as the cover art for a collection of short stories titled 'Argentinos Stories' by Mariana Dietl. She said that "the accordion is a powerful symbol in my native country, very associated to tango and to the country's inherent melancholy." She said that my illustration portrayed exactly what she tried to portray in her stories: sadness and melancholy all mixed up with a certain lightness and playfulness.

I had my copies of the book sent to my parent's address in Saskatchewan where they stayed for almost a year, until we returned to Canada. I finally saw the physical books this past Christmas but hadn't gotten around to posting about them until now.

girl on a bench

©2010 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

sketchbook characters

©2010 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

recent random sketches

©2010 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

sketchbook - romantic picnic

©2010 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

sketchbook - shades of spring

©2010 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

happy mother's day

©2010 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

sketches from the national gallery in edinburgh

Thursday afternoon Dario and I spent a few hours sketching at the National Gallery here in Edinburgh. It was nice to get out of the flat and have a change in environment. These guys were based on some of the old oil painted portraits in the permanent collection.



©2010 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli