Page 35 Final Version, without Dialog Bubbles

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The exported JPG looks dark. I think the screen tones are the problem.

I finished page 35 today. I used screen tones to create shadows. It looks fine on my 27-inch monitor, but not so good when the image is scaled down. I won’t know until I see this page printed in print whether I’ll have to ditch the screen tones.

I used a reference photo of a burrow when I re-drew Betty’s ears. It’s funny how I can pore over burro reference photos until my brain is full, and then, when I draw from memory, I get the perspective all wrong. There’s a lesson in there somewhere.

Page 32 Finished, and on to Page 33

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Page 32 is finished to my satisfaction. I’m moving on to page 33 now. I thought of painting this page with ten times more objects cluttering up Tuca’s room, but I’m going to stop here. Time is of the essence — I still have 38 more pages to draw. Detailed pages like this one are time hogs and really throw me off schedule. If I were able to work faster, I might think differently.

In this picture I tried a few things that I hoped would save time: I used Clip Studio Paint’s screen tones for shading the model airplane, toy dinosaurs, and the chair webbing. I don’t think I saved more than a few minutes, and the screen tones don’t fit well with the painterly shading that I used for everything else in the room.

Finished At Last With Kids Reading Comics with a Flock of Swallows Reading Over Their Shoulder

Every time I finish one of these elaborate, detailed images I feel like I’ve just completed a 4-unit college course in two weeks. I’ve learned a lot, and I’ve especially learned that I have a lot more to learn.

One more thing about this picture — I still have to add Buddy Butterfly’s wings. There’s never an empty moment in an illustrator’s life!.