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The blog and children's book illustration website of Kirsti Anne Wakelin.
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final drawing stage/work in progress, spread 7 (detail) | charcoal, pencil on vellum
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final drawing stage/work in progress spread 7 (detail) | charcoal, pencil on vellum
Filed under:
children's book illustration,
db,
illustration process,
Picture Books
colour text | willow charcoal on velum + digital
Filed under:
children's book illustration,
db,
illustration process,
Picture Books
rough, spread 2 (detail) | pencil on tracing paper
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final | work in progress | spread 2 (detail) | pencil & charcoal on velum
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final | work in progress | spread 2 (detail) | pencil & charcoal on velum
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I got some lovely new drawing things the other day to add to my collection. It can be a bit disheartening to exit the art supply store $80 poorer but richer in a small collection of burnt wood and graphite. But it’s all worth it. I picked up a charcoal/lead holder (the wooden thing in the middle), it hold nice thick pieces of graphite and charcoal and it’s perfect for this project. Also, some more willow charcoal – I love that stuff in combination with velum, it slips and slides over the surface, makes really interesting marks and can be lifted off with a gum eraser.
Filed under:
children's book illustration,
db,
illustration process,
Picture Books
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new book beginnings ~ db as of 1/1/1900
Back in 2008, I attended an illustrator breakfast hosted by the Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable. The guest speaker was Shaun Tan, one of my favourite contemporary illustrators. At that point, The Lost Thing was undergoing a transformation into an animated short. Now, 2 years later, I have come across a post on the Lines and Colours blog about the completion of the short.
It’s lovely to see all of Shaun Tan’s fantastic textures and colours translated so well into animation. And the movement of the main character feels exactly right. But wow – several years to produce a 15 minute short! Looking at the production drawings it’s easy to see why. I’m looking forward to seeing the whole thing.
View the trailer, more info on the book and a bunch of production drawings on The Lost Thing website. http://www.thelostthing.com/
And since I’m here, I should mention that if you’re in Vancouver this October 16, 2010, are a fan of children’s literature, and would like to spend a morning listening to an extremely talented children’s book illustrator, The VCLR is hosting another illustrator breakfast. This time the guest is Pierre Pratt.
For more info, here’s a direct link to the registration form (pdf) or visit the VCLR website (unfortunately no direct link to the event info, but the flyer is currently at the top of their home page).
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children's book illustration,
Picture Books Tagged:
Shaun Tan
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Pushing Off from Shore | (detail) pencil on vellum
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This marks the beginning of the final drawings in this process and I thought this spread would be a fitting start. While the end is not yet clearly in sight, it’s getting closer.
In anticipation of the task ahead, I’ve doubled my caffeine consumption from 2 mugs of coffee in the morning, to 2 mugs of coffee in the morning plus 2 mugs of earl grey tea in the afternoon.
I underexposed the photo of the illustration a bit – it’s actually less contrasty than it appears above.
Filed under:
children's book illustration,
db,
illustration process,
Picture Books
The very first study, January 10, 2009.
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Yesterday, I cleaned the studio; I haven’t seen the top of my desk in many months. Today, a year and 8 months or so after starting work on the roughs, I’ll begin work on the finals. I find this a terrifying prospect. I’ve spent the entire development stage planning for this, deciding on approach, plotting colours. Thinking about paper, materials, medium. Doing little experiments along the way to try to figure stuff out. This is the point where hopes are either dashed or realised. Potential quashed or surpassed. All possible approaches will be narrowed down to one solution and that’s, quite frankly, frightening. So I’m going to procrastinate for a while longer by writing this blog post.
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3B’s get their own jar – they’re my favourite so there are lots of them.
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Cleaning the studio cleans my brain. It’s amazing how the boxes of stuff, even those tucked out of sight, can still clutter up my mind. Stuff is burdensome. But at the same time, I have a hard time not accumulating studio things. I admit, materials and paper languish in bins for years until I rediscover them and get around to using them but I’m not sure I see a way around that. Last night, I saved myself a trip to the art supply store by discovering a box of forgotten pastels. Struck by the need to experiment with different paper types requires a supply on hand, before the mood and available time vanishes. The solution comes down to regular inventory and careful, labeled storage.
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Inventory also means sorting through the pens, and figuring out which ones have run dry. I hate throwing out pens. First and most important reason – the thought of adding more plastic garbage to wherever plastic garbage ends up, makes me feel a little ill. Second reason – when I find a pen I like, I’d like it to last me a lifetime. It’s frustrating finding just the perfect one, with just the perfect nib, that makes just the perfect line and feels just right in my hand, only to have it shortly run out of ink and then discover the model has been discontinued.
It’s really hard to find refillable pens these days without going to a specialty store or investing and arm and a leg. After the pilot (pictured above) ran out, I refused to buy another disposable, plastic pen, opting instead to get a refillable lamy, which I really like. It is, however, still plastic.
I discovered, in my cleaning and sorting, that I had kept the dry pilot, as well as a couple of used up Koh-I-Noor Nexus. After a bit of fiddling, I found I was able to take them apart and refill them. It says much for how many long hours I’ve spent locked in the studio that I found this exceedingly exciting. Simple pleasures, I tell ya.
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Pursuit by zombies!? What kind of movies have you been watching?