'A Dog Like Dudley'
(Childrens Novel Illustrations)
A nice long job, allowing the opportunity to sit back into a consistant creative rythym.
Commisioned by NZ author Christopher Parker the book is aimed at older children, about a man
living an orderly life who takes in an unusual troublesome dog... chaos & comedy ensue.
You will find the front cover build up images, all chapter images then a breakdown showing the creative
structuring of an image (my method). Then you will see the three stages for every single illustration.
At the bottom are all of the the early stage research & character development drawings.
Front & Rear Cover Images. Including drafts.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Ten
A Structured Creative Approach
Below are the steps taken in my approach to image construction. The pencil draft always comes first. Choosing not to do roughs I go on instinct, drawing and erasing until happy, liking to start and finish on the same sheet of (Winsor & Newton Bristol board wax coated) paper. Once the author has agreed to go ahead I lay down the bold ink outlines (0.8 or 0.5mm) using Staedler pigment liner pens. Then a finer outline (0.3mm) for detail that doesn't need to be emaphasised as much, using the same line weight for general detail, such as brick work. I like to use a 0.1mm or a 0.05mm line weight for texture and shade. Once happy, it gets scanned for a Photoshop session, white space is added around key details and a general clean up is carried out. Each image is given a number and short descriptor, accurate filing is essential, this one being titled #17BasementSetUp...
Character Development Drawings
The early stage initial character development drawings. We found the look for Dudley in the end.
