Asteroid
The Description:
This is a painting of a 2-page spread for a children's book. This book is about a young girl who sees her imagination come to life through the books she reads. In this page, you can see the young girl reading a book about space. Instead of her imagination just coming out of the book, she placed herself into the world of the book. I used metallic acrylic paints on the objects around the girl to put emphasis on what came out of the book. This painting was done in acrylic paint on a 16" x 20" canvas.
The Process:
These are the concept sketches of the painting. The steps I took to get to the final piece are as follows:
-pencil drawing
-pen drawing
-marker drawing
-painting
After finishing the painting, I revised it a couple of times.
Pencil Drawing:
The first thing I did was sketch thumbnails of this drawing out. I wanted to have a little girl sitting on top of a pile of books with books around her to show how much she loves reading.
The Pen Drawing:
I used a Sharpie pen to finalize the lines of the piece and to know where the subject/objects would go. In this step, I changed the objects around the young girl to space objects. I wanted to make it seem as if the young girl placed herself in the world of the book. I wanted her to become lost in space.
The Marker Drawing:
By adding color, I was able to figure out what colors I wanted to use and where they would go. I chose to use BIC markers because they are highly pigmented.
The Painting:
I added a galaxy to the background and used colors as close to the marker drawing as possible. I used acrylic paint for this step. This was originally the final piece, but when I took it to a critique, I explained that it felt flat. It was suggested that I create a clear foreground and background.
The Final Painting:
I took the advice and created stars in the background. I used metallic acrylic paint to create dimension in the objects around the girl. I also changed the color of the planet in the bottom right corner because the original colors and design didn't seem like a good fit. Having a plain solid colored planet looked better to me.
The Children's Book:
Above are the other children's book pages that I drew. I drew out an entire story but chose one page to paint. The story is of a young girl who learns to bring story books to life through the help of her older sister.
