The Captain
I grew up on Lake Erie and perhaps that's one of the reasons that I love to draw and paint nautical themed pieces. The dock was only a few miles from my house and the memory of the boats and the characters who worked on them has never left me.
The very first children's book I was commissioned to illustrate was Little Toot and the Lighthouse back in 1999. It is still in print and was written by Linda Gramatky, the daughter of Hardie
Gramatky who wrote and illustrated the original Little Toot in 1939.
Mr. Gramatky was not only a great illustrator but his paintings are fantastic as well and a great inspiration over the years. His work looks effortless.
The maritime muse must have been whispering in my ear this morning as this is what I came up with.
I wanted to show the scale of the piece so I took a photo of it on my work table.
The second photo is the same piece cropped while the third photo shows a few little layers I added in photoshop. In this I added some flesh tone to the captain and some shadows here and there. Nothing too crazy.
I wanted to approach this as loose as possible so after pencilling it out lightly I used a dip pen and started by drawing the main character in red ink. Dip pens give a beautiful varied line but they can also turn their back on you and leave you with a big blot of ink if you are not careful.
From there I worked in watercolor and gouache and tried not to overwork it too much.
Hope you enjoy it!
The very first children's book I was commissioned to illustrate was Little Toot and the Lighthouse back in 1999. It is still in print and was written by Linda Gramatky, the daughter of Hardie
Gramatky who wrote and illustrated the original Little Toot in 1939.
Mr. Gramatky was not only a great illustrator but his paintings are fantastic as well and a great inspiration over the years. His work looks effortless.
The maritime muse must have been whispering in my ear this morning as this is what I came up with.
I wanted to show the scale of the piece so I took a photo of it on my work table.
The second photo is the same piece cropped while the third photo shows a few little layers I added in photoshop. In this I added some flesh tone to the captain and some shadows here and there. Nothing too crazy.
I wanted to approach this as loose as possible so after pencilling it out lightly I used a dip pen and started by drawing the main character in red ink. Dip pens give a beautiful varied line but they can also turn their back on you and leave you with a big blot of ink if you are not careful.
From there I worked in watercolor and gouache and tried not to overwork it too much.
Hope you enjoy it!
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