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bonzaialsatian — The Princess' Trumpet
Published: 2012-06-25 06:06:22 +0000 UTC; Views: 837; Favourites: 20; Downloads: 0
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I've been working on a series of samples/ideas and sketches for different kids book proposals, some collaborations with writers, and some my own stories. This is a scene from ~joffeorama 's story, The Princess and the Moon. The princess in the story is from a distant land; she is super smart and pretty, and can play a ton of instruments too. Oh, and tiny avian whalesharks really like her music (well ok, that wasn't in the story, but I thought the faraway land needed some animals too).Right, so this is a weird sort of departure in style for me... so although I have worked closely with ~joffeorama so far to figure out this style, any suggestions would also be appreciated. Part of the problem is that I'm so used to drawing kids that it took me a while to get an adolescent onto the page, and also because this is so much more detailed and precise, in some ways, than I'd necessarily be able to commit to in a kids book - although I'm very willing to try. I'm just concerned that it might drive me mad if I ended up trying to complete it (although having such free rein over a far away made up land helps, and it probably won't have as many pictures as the last book job I had). I'm also worried that it loses some of my looser, more characterful sketchy ink style (and whether that's a bad thing for this story)
My other problem is the colours - they feel a bit too... disney right now... that may be just my issue from spending the last few hours painting this and staring at it too hard, but I also think I'd like my kids books to have a more stylish colour scheme... maybe. I also made a black and white and slightly tinted version of this pic, and they looked ok (maybe I'll put them in scraps). Anyway, any suggestions welcome.
I'll probably do one or two more samples for this one - probably one more full panel, and one or two smaller spot illustrations. Watch this space
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Comments: 19
Oh, but I also like this picture. The airwhales are cool, I like their precocious but sort of stupid smiles... and the aquarium experience fueled sense that they might just always look like that.
The horn itself is cool, and music made in the clouds is always a visual that I like.
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I want an airwhale. They filter mosquitoes out of the air and everything.
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I would imagine that they would produce a room filling scent, given how much air must pass through various tunnels of mucous membrane and such.
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hmm, but they probably wouldn't smell fishy, as they're not actually aquatic. Your average songbird doesn't smell all that bad...
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Yeah, not fishy, just mucousy.
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Right, first a question regarding the meter of the story. Is it mystical, fably, and dream like? As opposed to behavioral, tactile, or cinematic. If it is the first, then a suggestion that may give what you're doing focus while still allowing you the style freedom to both enhance the images and cut corners, is to pick one thing in each picture to be very distinct, ramp up the outline quality of that part, and let the rest be soft and maybe even wilder. For instance in this image the horn could be super clear and it's sweeping curves would be the most concrete element of the drawing, and then everything else could be more playful and scratchy.
Regarding the Disneyness of the color scheme; it's the princess's clothes. Possibly even her skin.
Those are my 
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The first three, yes. That's a good suggestion. I'll try to see if I can give it a go in the next picture (although if it's the one I have planned it may require more detail rather than less... I'll have to think about that - basically the scene I have in mind is her on a hill looking bored with a long queue of suitors of all shapes and sizes lined up to greet her...). Maybe I could try inking it though (or using one darker colour for linework) instead of doing just pencil and watercolour, for the more scratchy effect...
Hmm, that's a good point. Maybe I could make the skin darker... And make the clothes less contrasty maybe. Just red and white perhaps, if I could get it to work with her outfit...
Your two confused looking faces? ...oh wait my eyesight is failing me and I forgot what cents are. Why ARE your dimes smaller than your 5 cents anyway?? It's just confusing!
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Ink as an element is probably smart. You could also follow a line of sharpness along the sweep of the hill and up through her face. The sailor's details could fade down the line.
Darker skin would be good... perhaps add some shine to it. Red and white could work pretty well, or they could be less solid colored. That's more you and less Aladdin or Pocahontas.
That's what I always see in 'em. Dimes and Nickels are made of different metals, and in the old days each coin was designed to be a certain weight of a certain metal or blend and that determined value. Dimes were made of more precious metals. I think that's it.
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Hmm, I had another go at it. Changed the colour scheme and added ink outlines (but fell down a bit at making parts less defined) - [link]
A lady in a cafe applauded me yesterday for sorting the coins out quicker the second time.
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Good job with the coins. You're well on your way. Coinage is one of my favorite parts of travel. England has the most confusing I have ever encountered, but it worked out pretty well anyway.
The outlines work well, I still wouldn't put them on everything (but then, I can't draw an icecream cone without people thinking it's a nun, so...).
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shilling and ha'penny for an icecream cone nun!
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I haven't been able to recreate the effect. Sad to say. and despite their relative worthlessness, I would like to have a shilling and a ha'penny...
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I'd like a farthing. They have wrens on the back; not enough coins do.
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They're also called farthings. That has to count for something.
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...Too bad the princess cannot be a kind of "whale shark" like the other two.... 
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Hehehe, oh she becomes a lot of other things. Hopefully I'll get the chance to illustrate enough of this book so you'll find out
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