As the book that I am illustrating – "Going On a Train" by Pamela Ott – continues to be worked on I find that I am creating more than just simple little drawings. They are much more like paintings to me, all done on my computer. I am striving for a realistic, but simplified look to my work. So, you won't see every rivet on the train, or every hair on the person and it might feel a little child-like.
My general work flow consists of pencil sketches, then I move on to tight pencil drawings, scan those into my computer and arrange them into the final pencil sketch. I then take these sketches into Adobe Illustrator and redraw them with lineart. This is then copied into Adobe PhotoShop and then I paint in the color and detail. I have created a few custom brushes to give the look and feel of pastel paints on Canson paper and there you have it.
This is my most finished spread. I am still working out a few more details like passengers in the background as well as finalizing the sky.
As the train progresses through the book, I thought it would be fun to see it also progress through the day. I'm very happy with the moody look of this spread, which is about 8/10ths complete.
Early morning, the train is nearing its final destination.
