Lavender Blue - Illustration Roughs

A couple more rough layouts from the story book I'm working on right now called Lavender Blue and the Faeries of Galtee Wood.  These 2 images come at the beginning of the story - in the first one Lavender is visiting her friend Rose who is very ill and quite possibly dying. In the second image we have Lavender with her teacher, getting some scholarly information concerning magical items.
These are of course rough layouts and will be transferred to watercolour paper where they will be painted and hopefully improved upon. It is my usual course to leave much of the detail and character of the image to come when actually painting. It has been my experience that going too far with the rough will take all the joy and spontaneity out of creating, which is why I can't wait to start painting these - but wait I must - other irons in the fire and all that  :)

Lavender Blue - Layouts 5

Here we have another illustration layout from the Irish Faerie Tale I am currently working on. This image comes near the end of the story. Lavender is in big trouble at this point and has been rescued by the Faeries and spirited away to a stone circle at the top of a dark and lonely hill. This image, like the others, will be transferred to watercolour paper and painted in the traditional way following my usual method of watercolour, gouache and coloured pencil.

Lavender Blue - Layouts 4

Another illustration layout form the Irish Faerie Tale I'm currently working on. This scene comes at the beginning of the story and really kicks things off. The Faerie visits Lavender in the middle of the night and delivers a magical object which will send her on her way into the mysterious Faerie Realm and perilous adventure - fun !

Lavender Blue - Layouts 3

Another illustration layout for the Lavender Blue story. I really can't wait to paint this one. This is where the Leprechaun lives - of course  :)

Publish Post

Lavender Blue Layouts - 2

A couple more of the Illustration Layouts for the Irish Faerie Tale I'm working on, Lavender Blue.
Here we have the Water Pixie at the top anf the Pookah underneath.  Neither of these characters are going to be good news for Lavender.
These ones, like the previous post, will be traced on to watercolour paper for the final illustration.

Lavender Blue - Layout 1

A couple of final layouts for the Lavender Blue Faerie Tale I'm working on. These will be traced straight on to the watercolour paper that I will be doing the final illustration on. The layouts were done in coloured pencil so that I could quickly jot done the colour ideas I was getting while drawing and also because the soft prisma colour pencils glide so pleasingly over the slightly toothy sketch book paper. The only problem with these  pencils is that you can't really erase them. I tend to use them like watercolour - starting with the light tones and putting the darks down last. I don't usually put a lot of detail into these layouts because I like to save as much creative energy as possible for the painting. The problem now is having to wait the weeks or months it will take before I can finally paint them and spend that pent up energy.

The first picture comes about half way through the story where Lavender encounters what she thinks is a unicorn but which in fact turns out to be a dangerous, shape shifting pookah, fully intent on harming her. The second picture is actually the first illustration in the story where we see Lavender cutting roses in her garden, blissfully unaware of the dangerous adventure into the faerie realm she is about to take.