Comments on: Illustrating a Children’s Story, Part 5

By: Dani

Dani — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 18:29:25 +0000

trev – Yes, fortunately I caught that typo before I printed it. Thanks for letting me know.

By: trev

trev — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 11:10:57 +0000

did you know you wrote ‘the third pig house built his house of bricks’?
Shouldn’t it be ‘the third pig built his house of bricks’?

incredible illustrative skills though, well done. your website is brilliant for advice to wannabe and alreadyare illustrators!

By: Dani

Dani — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:34:44 +0000

Thanks for your feedback, Kathy. I like the idea of having a continuing friend/theme throughout the entire story. With all the different characters, I didn’t really accomplish that kind of flow or consistency to the best extent.

By: kathy weller

kathy weller — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 04:07:46 +0000

It kind of kills me that you call these sketches. I call them beautiful, and finished-looking, illustrations!

As for feedback, I love the color palette you’ve chosen, and you really stuck to the color story too. If it fit the story, it would be fun to see a small, fun little pop of contrasting/complimentary color in some of the spreads. I don’t see how or why you would add something like that in at this point… but I am just thinking out loud, and imagining that the pigs have a ladybug friend, and I see the ladybug clinging to the straw hat during the first spread, then crawling away on the text side of the page on ‘sticks’, then on the brick wall toward the bottom of the brick wall on the ‘brick’ page… of course this would work well if all of the pigs were the SAME charater, and they are not… just thinking out loud…

These are fantastic and I am grateful you share these, and your candid thoughts.

By: Dani

Dani — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:04:03 +0000

Thanks for the award Rachelle! And thanks for the all the lovely comments everyone!

By: Teddi

Teddi — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 01:16:42 +0000

Nice! It’s great to see the whole process, including decisions to re-do or change direction.

Love the colors in the new pages (with the white highlights), and the overall style. Personally, I think it’s a great example of what happens when we go “one more version” past “this is good”. Follow your artistic heart — because sometimes “better” or “best” is just over the next rise. And personally I find that the more familiar I get with the subject, the better the visual characters and storytelling flows.

(Of course, it can just as easily be overdone by trying too many times, but this is a case where taking another approach just made it better!)

By: Sonya

Sonya — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:53:23 +0000

I like these as well! I checked out your last post – no. 4 for the previous sketches, and truly, these new ones are heaps better in flow and story telling. The cool colours are nice too. I think you did a great job :)

By: Edrian Thomidis

Edrian Thomidis — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:41:22 +0000

I love these! There’s a lot of movement where you need to have it, but is well contrasted by the white space and quietness of the other pieces. I also like the limited palette. Very well done. Your work is so inspiring. I read the comment about the type, and my feedback about it is that you don’t want the type to take away from the illustrated story. Your illustrations, not the type are telling the story. I think what you have is fine. It’s a traditional typeface that is easy to read.

By: Rachelle Anne Miller

Rachelle Anne Miller — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:56:22 +0000

I really appreciate your blog – I learn so much from your posts and your work is incredible! I’ve nominated you for an award :o) Check out my blog for all the details!

By: lil kim

lil kim — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:28:01 +0000

It takes a lot of courage to start over so well done! I’ve only just happened upon your blog so don’t know your earlier sketches, but these look fantastic. your compositions are first rate!