In this picture you can see the masked areas, and my first layers of paint.  I start with light washes and block in major areas of color.  From there, it’s a process of slowly building up color until I reach the right value and hue that I want.  I constantly refer back to my original sketch to check how dark or light I intended to make an area.  I don’t finish one area, then move to the next, but instead do a little here a little there so that the all areas of the scene progress evenly.  The exception, of course is the masked areas, which I generally leave until near the end to paint.  Stay tuned, I’ll discuss more of that in the next post.

After I’m finished with my preliminary drawing my next step is to transfer that drawing to a nice piece of watercolor paper.  I use a 300 pound hot-press paper, made by Fabriano.  It’s a very thick paper with a flat surface.  The flat surface is much easier to draw on than the rougher cold-press papers and the thickness allows it to absorb a lot of water and paint without buckling.

I use a lightbox to help me trace the drawing onto the watercolor paper with a hard (H or 2H) pencil.  I like the harder pencil in this case because leaves a light line which I can easily erase.  When I’m tracing, I try to do it quickly and accurately, but I try not to get to hung up in details, because with the light shining from behind the image I can’t really see the paper very well.  After I’m done tracing, and I take the paper off the lightbox, then I very carefully add details, and adjust the drawing.  This is the final step before I start applying paint, and I want to be sure everything is just the way I want it.

When the drawing is done, I soak it in water for 5 minutes and then staple it(while  it’s still wet) to my painting board.  The board is 1/2″ plywood.  After the paper dries, it will be ready for painting.  Because it’s been presoaked, the paper the surface will remain flat as I paint on it.

This preliminary drawing is the last thing I do before I start painting and I try my best to work out as many details as possible in this drawing.  Since I work in watercolors, it’s very hard to go back and change things after I start to paint.  When the drawing is finished, I use a lightbox to transfer it to a nice piece of watercolor paper…but that’s step two, and I’ll write more about that tomorrow.

“…this book [is] one that you will want to read over and over again. The adventure is beautifully depicted by illustrations that will leave readers in awe…”

and

“The book’s content, graphics, and unique presentation earned it a place as one of the NSTA/CBC Outstanding Science Trade Books for 2010″

It’s great to get such a strong endorsement from the experts!  You can read the full review on the NSTA website:

http://www.nsta.org/recommends/ViewProduct.aspx?ProductID=19803

Reading to the crowd inside the subway car

This past weekend I presented Redwoods at the New York Transit Museum.  The Transit Museum’s main attraction is their collection of old subway cars (which are really cool) and I got to read the book to a crowd of parents and children in one of them.

Drawing dinosaur-land!

After the reading, we did an art project.  In Redwoods, the main character’s world changes outside the subway car window as he reads the book.  For our art project the children suggested ideas for things that they might see outside a subway car window (imaginary, of course) and I drew their ideas to a piece of paper taped over the subway window.  On our trip, we went to dinosaur-land.  There were volcanoes, a stegasaurus, palm trees, the requisite T-Rex and a time-traveling robot.  Thanks to the Transit Museum and everyone who attended–I had a great time!

You can see more pictures of the event on the Transit Museum’s Flickr Album.

Each year a committee of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) identifies the best of the best in children’s books. According to the Notables Criteria, “notable” is defined as: Worthy of note or notice, important, distinguished, outstanding. As applied to children’s books, notable should be thought to include books of especially commendable quality, books that exhibit venturesome creativity, and books of fiction, information, poetry and pictures for all age levels (birth through age 14) that reflect and encourage children’s interests in exemplary ways.

Hawksbill Turtle - Preliminary art for Coral Reefs

I am currently hard at work on my next book, scheduled for publication in the Spring of 2011. The new book will take the reader on a journey through a coral reef, and (surprise) its working title is Coral Reefs.  It has been one of the most exciting projects I have ever worked on.  This year, I learned to scuba dive, traveled to Belize, and have learned more about coral reefs than I had ever imagined possible.

As I travel to schools and meet readers of Redwoods, the most common questions that I get are about how I make my books.  So in the coming weeks, I plan to chronicle the development of Coral Reefs.  I can’t promise to write every day, but I hope to be able to give my fans a good description of my book making process.  Stay tuned for posts about: researching a place, writing and revising, making a book dummy, painting a picture and much more!