MORE TRIAL ART...

I thought I would start from scratch (that means blank white Lanaquerelle paper, India ink, Winsor & Newton watercolors) and create some more trial art for ONE BROWN TEDDY.  Instead I did what I often end up doing---I made a couple of prints of my earlier version, on cheap copy paper, and started fooling around with the addition of Crayola paints, Pilot markers, a stray pencil or two.  Somehow the poor reproduction, the crummy paper, the drugstore materials, is very relaxing---I'm not ruining my one piece of actual trial art, or trying to be a grown-up "professional" using "professional" materials.  I'm just having fun.  And suddenly---voila!  I've caught a glimpse of how I'll treat the finished art.  And gotten it down on paper so I can refer to it later.  So: Fooling Around Trial #1:

[Color washed out and drab (my printer isn't working right at the moment)---but I like the addition of the line.]

Fooling Around Trial #2:

[I like the color better, though the line has gotten a bit heavy...]

I'll see if I still like them tomorrow...

TWEAKED...

I've tweaked my sketch.  It may not look as though there's much difference between the old---

and the new---

---but to my eyes, the changes are enormous!  Now on to creating some trial finished art for this page...

TWEAKING THE SKETCHES

This morning I decided I wanted to tweak my sketches a bit further before continuing with the trial art for One Brown Teddy.  My current sketch for my piece of trial art:

But now I want to try zooming in closer on this scene, so that the figures are as large as possible without "falling off the page".  I will experiment in this way with the sketches for every page of the book before I go ahead with finished art.

A NEW YEAR, A NEW BOOK

The old saying is, be sure to start the New Year with whatever you want to be doing for the rest of the year.  I spent much of today with friends and family---hiking, eating, and talking.  A wonderful way to start 2011!  Equally important, I went back today to my current book-in-progress:  One Brown Teddy.  For the past few days I've been working out the media and style that I want to use for the illustrations.  Here is my latest version of Jacob, my little protagonist; his Mom; his one brown teddy; and the family dog---who is never named but who plays a very critical role in my story:

I'll probably make at least one more trial version of this piece before turning to any finished illustrations.  The trials help me iron out any kinks that show up when I am first creating a new style.