Here’s Tuca’s new gas mask. It took all afternoon to get this look — I decided that the mask should have realistic geometric shapes rather than rustic hand drawn lines. I had to learn how to use Clip Studio Paint’s vector drawing tools. I made that decision after I tried to draw all of those ellipses and they were all wonky. Tuca’s mask on page 41 needs some work with the front breathing ports. Tomorrow is another day.
On page 38 Betty Burro has found Buddy’s family. To create the background image of a thousand butterfly faces, I created a brush of a single face. The brush has randomized size, opacity, and angle to give it a less static appearance. I usually prefer to paint everything by hand, but in the interest of time, a brush served me well. My concern with this picture is that Betty’s appearance evolves each time I paint her. Before I publish this book I’ll have to make color corrections for earlier version of her hair and clothing. If I can remember back to February (5 months ago), I recall that her hair was punky pink. My favorite feature in this painting is Betty’s hand. If her hand seems a touch manly it’s because I used my own manly hand as a model.
Chore day is pretty much the same from week to week — more baking and food prep for the week ahead. I spent about 6 hours cooking tasty bean and sweet potato burgers for my canine companions, and some Bolognese sauce for myself. While I had the stove and oven cranked up, I made a pot of delicious vegetable broth, two dozen chocolate chip cookies, the Bolognese sauce, and a dozen muffins. And, I made a batch of humus.
On the Art Front, I spent some time on my children’s book cover page. The problem is that the line work for Momma Jay was drawn with a pencil, and the rest of the characters were inked with a pen. Momma Jay looked out of place among the sharp lines of the other figures. When I look at this picture from a distance, I see a problem with the weight of some of the lines. I’ll fiddle with this again tomorrow.
