Good morning

I hope you have a great week! :)

Details

Here are some detailed images of the illustrations I just made for American Girl. To see the whole thing, you can visit my recently updated portfolio.

New work

Yesterday I got copies of my latest work for American Girl Magazine, a double page quiz and a cootie catcher that came as an insert on the magazine. This comission was so much fun to do, with all the tiny spot illustrations and hand lettering!! Thank you, Paula!

Puzzled

For Illustration Friday. I was just working on this digital piece when this week's topic ("Puzzled") was announced. What a fun coincidence! Also, this is the reason I don't attempt to do puzzles anymore, Maggie would make the task simply impossible :)

Djeco 2012 catalog

I just got the Djeco "Design by" catalog for 2012, with the project I made with them inside. I still haven't seen the final product myself, and can't show you most of the details, but you can see a sneak peek of how it will look on the second photo. I'm very excited to see this finally.

Also, some random photos of new yarn for a fair-isle project, and Maggie being chill next to one of my favorite artworks at home, the "Cat Moves" poster by Lucy Knisley. It never fails to make me laugh everytime I see it, I think that her ginger cat and mine are so much alike!

Squirrels and sweaters

Here's a sneak peek at a children's book proposal I've been working on. Wish us luck at the Bologna Children's Book Fair! I'd love to vist there myself, maybe next year? And also I introduce you to my latest handknit sweater, lots of cables in the softest angora-merino yarn. I hope you enjoy them! :)

Maggie with the Draculas

I've been scanning the shots from the first roll with my new camera, the Olympus MJU II. I got some pretty nice results even though the Agfa Vista film I used was very expired. This is Maggie posing in front of my favorite artwork at home, this print by Scott C in its new awesome blood-red frame. I never get tired of looking at this illustration.

Also, I forgot to mention that this ginger lady and I were featured in the lovely blog We Say Meow. Thank you, Anke!

The process

Well, finally I can show you my newest illustration, the book cover for the third volume of "Brigitte des coléres" by Jérôme Lafond. This time the publishing company comissioned me a custom watercolor, and I had to draw the main character, Brigitte, working on a butcher shop. I've taken photos of each step so you can see the process I follow. Pretty simple, you'll see :)

These are the fist rough sketches I sent to the art director, the first one on the left. I was aked to make her more girly and to add more meaty stuff. Once I had the ok, I started making the final drawing on watercolor paper.

I always use this Pentel 0.3mm mechanical drafting pencil, I've had it for ten years and it's still my favorite, I get the cleanest lines whit it. This time I used Fabriano Artistico Extra White paper, but I also like to use Canson illustration board.

They're not picture here, but I use Winsor & Newton Artists' Watercolor Pads and sometimes, when it's too hot and dry (very usual in Madrid) I use their blending medium because otherwise, the watercolor dries too quickly. I start randomly adding the first color washes, in this case I gave the background a slight, dirty white color wash.

This is still on the first wash part, but I've already added some shadows to the hair. Usually I'm pretty chaotic with this.

Here I've started adding details and shadows everywhere. You can also see my brushes, they're natural sable brushes made by Casa Pontes, the local art store where I like to buy my supplies. I have the whole range, but I mostly use the smallest ones since I tend to make my drawings tiny.

And here's the final illustration with all the details, shadows, etc. All there's left to do is to scan and clean the illustration, which is the most boring part. I forgot to take pictures of the scrap paper I have to try out the colors before painting, but overall, this is it!! I really hope you enjoyed this post, and I'd love to answer your questions if you have any :D