Johnny Big Toes!

For those of you who don't know, I've been illustrating a children's book, written by friend and colleague, Edwena Dixon.
Eddie will be publishing the book through her own company, Ashworth Publishing. Check out the website at: http://ashworthpublishing.com/
Don't forget to 'like' the Ashworth Facebook page also, which you can find at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ashworth-Publishing

Having recently finished the cover artwork for our project, I thought I would reveal the process by which I accomplished this.

      

Using a very crude thumbnail sketch as reference, I pencil the image, then go over it in ink.

      

Using tracing paper, I hand draw the lettering over the inked characters. Once the lettering is inked, I combine the two elements using acetate and white-out. The image on the right has been reduced in size and positioned correctly, ready for colouring.

      

For the book, I'm using two different methods of colouring; for big splashes of bright(and 'elephant-grey') colour, I'm using oil pastels, and for the grey half-tones and occasional blip of colour(see: headphones), I'm using texters.

In order to incorporate oil pastels into my work, I use acetate and white-out once more(specifically for the left image).

So there you have it! 

A better scan of the cover will undoubtedly find it's way onto the web very soon - I hope this is enough to tide you over 'til then?!

All material copyright Alex Smith 2012