1. First Sketch
This was the first rough of our furry, friendly cat. He does not have a name or gender so that he (or she) can be any cat and every cat a child might imagine.
I started off with a pencil sketch. I am not a natural cartoonist so I did lots of erasing. My comfort zone has always been a more photo-realistic style of drawing. So this was something new.
I started off with a pencil sketch. I am not a natural cartoonist so I did lots of erasing. My comfort zone has always been a more photo-realistic style of drawing. So this was something new.
2. Color Added
Once I was satisfied with the sketch, I traced it with a black sharpie marker and scaned it into Photoshop. Once in Photoshop, I did some clean up and added all the colors, textures and shading.
3. Polished Up
This is the finished cover. As you can see, there is a clear difference between this and the beginning image. I kind of like the scruffy cat of the middle phase, but maybe he will surface in another book later. As I got more comfortable with the process, I found that I could draw from within Photoshop and therefore, I could bypass the initial steps of pencil, marker and scanning. Once I figured that out, it all came together faster as well.
