Poseidon Saves Parthenope (2014)
Digital saves a project
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Early on in discussing this independently published illustrated story, the author communicated his hope that the book would have interior color illustrations. While I would have loved to do a fully painted book with multiple illustrations, such opportunities are rare simply due to the cost, the timelines required, or both. It would not have penciled out here.
While talking over dinner, we got to talking about his love of older, more classic children’s illustrators like Arthur Rackham and the like. I love those illustrators as well, so it was a nice commonality. It also resulted in the proposal that the interior art be done in some sort of style along those lines.
Were I a proficient watercolorist, that might have been the solution outright. But while watercolor can be faster than oils, it isn’t necessarily, although the drying issues are of course absent. The number of times I’ve used watercolor are very few, and usually they involved my cat. It’s a very different medium than oils, and I find it a bit unusual when an artist freely moves between the two. It’s not unheard of, of course, and is certainly impressive. So for me to do the interiors in watercolor might actually have been slower than oils. You do build speed over time and repetitions.
So I decided to make an attempt to create some faux watercolors. I would create fairly detailed drawings, as I might with an actual watercolor, scan them, and then use various tools and tricks to make Photoshop produce a look a bit like watercolor.
That allowed me to produce something faster than usual, in color, and with a watercolor feel.
It was a lot of fun, actually. Certainly I was learning on the job, and there was a bit of upfront experimentation before I could really dive in. The original drawings were done in pencil on bristol. This was the upside to this era of working with independent publishers. Those projects often allowed for lower than usual stakes wherein I could try some things.
