Inside the Illustration

Spread 10: Angel

I thought long and hard about this page because I told myself that I did not want to include religion in Symbols I Send. However, the year my mom died, we placed her picture on the top of our Christmas tree and I loved being able to think of her in a positive way (ie: as an Angel.) I realize that not all readers will celebrate Christmas, or believe in Angels and that’s ok. Similar to the idea of Santa watching over children, or the Elf on the Shelf making sure they behave, I like the idea of an Angel (aka grandma) sitting on the tree watching over them. 

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: The red chair

Easiest part: Christmas tree

Favorite part: Matching family pajamas on the kids