Inside the Illustration

Spread 5: Butterfly

This page probably took me the longest to complete. Not only does it have four people (instead of 1-2 like the ones prior) but it also has a lot of detail. It took me a while to get the splashes just right, the butterfly details just right, the goggles on the top of the main figures’ head just right etc. This was the only illustration I did in two separate sittings, because my son was crying and trying to grab the colored pencils off of the table. 

I did the initial line drawing with a graphite pencil on white paper. I colored in the drawing with colored pencil, blended slightly with a Q-tip, and finally outlined with a Sharpie fine tip marker. The vertical lines that are present are from the texture of the paper. I scanned the illustration, did a little photoshop / post-processing work, and finally formatted bleeds and copy in Adobe illustrator. 

Hardest part: Details in the butterfly

Easiest part: Kids playing in the back right

Favorite part: Flippers diving in (back left)