As I posted before, above is my layout sketch for spread #12 of my book. I roughed it out in photoshop on my computer, adding shadows here and there. I used the shadows to frame up the main focus which is the unsuspecting dog walking by. The buildings in the background also frame up the text and help bring focus to the yo-yo that's knocking over the paint.
Here I sketched out various poodles in my sketchbook. I knew there would be a poodle on this page, but had no clue what it would look like. I started by using a light blue Tombow brush and drew vague poodle like shapes across the book. I then thought about the attitude of the dog and took a black pen to begin sketching different kind of stuck up poodles around the blue blobs of color. I ultimately chose the dog in the middle.
Next I needed to find a color palette. For this, I chose a scene from an old Tom & Jerry cartoon (Jerry Go Round-1966) with beautifully colored backgrounds by Philip Deguard. I loved that these colors were a little washed out and really complimented each other. I grabbed a still from the episode and began picking out similar colors for my palette.
The first step in coloring my page is blocking in simple shapes with color. This way I can see if these colors I chose are working well together on my image.
Now I start adding the small details to the background and Character.
Then I add in the remaining elements and rough out my angry poodle to the right of the page to get a clearer idea of what that looks like.
I finish up the last details on my Blue painted poodle and give it all one last look (which for me is staring at it for what ends up being 30 minutes to an hour) When I snap out of it, I'm done. One down 3 more pages to go.
