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art process Tag

Sam! Cover Art Tools

Hey readers. My name is Rob and I’m a kids book author and illustrator. This is a throwback to the cover design for the book “Sam!” written by poet/parent Dani Gabriel, published by Penny Candy Books, and illustrated by me.
Here are the initial sketches I came up with. One with a scene from the book, and two new ones. 
They chose the 1st idea and this being a relatively quick process I went straight to a refined sketch of that which you see here. For the sketch I typically use a non photo blue pencil, a ruler, a #2 pencil, and an 11″ x 17″ piece of paper so I can draw the back together as a layout.  

Once everyone signed off on this I use my light box to trace the sketch using a Prismacolor black pencil.
 
 Then I add color using a large flat brush to lay down a wash first then I build up the color slowly from light to dark using the medium flat, the round, and the fine liner . 
I use a bunch of watercolor brands to find the right colors. These are some of them.
When you paint with acrylic or gouache you can layer light over dark, but with watercolor its much harder so you must use light colors first, then darks. This is what. the painting looks like once I’ve finished. If you get a chance, read the book. Share it with families and check out some of the other books Penny Candy publishes HERE.

Dig this? Check out this post about the cover art of Alejandria Fights Back/ La Lucha de Alejandria

July 14, 2022
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Alejandria Fights Back- Cover process

 

What up? This is a bit of process behind the cover for “Alejandria Fights Back/ La Lucha de Alejandria”. 
First let’s start with the sketches. I usually do a bunch of sketches in my sketchbook or on paper. I think I did that too. But these are the first I presented to what was a huge team effort. Normally when you make a kids book you have 1-2 people to answer to. Thats either the author/creator or the art director. In this case I was working with a team of filmmakers and organizers called the “Rise home Stories Project” who initiated this project, writer Leticia Hernandez-Linares, and the team at Feminist Press (Lauren Rosemary Hook, Jisu Kim, and designer Drew Stevens. The book was translated by Dr Carla España.
The next round was refining these sketches a bit.
They picked the one at the podium and thats the one I really nailed down. 
After nailing it down I went straight into painting the cover because the team was pretty loose with the art direction even though it was BIG. Here’s some of the painting process for the front cover. It was painted with watercolor. I start with an over all warm tone and focus where Ale (main character) was the focal point. Then I started to add color to the characters.
Here’s the final front cover painting w/ text on another layer drawn with ink.
Here’s a bit of the back cover sketches
They chose the one with a few things scattered around which was directly inspired by Dawud Anyabwile’s “Brotherman Revelations” back cover. Here it is painted.
And add the back matter (synopsis, logo, isbn scan) and the front cover design w/ type.
Love this book like so many of my others. If you’re not familiar with the storyline check out this video

You can get a copy of the book from your local bookstore, library, bookshop.org, or Feminist Press.

Did you like this? Check out my most recent book “Somos Yoga/ We are Yoga” written and published by Jill Guerra an author, teacher, and mindfulness/yoga instructor for kids.
June 2, 2022
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Independent Sector

 

I was commissioned to paint a portrait of 12 fellows of the 2020 NGEN Fellows from Independent Sector. Here’s a bit of process of how I did it, minus the reference photos of the individuals and the seated poses.
LINK to the program
Here’s the final.

March 30, 2021
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