Going to color...

My sketches for On Eagle Cove, written by Jane Yolen for Cornell Lab Publishing Group, were approved! So, now I move on to my favorite part of creating a picture book - coloring the art. It's funny how I work traditionally rather than digitally these days. Although, I still find myself using tricks I learned from my digital painting days. And I still don't stretch my watercolor paper. I just don't have the space to be storing all the boards! I just lay big, heavy books on the back of the art when I scan it. Seems to work well. I also work smaller than the final printed version of the art. Why? Because I like the wonkiness that is revealed when you zoom in on a pencil line or watercolor mark. By scanning at 1200ppi, I still get the resolution needed for the printed piece.
     So far, I've done three versions of the cover, two color scripts (you can see one sitting next to my left hand), and three interior pieces. I'm rockin' along!Stan got this shot of me in the zone, painting away, listening to audio books. I'm on a Tamora Pierce binge at the moment, listening to the Alanna series - which is relevant to my PhD research. Alanna is a warrior! So fun!