Hello all.
The Flood dummy is all done and looking pretty cool. And as I don’t have lots of time up my sleeve with this book I made myself do it all strictly according to theory.
So, all of the design happened at thumbnail size (see post below) so I could see if something was working or not as quickly as possible. Only when I was happy with the design in miniature did I draw it up full size. The dummy book (a rough version of the whole book with hand-written text) is done on regular A3 copy paper, trimmed down and clamped together. The pages are 110% of the size of the final book – the same size that I’ll be working in to do the final art. The idea is that wherever the rough drawing’s worked out really well I can trace it and use it in the final art.
I’d already worked out how the character would look and set the style for how cartoony it should be. As I went on with the dummy I coloured it in watercolour, picking a main colour theme for each double page spread as the story moves from room to room. So now I’m just waiting for feedback from the author and editor. As usual I probably won’t have any direct contact with the author – we’re always kept pretty separate.
Funny thing is, I often like the dummy book better than the final version as it’s always so loose and messy and spontaneous-looking. So there’s my challenge – illustrate it with the kind of relaxed lines I’d have in the roughs…
