Art: From Pencil Sketch To Color Illustration!

Hello, friends and fans!

Over the past few days I posted a couple of illustrations I did of some of my stories. Today I did a few more and I thought it would be interesting to show you the progress of one image from sketch to colored image.

As most of you already know, I’m a writer, but it might surprise some of you to learn that I am pretty good at drawing as well! (I know, because sometimes it surprises me…LOL!) Not that I think I “can’t” do something before I’ve tried it, or anything of that order, but because it’s just been years since I sat down with a piece of paper and spent real time working on drawings! Life is a busy, tiresome business for all of us, especially in these times, but at least now with the year nearing its end, I get more time for such pursuits.

Practice, as it turns out, was all I needed! Time and practice to remember how to draw things, sketching them in pencil first and then working out that especially for cartoons or illustrations of my stories, what was best is a fine-point marker pen, and not a regular gel-pen!

What works better for my illustrations than coloring pencil or color markers, is importing a black & white line drawing into a program like Paint, and filling shapes with color with carrying grades of transparency. I had to develop a technique appropriate for this format, including planning my drawings so that even the smallest gaps are closed to prevent colors from bleeding from a shape to fill another, or even an entire page!

And there you have it – from concept to sketch, to outline drawing, to color image! 🙂