My stepmother, Mary, approached me with the idea of creating a children's book for her grandchildren. All of the images below are early production and development of the project. There was a lot of learning involved with it, and I hope that you enjoy the process!

Developing the character style was a definite first. I have been playing with this style for a couple of years, and I thought that this woud be the way to go. Making the characters look like the people with out going overboard on detail was a lot of fun. 
The choice in outfit was something I had to nail out earlier. I wanted to be able to have a 'young' looking 'grandmother' character, without getting to antique about it. My choice was something motherly, an apron, and a turtleneck. Legs always together and poised. 
Creating a 'grandfather' figure was pretty easy as well. I wanted to show 'outdoorsiness' with 'relaxed' and did so by creating a flannel look with jeans. I also wanted it to match the 'grandmother' character, to show where he belonged. 
I recieved a really rough outline from my stepmom, and I rewrote the story. After I did this, I created a rough storyboard outline of the ....well story. I left the style ambigous, mainly focusing on colors to tell the story. 
I wanted to create a 'one-day' experience, although I know the process of finding an actual farm took multiple months. 
Beginning to dabble with the actual production of the pictures. I wanted to hand create all the elements. I felt it would bring an extra something-something. 
I scanned the image, and played around with the color in photoshop. It turns out that all my paints and inks don't scan too well, so I did some digital manipulation, which honestly, I like more. I'm still a little conflicted about the type, I know the kerning is off, but it's still pre-production. ​​​​​​​
still not too sure about all of it, but I'm happy about the progress! still a lot of things to iron out and nail down.
The other day, I decided that I should rework some of the details, and I am really pleased. I feel like it's definitely headed in the right-er direction

You may also like

Back to Top